DISINFO: Ursula von der Leyen inherited her unprecedented power
SUMMARY
What is unique here is that sovereign states (at least once sovereign) are being run by the Brussels bureaucracy, which has never been elected by anyone.
Figures like Ursula von der Leyen acquired their unprecedented power virtually by inheritance. That is why they passionately hate real democracy: they hound genuinely popular politicians and overturn election results if they don’t like them.
RESPONSE
A recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative accusing the European Union and its leaders of lacking democracy and claims that its member states are no longer sovereign. This disinformation also employs the classic trope of an elite-versus-people conspiracy.
Democracy, alongside human dignity, freedom, equality, rule of law and equal rights, is one of the core values of the EU. The functioning of the EU is founded on representative democracy. EU citizens are central to the EU’s democratic process and they all have a right to vote in the European elections. In much the same way that they make their voices heard in their own countries by voting in national elections, they also directly or indirectly influence European elections and appointments.
The European Parliament, European Council and Council of the EU are composed, respectively, of elected representatives and members of governments from every EU country. The EU largely replicates the parliamentary control processes of its 27 member democracies in its own democratic system of government. Article 14 of the Treaty of the European Union provides that the European Parliament “shall elect the President of the Commission.” With 401 votes in favour, the European Parliament elected Ursula von der Leyen as President of the European Commission in a ballot on 18 July 2024. Ahead of the vote, Ursula von der Leyen presented her political priorities for the next five years during a debate with MEPs.
The article also advances a recurring pro-Kremlin narrative portraying the EU as a disunited and disintegrating bloc, overseen by a central bureaucracy that allegedly undermines the sovereignty of its member states. The claim that the EU's policies have destroyed the sovereignty of countries is an unfounded claim. The European Union is explicit on the subject of national sovereignty: “The countries that make up the EU (its Member States) remain independent sovereign nations but they pool their sovereignty in order to gain the strength and world influence none of them could have on their own. Pooling sovereignty means, in practice, that the Member States delegate some of their decision-making powers to shared institutions they have created, so that decisions on specific matters of joint interest can be made democratically at European level.”
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives in our database alleging that the EU is a dying decaying liberal project, that the EU will collapse, The EU will collapse in five years, that EU introduces censorship ahead of European Parliament elections, that EU elections are not fair, or Europe is mortal, but only the Europe embodied by its current liberal elites.