EU referendum -UK users

[Scisca]

Louie said:

Scisca said:

I said sane and reasonable.

When I look at Germany, I'm starting to see the same arrogance that lead them to start the First and Second World War. They are objectifying other countries and treating them like tools and pawns on their gameboard, not sovereign partners. Look at the immigrant crisis - they are violating and ignoring existing laws. Cause they are Germany - they don't give a f*** about laws if they don't like these laws. Now they are forcing the mandatory automatic distribution of migrants that they invited to Europe - despite no legal basis for this. They use political and economic blackmail to force other countries to deal with the consequences of their mistakes. Genuine spirit of European cooperation.

Don't mix up Germany or the general population and the german government. Merkel is under a lot of criticism here and the way she handled immigration is the reason why her party went from 40%+ in polls to just around 30%. Ironically, it was WWII guilt that pushed Merkel into embracing large numbers of immigrants without a plan. I'm pro-immigration leaning by the way. But the way Merkel handled this was desastrous. That "immigration deal" she reached with Turkey was just another case of her dropping the ball. 

I thought Merkel was doing a decent job during her first and second term in office but right now? Hell no. The current immigration crisis (again: without any sort of plan), the resurgence of the far-right political wing in Germany, the Turkish President getting involved in german politics because Merkel depends on his mercy (to keep the borders shut), worsening of EU relationships (very pro-european guy here)... and all that because Merkel spontaneously said "we can do this!" when asked about immigrants from Syria and other countries. And after that she was too stubborn to aknowledge she made a mistake with that statement. 

As for being more on-topic: What Europe really needs in my opinion is an actual, democratically elected Parliament that has actual power. Europe needs more democracy, not more than two dozen nation state governments battling it out. It's not the european people who are the problem. It's the political elite. I want Britain to stay but I can't blame the 50% who want to leave considering the current state of the union. 

I know it's the politicians, but if you keep supporting this government, you'll get the blame as well. I know Merkel is losing support, but the support is still huge and she'll probably keep power after the upcoming elections, despite holding on to her current policies. Merkel was getting the job done for a long time, even we were respecting her, but the last couple of years it all changed. To us it seems like, yet again, you've reached the point in which you (as a country, not individual people) no longer want to be "one of the European countries", but you want to be in charge of Europe. To dominate and govern it. The immigration policy is terrible and shows clear signs of that. You keep messing up, violating the law left and right and are forcing others to deal with the outcome. The way the crisis in Greece is being dealt with is again a terrifying display of your power over other countries. Poor Greeks. Your developing cooperation with Russia that's harmful for Central European members of the EU is another burning point. It totally killed any hopes for a united and solidary Europe over here. We see countries only have to show solidarity, when Germany needs it (eg. immigrants), but when it's time for Germany to show it (eg. Nord Stream I and II), you're nowhere to be seen, doing your business as usual and showing other member states the middle finger.

At this point, if we ever want the dream of a happy and united Europe to return, Germany has to take a huge step back. You need to tame your ambitions, cause it's starting to get toxic. But I somehow can't see it happening. With great power comes great responsibility, you seem to want the first one, but don't want to have nothing to do with the second one.

I don't think a new form of the European Parliament would change much. We're not one country and blind pushing for stronger integration in current times of huge unrest is a recipe for disaster. I think what we need right now is the contrary - give countries some more space to breathe and respect the diversity and sovereignity of member nations. We're not a federation and never will become one, the sooner the politicians in Brussels accept that, the better.