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They should vote for parties that are not organized in the EPP (European people's party). The exact party options depend on the country you're voting in.

• Silhouette 1mo ago
  And what would happen next to ensure that von der Leyen was removed from office? It is worth remembering at this point how von der Leyen first became Commission President. She was controversially nominated by the European Council - who are not directly elected representatives within the EU system - deviating from the spitzenkandidat convention in a way that surprised and angered many MEPs - who are. Her own national government (Germany) did not support her in the Council voting because one of the parties in the governing coalition opposed her. She was eventually confirmed by a narrow majority in a secret ballot of the European Parliament from which little can therefore be determined about who did or didn't vote for her except that quite a lot of MEPs who were expected to support her candidacy based on public statements did not in fact do so in the secret vote. So she was essentially proposed by a group of people who aren't directly elected at EU level and in some cases aren't even directly elected by the nations they represent - in violation of the normal convention expected by the only people who are directly elected at EU level - and was then narrowly confirmed by that directly elected group only in a secret ballot from which the vote of each individual representative was not recorded and there is therefore no possibility for their own electorates to hold those representatives to account personally for how they voted. Given that we are talking about the most influential political post in the EU this is not exactly a powerful demonstration of democratic legitimacy and a clear popular mandate no matter how you look at it.
  • izacus 1mo ago
    Everything she does has to be confirmed by the parliament you're electing. Everything else she does needs to be confirmed by representatives of your own member state. Just like EVERY OTHER democracy.
    • Silhouette 1mo ago
      Just like EVERY OTHER democracy. Not really. In most representative democracies it is the elected representatives who initiate new law. In the EU the elected MEPs have no power to do this and it is the role of the unelected Commission to start the process. Meanwhile the Commission is also the "executive branch" of the EU. A great deal of what the commissioners do is not directly subject to approval by the European Parliament.
      • inigyou 1mo ago
        The EU, like most union governments including the USA, was designed to be conservative and not pass things by default. For something to pass the EU, it has to be wanted by both the leaders of all the EU countries (the commission) and the people in all the countries (the parliament). It's similar to the house and senate of the USA
        • Silhouette 1mo ago
          You are misunderstanding the leadership structure of the EU. There are three main bodies that lead it - the Council of the European Union, the European Commission, and the European Parliament. The Council is the one that generally consists of the leaders of each member state. It has important roles in the system including selecting candidates for key roles and as part of "trilogue" negotiations (which are themselves sometimes controversial for being secretive and unaccountable) but has little formal participation in the normal legislative process. The Parliament is the one whose members are elected by the citizens of the EU. Its best known role is to debate and vote on new legislation. The Commission holds much of the real power as it serves as both the leadership of the executive branch and the origin of new legislative proposals - and yet its members are chosen via much less transparent means and have little personal accountability to EU citizens. Many EU commissioners have been politicians whose national political careers were struggling and - like appointment to the House of Lords here in the UK - they may have been put forward for the Commission by their national political leadership as a position of influence that required less confirmation than winning a popular vote. This is relevant here because von der Leyen herself is arguably in this category.
  • jq-r 1mo ago
    As one of the most openly corrupted Croatian politician is Von Der Leyen's commissioner, it tells me all I need to know about her choices and influence.
  • jurgenburgen 1mo ago
    I think the EU should be reformed in a more democratic direction, no question about that. Still, calling the system undemocratic is a stretch since anyone who pays attention can see how EU policies have shifted after the far right increased the number of their seats in the previous election. Climate ambition has been dialed way down and immigration is being curtailed.
  • deleted 1mo ago
    [deleted]