Wolves have adapted swiftly and surely to human-dominated landscapes. But people are struggling to adjust to the wolves. The concentration of packs, von der Leyen declared when announcing the commission’s review of wolf protection laws, “has become a real danger for livestock and potentially also for humans”.
In December, the commission proposed to reduce the wolf’s status under the Bern Convention from “strictly protected” to “protected” in order to introduce “further flexibility” – potentially enabling wolves to be hunted and populations reduced across the EU.
Many populist politicians across Europe hope that talking up the threat of the wolf – alongside tough measures to tackle it – will win support ahead of next summer’s elections to the European parliament.
I can’t really tell about that either since I have not read up about the electoral college yet. It’s certainly different. What does grind my gears however is when democratic results get ignored no matter where they happen because reasons. She was not even up for debate for that position when we got our chance to vote and then ended up in that position after the fact.
I think, that the phrase “ignoring the election results” is too harsh. You vote for parties, not persons. Of course, they usually nominate their frontrunners for the election campaign, but if they can’t ensure a majority in the elected parliament, what else should they do?
VdL definitely was a sketchy back room deal, I am talking more about the general principle here.
Where I live (at least when it comes to the EU) We do in fact vote for people over a party. At least that is the understanding on how it works here. As for what can be done: do the vote again for one thing. I am sure that there are other options too. The last thing that should happen is that someone who wasn’t even up for debate at the time to get the job. That was the worst outcome in all regards because now I don’t trust the democratic process there that much anymore knowing that at any moment practically anyone can get that position regardless of any result from the people that make up the EU.
Really? What’s on the ballot in your country? If it is the party, then you vote for the party and with this you vote parliamentarians on the list into the european parliament. I get that the media reporting muddled this process, because frontrunners make for a more interesting coverage, but that is not how it works at all.
As far as I can remember the ballot states people first and foremost, only stating party as a somewhat small addition below that person’s name. So it looks a lot like you are voting for individuals rather than the party. Media coverage also didn’t help and they mentioned how it is perceived differently in all other EU countries that got to vote as well.