Europe

[Furunculus]

1. 'Europygmy' is a nom de tabloid. 'A Europygmy from a Europygmy country'. That's how the British Eurosceptical newspapers describe him, in a mixture of spite over Blair losing out, disdain for anything smaller than or simply different to Britian, and the need to feed their audience their daily EU outrage.
That's the tragedy of English being the world's leading language. British categorizations are taken over. Other considerations than finding a pygmy were the reason to choose Van Rompuy. Most capitals looked for 'a concensus builder' after the bloody, painful, nine year long oddyssey of 'Lisbon'.

2. Van Rompuy was the clear candidate of the European engine, France and Germany. Belgium and the Belgian model are taken quite seriously. (The secret plan is to model Europe after Belgium.)

3. I have no idea whom the Italians preferred, and nobody pays any attention to Italian politics anyway. The Portuguese are well catered to with Barroso, who heads the European Commission. Spain had Javier Solana, originally intented to take the post of 'foreign minister'. He only recently stepped down. The Scandinavians had some ideas of their own, but they are too polite to ever raise their voice. It is too early for the new East European countries to claim either post.

4. The two posts were going to be divided between, and decided upon, by the British Isles, France/Germany, and the Benelux. The British backed Blair. Brown kept backing Blair, until Merkel called Blair last week, informing him politely that he wasn't going to become president. When it still didn't sink in, she called him again, telling him this time in no uncertain terms that no, under no curcumstance could he become president.

5. At any rate, Blair will be lucky to evade criminal prosecution for war crimes, what with the British enquiry about Iraq starting this week.

6. The British were left with two options: aim for an economical position, desired by most British European politicians, or go for the glamour of the post of foreign minister. Brown chose the latter. Which, hopefully, the City will come to regret as this increases the chances of Europe regulating the financial markets, possibly by installing a Tonkin tax.

7. Merkel and Sarkozy understood that they couldn't claim the candidacy for their countries. Then the Benelux pulled its weight. They laid claim to the post. France and Germany informally agreed. Juncker initially, of Luxembourg, made his candidacy. In response, next the Netherlands and Belgium offered their PM's. The Dutch one is onpopular and spineless. The Belgian one is inexperienced, but his track record is impressive. Sarkozy agreed to Van Rompuy, because VR ticked all the right boxes:
- No Turkey in the EU
- Lacking the stature to overpower Sarkozy

8. Merkel was swayed to Van Rompuy too. When the preference for Van Rompuy became clear, the Dutch PM retracted his candidacy and the deal was done. This left the British to name the candidate of their choice for 'foreign minister'.

1. Lol, spite? No-one wanted Blair as president of europe, we spent long enough trying to ditch him in the UK without him returning to power, vampire like, at the head of the EU. It was also understood that Blair as president would bring too much prestige to the position, which is exactly what the British don't want, given that our politics isn't the partisan and tribal model which seems expected on the continent, where you must always back your guy in a euro-vision like manner.

2. Not the clear candidate of of France Germany and Britain because they all wanted a euro-pygmy who would not overshadow national politics.............. are you sure?

3. Given that you spend all your time castigating me for my lack of pan-european vision, and extolling the mantra that we are all the same, it is surprising to see you writing of the worth of the Italian's so casually................

4. So Brown didn't use Blair's candidacy as a stalking-horse to ensure that our position as king-maker resulted in us getting the foreign policy spot (which to me is more important given how spineless i consider continental foreign policy to be, and especially given the pygmy president)?

5. Lol, by who, and with who's army?

6. You may be right, it wouldn't surprise me if once again Brown picked prestige over power. However, if the intention is to wreck the city, then that is just another reason to get out, is that what you want?

7. No turkey - great shame, and yet another reason to think poorly of europe (as a group of peoples), with whom i have no wish to share a democracy.
Sarkosy's Napoleon problem - so you do admit that Rumpey Pumpey was chosen because he is a euro-pygmy?

8. So we got what we wanted (not that i'm saying we got the right thing), doesn't sound like a diplomatic disaster to me.