Fabian Guy Neuner has started a blog, Embracing the Union, with the aim to face up to the destructive power of populist Euroscepticism. The address of Embracing the Union is:
http://embracingtheunion.blogactiv.eu/
Neuner’s first post ‘Now is the time! Lessons from Dublin and Vienna’ (26 June 2008) discusses the Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. Neuner sees the ‘no’ vote in Ireland as a victory for targeted misinformation which uses people’s fears to mobilise the masses.
On the same day as the first post, the Social Democratic Party of Austria (SPÖ) leadership caved in to populist pressure by proclaiming that they would put further treaty ratifications to a plebiscite. In Neuner’s view, populism nurtured by Euroscepticism has the power to make leaders drop their commitment to European integration in order to remain in power (or at least increase their chances of doing so).
Neuner sets himself the objective of critically discussing the EU’s democratic credentials and discrediting the myths that permeate the debate on Europe.
***
It is always a pleasure to see a new critical and constructive Euroblog in English. I wish Neuner good luck in his endeavour and I look forward to his following posts.
Ralf Grahn
Thank you for introducing my blog to your readers.
ReplyDeleteI have still got to come to grips with all of the different EU blogs out there but yours strikes me as very good and very active. I lookf forward to reading more.
Cheers,
Fabian