Little “Hitlerina”, Alice Weidel, proposes a referendum on Germany’s exit from the European Union.  How did other European parties react? They proposed as leading candidates Mr. nobody Nicolas Schmit (S&D) and Ursula von der Leyen (EPP) running against herself. Lady Ursula will indeed have to try to demolish a lot of green crap enacted by her and her Commission. Let’s do well!

The Spitzenkandidaten was meant to be the way to bring people closer to Europe, giving them the illusion that they mattered by sending the leading candidate of the political family that got the majority of votes to the presidency of the European Commission. Instead, it was the one-time ruse that in 2014 allowed Jean Claude Juncker and Martin Schulz, leaders of the EPP and Socialists, respectively, to share the posts of president of the Commission and the Europarliament. Formally, the mechanism remains in place. But the developments of the last few hours, and those in the pipeline, sound like epitaphs. S&D, for example, has chosen as its leading candidate the current Luxembourg commissioner, Nicolas Schmit, a respectable nobody who got the nomination because he was the only one who showed up. None of the so-called heavyweights of European socialism, from Spain's Pedro Sanchez to Denmark's Mette Frederiksen via Italy's Elly Schlein, wanted to put their faces forward in what promises to be a likely electoral debacle. Even the EPP, however, has some problems. With better electoral prospects than S&D, they are preparing to nominate Ursula von der Leyen as their Spitzenkandidaten. A somewhat forced choice since the last time she was elected, ignoring the result of the ballot box. But also a selection full of contradictions. Von der Leyen is indeed in danger of running against herself. The EPP has developed an election program that promises to demolish much of the green deal measures already launched by the Commission led by Lady Ursula. It all sounds like a farce for a defunct system.