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The withdrawal of the United Kingdom will keep us Europeans - especially our British fellow citizens - busy for a long time; now all that remains is to hope that both sides will get off lightly.
Who would have thought at the beginning of the year that such a challenge for all of us would be far eclipsed by another event, namely the COVID-19 pandemic, which has been keeping the world in suspense since the end of 2019 at the latest and us in Europe now going from one low point to the next throughout the year.
Especially our way of life today, and here especially the peculiarity that one hardly shows any consideration for others, will not only burden us with COVID-19 longer than originally expected, but also claim more victims than necessary.
If you disregard the many dead and permanently injured and if you don't think that our economy and society must also suffer the most serious damage, because there are obviously neither suitable emergency plans and measures in Europe nor nationwide, nor the federal structures responsible for the Knowing how to take advantage of it makes it clear that Europe has clearly not yet arrived in politics - the economy and society are undoubtedly much further ahead!
We must also be astonished to see how little crisis-proof we all have become, and how opportunities that arise in every crisis pass by unused; the education policy is probably the biggest victim nationwide.
But the worst thing is having to look at how weak democracy is in Europe as a whole! Not long ago we were all laughing at the United States, where a Trump ruled for four years and at the same time so beautifully and entertainingly distracted from our own shortcomings.
But now the American voters, whom we Europeans like to see as stupid and backwoods, have shown us clearly how democracy works and, quite incidentally, how federalism can be used positively for all.
In Europe, on the other hand, the Orbans and Co. show off with impunity, and have been elected again and again for decades, whereby they put everything else we actually think of with their criminal energy in the shade banana republics would expect.
But here too, not all parties are unconditionally committed to the rule of law. How else can one do this? B. understand the adherence to the Orban party in a European party family.
In addition, such anti-democrats not only affect our own everyday life through their veto escapades, they also increasingly determine social policy with their anti-democratic supporters.
The understanding of the separation of powers and its function is also declining overall, courts are now not only being silenced and judges being persecuted - Poland can serve as a prominent example here - but also our parliaments are becoming more and more silent of their own accord.
If COVID-19 has shown us one thing, it is that for our own good we must only think and act at least in European dimensions; Everything else falls short: the après-ski in Ischgl has the same effect here in Baden-Württemberg as, for example, B. a zero percent tax rate for companies in Ireland. And Heilbronn, a COVID-19 hotspot, will not remain without consequences for the rest of Europe.
We urgently need European concepts and solutions, but these are adapted and implemented at the federal level. We need more democracy, not less, and the rule of law must unite us Europeans, not divide us!
As is well known, the only border in Europe is democracy – we have to draw it, even if it runs through the whole of Europe!
"I can't give you anything for Christmas, I can't give you any candles for the Christmas tree, if you have one at all, no piece of bread, no coal to heat, no glass to cut. We have nothing. I can only ask you to believe in this Austria!”
Leopold Figl, Christmas speech 1945
