Let’s perhaps start with this: why doesn’t the European Union have a constitution? Do we still remember the squabble? The European Union doesn’t have a constitution because we, European Union citizens, couldn’t agree on the minimum that would allow such a foundational document to come into existence. It almost succeeded, in 2004 it looked very much like it would happen, but during the ratification process – which, note! meant something different in every country, depending on their traditions, constitutional provisions, and political intentions – so during the ratification process, the French and the Dutch rejected it in referendums.
Interestingly, back then it seemed like the God-given people still had a say. And for some reason, no one was bothered that the different member states, good heavens, differ. True, back then the slogan was still “unity in diversity”.
This diversity has worn down today to fifty shades of gray – but at least through Brussels’ glasses, it looks rainbow-colored.
So, before they erase the past completely, as is their habit, let’s remind Europe that we on this side of the Iron Curtain have already lived through something where we all had to think the same about everything in the same way, and dangerous deviants were locked up in labor camps and prisons. Quite a few were even executed. We’re not there yet, but the punitive logic is working again.
So, we have a European Union to which we were unable to give a constitution. According to smarter political philosophers, it’s not even possible, because it was thanks to the principle of representation and the national form that democracy could be realized in the modern era: therefore, they say, “democracy as a system is inseparable from the national form”. And if the liberals don’t believe this, then let’s quote Bibó, who also writes that democracy and national loyalty are twin siblings – they came into the world at the same place and at the same hour.
The European Union is not a democracy because there is no and cannot be a European demos. We are too many and too diverse. Even though we have some very vague sense of Europeanness in traces, at least at the level of political rhetoric. If we accept the view that a political community is never merely a contractual community, but also a moral community – and currently in Brussels this seems to be the basic stance – and that these moral ties extend across different historical times, then in a certain sense I can feel responsibility for what my political community did in the past. For example, Ferenc Gyurcsány could (should) apologize for the crimes against humanity of the communists, but he cannot feel responsible for what King Leopold II of Belgium did in Congo, because it’s not enough that they are both European. Just as the political catchphrase of “being European” proved insufficient for the adoption of a common constitution, meaning that the fact that we are all Europeans is insufficient for the present as well. And it will certainly prove insufficient for solving the problems of the future.
Simply because this too is essentially a rubber concept, ergo it means nothing.
There is no European language, no European identity, and no single, absolute European truth. There are national languages, national identities exist, and politicians represent national interests. (At least the more normal ones.)
The European Union therefore cannot be a democracy in the classical sense of the word. However, it does not follow from this that it should be a totalitarian dictatorship.
Yet now it seems to be heading in that direction.
Abusing the concept of the rule of law, which is unclear and undefined as a rubber concept, the European Union is currently trying to tell us (and every European member state and European citizen individually) what is right to think about what.
If we accept this, we remain practically defenseless against any Brussels decision that forces us to change our way of life. Sometimes they flex their muscles over LGBTQ rights, sometimes in the name of solidarity they would settle an uncontrolled mass of illegal migrants with us, soon they will beat the sinful white Western culture out of us.
And it will be of little consolation to us that at the final station of self-dissolution, we can watch as the forced LGBTQ rights will be literally trampled underfoot by those immigrants living along different civilizational codes, whom for some reason they never sensitize on this issue. We respect their otherness so much that we don’t require them to respect otherness or to obey our own laws. In the foreseeable future, we will all pay a heavy price for this: that will be the definitive end of any rule of law in the European Union. Not to mention that we are again endangering the European Jewish community that was tried, abandoned, deprived of its civil and human rights, and condemned to extermination in the 20th century.
Perhaps I’ve said it here before: falling can also be called flying – but the end, well, that makes all the difference.
Notes:
European Constitution: The text refers to the failed attempt to establish a Constitution for Europe in 2004. It was rejected by referendums in France and the Netherlands in 2005.
Historical and political references:
Iron Curtain: A political, military, and ideological barrier that divided Europe into Western and Soviet-controlled Eastern blocs during the Cold War (1945-1991).
Labor camps and prisons: Alludes to the political repression in communist-era Eastern Europe.
Hungarian political figures and philosophers:
Ferenc Gyurcsány: A former Prime Minister of Hungary (2004-2009), associated with the Socialist Party.
István Bibó: A significant 20th-century Hungarian political theorist and minister of state during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
“Unity in diversity”: The official motto of the European Union.
LGBTQ rights: The text refers to debates about LGBTQ rights in Hungary and the EU.
Migration crisis: Mentions the ongoing debates about migration policies in the EU.
Linguistic notes:
“Gumifogalom” (rubber concept): A Hungarian term for a vague, flexible concept that can be stretched to mean different things.
“Istenadta nép” (God-given people): A Hungarian expression referring to common people, often used in a slightly ironic context.
Historical allusions:
King Leopold II of Belgium: Referenced in relation to colonial atrocities in Congo.
20th-century persecution of European Jews: The text alludes to the Holocaust and expresses concerns about rising antisemitism.
Homeland Dictionary 