Feature photo: EU and UK | © Shutterstock
No doubt you all have been following the events surrounding the UK’s exit from the European Union, which was announced on March 23, 2016, since June 29, 2019 (!) with great interest. In the meantime, everything seems to be possible until October 31, 2019, even for the British to remain within the European Union.
There is no better form of government for us humans than our democracies; although these also have their shortcomings, we have to live with the shortcoming, for example, that there are no minimum requirements for people's representatives. Self-assessment as well as party apparatuses do not contribute to the quality assurance of political decision-makers and we citizens obviously let ourselves be guided by other things in elections.
It is incomprehensible to me how fellow citizens allow themselves to be elected to the highest positions and know from the outset that they will never, ever be able to fill them, nor have a shred of idea what they would actually have to do in this position. The consequences of this are, among other things, years of unsuccessful exit negotiations, decades of standstill on existential issues, “decision-makers” who even boast about sitting out problems and, as a result, an ever-increasing frustration with democracy. This frustration draws citizens ever closer to autocrats and dictators – people who pretend, or at least give the appearance, of knowing what they are doing.
The problem does not lie in the disinterest of the citizens in politics or even in our Europe. The problem is clearly that we can hardly, or not at all, make politics and Europe palatable to our fellow citizens!
"Big politics" hasn't ripped anyone off their feet for a long time, civil society in its distress is looking for its own ways - and this far away from parliaments - such as "Friday for Future", "Gilet Jaune" or "Pulse of Europe", not only to get your voice heard, but also to point out existing problems with the aim of finding solutions for them.
But even at the local level, solutions to problems or decisions that are difficult to communicate are no longer the focus of politics; which also means that our local fellow citizens no longer feel "taken along". One expression of this is the low voter turnout. This, in turn, motivates political candidates to only campaign and speak for those places where they expect their own quick successes – on vicious cycle begins.
"Well, I woke up this morning and I got myself a beer. The future's uncertain and the end is always near."
Jim Morrison, Roadhouse Blues (1970)
