Beautiful. Finally we get some drama out of European politics. Yesterday, the European parliament forced José Manuel Barroso to withdraw his proposed commissioners team. How did we get to this? Ask Rocco…
Enter Rocco Buttiglione: full-time religious zealot, writer of papal encyclicals and big mate with the pope. Nothing odd, then, when such a human makes statements such as homosexuality being a sin, or that “The family exists in order to allow women to have children and to have the protection of a male who takes care of them”. Such primitive views of family didn’t seem out of place from such a character.
The oddity came when, Mr. Barroso, in all his wisdom, appointed him as Justice Commissioner. Not agriculture, not fisheries, but justice, a position encompassing civil liberties! Many more than gays and feminists went up in arms, accusing Mr. Barroso of hiring a poacher as gamekeeper. But the proposed commission needs to be ratified by the parliament, which can only vote for or against it, it can’t ban single members. And it looked certain that the whole commission would be voted out rather than keep Buttiglione in place. That’s why Mr. Barroso decided not to present this commission to the vote until last month after, we all hope, stripping a few bad apples off.
How did the Italian (or more specifically, Berlusconi’s) government managed to replace the impressive and highly respected Mario Monti? Italians at home are still asking themselves.
It’s heart warming to see a European parliament so staunchly defending our European secular values. Hopefully, this message will be heard and understood further east, in Turkey: Our problem has nothing to do with Islam specifically, but more generally with religions infecting our politics. The conflict is between religious and seculars, not Christianism and Islam. If he wants an EU membership, Mr. Erdogan is advised to remember this next time he has a great idea such as criminalising adultery.
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