The rejection of the Constitutional Treaty – sorry, the Lisbon Treaty – by Irish “Eurosceptics,” has unleashed a crisis without precedents in Europe. t is not so much for what will happen with the treaty, but because of the strategies followed by those favoring a “yes” to the European Constitution – sorry, the Lisbon Treaty. “We must go forward” say the illustrious European prime ministers. Eight hundred thousand souls will not stop the desire for the better future of 500 million Europeans – one hears in the Euro Parliament.

In Brussels, self-criticism is non-existent; there will not be any analysis of what happened. This blind Europeism has long since defined the dividing line between good and bad Europeans, and that line is the Constitutional Treaty – sorry, the Lisbon Treaty. Time and time again, they have dragged us during nine very long years in the same direction that Europe walks – nowhere.  This European Union, unable to respond to the immigration challenge, terrorism, the financial crisis, what is it going to do with the legal mastodon that the Lisbon Treaty is –this time, indeed – that cannot do with the Treaty of Nice? The answer is nothing. The issue – we have said it many times – is the power in the Council, and in order to get that power, if they have to run over the citizens, they do it. One Union more democratic, closer to the citizens, cannot and must not dedicate itself to look for the 26-1 score. The Union should ponder very carefully about the reasons why the text has reaped three negative votes. And we say three because the difference between the Constitutional Treaty and the Treaty of Lisbon only lies in its structural intricacy, not in its content. The fact is that European citizens are confused, disappointed, numb with so many balancing acts by a political ruling class that does not believe in the citizens. This class thinks of itself as a wise elite that must lead the flock to the green prairies of the new Europe born out of the Lisbon Treaty. A Platonic-style Europe governed by the most educated – supposedly. A Europe that will speak with a single voice in the world, however, it creates a Super Commissioner in charge of Foreign Affairs, but it also has a Council President – that already makes two voices. A Europe that will enhance democracy by introducing the popular initiative – although there is nothing in Nice that prevents the creation of this initiative without needing a new treaty – but at the same time, it ignores the results of popular referendums. A Europe that will expedite decision-making by introducing qualified majority voting as the general rule, but with that majority controlled by the stronger states. A Europe that will finally be able to put the means to fight against illegal immigration, but that, until now and although Nice allows it, has done nothing about it.

The European discourse is as ambiguous as Mr. Rodríguez Zapatero, who pays lip service to human rights and the only thing he does in the European Union is to maneuver in order to lift the sanctions against Cuba, the paradise of human rights. The problem of the European Union is not institutional or legal. The Union has an evident lack of leadership and political will. It has become a factory of political creativity without concrete content. Everything is just about spinning the wheels in a speculative vacuum. That is a long way to nowhere.