The persecution of Poland and Hungary by western European media speaks not to any change in Poland or Hungary but rather to change in the western European media classes of what is or is not acceptable and a desire to force their position on other EU member states.
In my home country of Ireland all of the judges – no matter how junior – are appointed by the 15 member government. The most recent appointment to the Irish Supreme Court (Ireland’s highest court) was made on the basis of the relevant minister bringing only a single nomination to the cabinet to consider – and the person nominated was a member of the then governing political party and had never previously held judicial office. At least three judges serving on lower courts (High Court, Court of Appeal) applied for the role but their names were not even considered.
Again, in my home country of Ireland, under Section 52 of the Irish Universities Act 1997 “a person shall not, without the approval of the Minister [for Education], use the word “university” to describe an educational establishment or facility”.
What’s shocking to me is that there are numerous examples in other EU member states of politicisation of the judiciary and state control of higher education of exactly the same nature or worse than those which have been the basis for complaints against Hungary and Poland. Yet the inconsistency of criticising Hungary and Poland and never even commenting on the same issues in other EU member states is hardly noted.
The real issue here is that the usual suspects – The Netherlands and Sweden – are dragging issues into the EU budgetary process that have never previously been part of it, in what amounts to a form of neo-colonialism. Hungary and Poland rightly will take no lessons from a state like The Netherlands which for decades now had flouted international conventions on control of drugs to which it is a party and is the main centre of production for synthetic illegal drugs in Europe.
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