Oh Silly me!
She was the only candidate.
Of course! This is the EU after-all.
I know Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong-Un and Muammar Gaddafi all managed to to have "democratic elections" while being the only candidate on the ballot paper. So I suppose its not too surprising the EU has followed suite.
Maybe we should be grateful.
Just imagine how much more it would cost if they had TWO candidates - or (gulp!) three! Especially if one or more didn't tow the EU party line.
God forbid. What would have happened if a EU sceptic had won? What if someone who was not signed up to the EU bureaucratic dream had aced it?
I dare say there must be EU bureaucrats who have thought that very thought. I expect they'll be off the Valium and out of therapy soon.
Anyway. To me for some strange reason, the election of Ursula Von Der Leyen seemed rather odd.
It was not just that she was the only person on the ballot paper either.
At least old Saddam Hussein got a resounding 99% support by his Parliament when he was elected.
I understand poor Ursula only got 52%.
Just imagine the shock. You are the only name on the ballot paper. Yet when you win you find you were actually contesting a one way marginal and nearly came second.
Idly I wondered just who HAD voted for our Ursula.
As always I started out with a grand scheme. I wanted to figure out what percentage of the EU electorate (via MEPs per capita) had voted for her.
As I discussed HERE the size of population per MEP varies from 73,000 right up to 900,000 depending on which country you are voting in. But all MEPs have equal voting rights.
Clearly some MEPs are more equal than others.
So maybe by finding out the nationality of her MEP supporters I could work out whether she indirectly enjoyed more or less than 50% support from the overall EU electorate.
Seemed reasonable.
But I looked and I looked. No table could be found.
Then I found this VoteWatch.eu - Why is the vote on Ursula Von Der Leyen secret?
It appears that our elected representative were so intimidated by the prospect of being found out regarding whether they supported dear Ursula or not they insisted on a secret ballot.
Now, you might think that had this been Saddam Hussein's election, such a secretive scheme may have been a good idea.
Bearing in mind that those that opposed him usually ended up committing suicide that is.
(Fair dues - you have to admit - opposing Saddam Hussein was a pretty suicidal thing to do in the first place.)
But what are we make of a Parliament that is so gutless and so frightened of their political opponents that they demand anonymity?
Would their opponents have terrorised them with hurty words if they voted the "wrong" way?
I suppose as well as the hurty words the prospect of being a persona non grata and seriously compromising the perks and expenses may have weighed heavily as well.
So sadly, we will never be able to know who exactly elected Ursula Von Der Leyen. Let alone who voted for her non existent opponent.
So my grand scheme is in tatters.
We will never know if Ursula Von Der Leyen enjoys more or less than 50% support of the EU electorate.
But what the hell eh?
The one thing we can all be certain of is this:
The version of democracy as (mal)practiced by the EU is merely a veneer.
Window dressing.
A sham.
So even if I had proved that she had significantly less than 50% electorate support, it wouldn't have mattered anyway.
Hey Ho.
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