When is a democratic vote not a democratic vote? Answer: When the outcome does not suit the powers that be. After the WMD excuse would no long wash, President George W. Bush sought to justify taking Iraq into bloody chaos by saying America was bringing the Iraqi people freedom and democracy.
Yet when the Palestinian people voted in a Hamas government in 2006, this was unacceptable to Bush.
Despite the fact that outside observers signaled that Hamas had won the election fairly and squarely, despite the fact that in voting for Hamas, Palestinians were rejecting the old Fatah leadership and seeking to empower a new body to try negotiating a settlement to their 60 years of agony and humiliation, Bush ignored the democratically expressed will of the people. Hamas was a terrorist organization. Even though it was clearly giving politics and not violence a chance, Washington would not deal with it.
There were some in Europe who were uncomfortable with Bush’s hypocritical and blinkered position.
But Europe itself is not above the very same refusal to accept a public vote that does not suit its purposes. This June, Irish voters rejected the EU’s Lisbon Treaty in a referendum.
The Irish vote placed massive doubt over the future of the pact designed to bring more European integration, for all 27 European member states have to ratify the treaty for it to come into force next year.
So the Irish are to be invited to vote again, probably in November next year. Brussels argues that it is impossible to reopen the Lisbon negotiations and that with the exception of the Czech Republic, all member states are on track to ratify by the end of this month. The Irish are to be offered a range of assurances on issues such as their military neutrality and ability to opt out of pro-abortion legislation. There will also be renewed threats that failure to vote yYes will lead to political and financial isolation in the EU and reminders that Ireland has done very well economically from its EU membership.
The No Campaign in Ireland was led not, as in the UK, by politicians fundamentally opposed to the EU itself, but by an articulate minority who whole-heartedly supported the EU vision. However, they argued that the Lisbon Treaty was undemocratic and pushing the political homogenization of Europe too fast. On the face of it, the determination of Brussels to have Ireland vote again, bears out the justice of this case. The Irish being a singular and thoughtful people, they may very well give the “wrong” answer a second time.
No other country has actually voted on the Lisbon Treaty. The French and Dutch did not dare ask their electorates again. Britain’s socialists welched on an election pledge of a referendum on the grounds that the Lisbon Treaty was not the constitution over which the promise had been made. This is surely a most undemocratic way to build a single European democracy.
