SOTEU 2017: The Political Year So Far According to Brussels Brief GIFs
In varietate discordia…
1. 2016 — The Year of the Troll
With the vomit-inducing toe wringing electoral success in the Anglo-Saxon world of Nigel Farage and Donald Trump, 2017 was set to be a headache for the EU, the last bastion of neoliberal empire concerned about wishy-washy things like human rights, protecting air you can breathe, actual peace and prosperity for 60 years and other trivial world-dominating evil stuff.
2. European Council 2018 — The Spectre of the Trolls
The scariest prospect was that the European trolls were going to organise and so they did in a veritable beer hall style in Germany fantasising their putschs around Europe as a number of countries were going to the ballot. A reminder to the EU to not get too comfortable there was going to be a bumpy ride ahead.
3. Auntie Theresa Gets Br-exited
Meanwhile, we had the melodrama leading up to Brexit. In what was (and has been until now) a sturdy stream of speculation including everything but not exclusively; citizens rights, university funding, nuclear power, and even the supply of cheese. Nothing has escaped the media frenzy leading up to the negotiations.
4. Donald Does Europe: The Brussels Hellhole
Flip-flopping on how the EU was bad then great then horrible then not so bad was part of the Donald’s tour of a traumatised EU and NATO. In a 2 cent version of Margaret Thatcher’s we want our money back speech, the POTUS simultaneously the most powerful man in the world and owner of a gold toilet, berated NATO members for not paying their fair share. The most hurtful part of the whole thing is that he might actually have a point there.
5. Storm Number 1 Averted— Geert Wilders
Someone once said that making fun of people when they are down is cruel and evil and uncivil. Unless it is the school bully that is crying and licking his wounds after getting his behind handed to him by a gang of 13 parties in a robust democratic system like the Dutch. The fact that a bully with the hair of another bully failed so spectacularly should not be a matter of hubris, coming out runner up out of 13 is too close for comfort.
6. Article 50 Trigger -Heartbreak
After all the hullaballoo in the lead up to the Brexit vote, all you really needed to trigger Article 50, much like a day off school was a strongly worded letter from your Auntie Teresa, filling in for you absentee father David who lost the house in a ridiculous gamble. For the UK the experience was more like diving into a pool blindfolded without knowing whether there was water inside. Splash?
7. Storm Number 2 Averted - Marine Le Pen
When the bully however is a upgraded version of a fascist-sympathising 86 year old man in the form of his daughter. Ironically an MEP by trade, Marine Le Pen was a force to be reckoned with, a woman getting deep in the hearts and minds of the most rural and traditional French voters. But, in true French revolution style a de facto two party system was upended by a right wing party that got its mojo back and the emergence of a one-year old ‘movement’ headed by what seemed to be the EU’s version of the second coming of Jesus or in our case, Robert Schuman. Emmanuel Macron, the rest as they say is history…❤
8. A Star is Born ?— President Macron
You can flip a bottle but can you keep a sky-high approval rating going? Didn't think so. :(. Much like Obama, Macron’s meteoric rise and expectations of him will far exceed any human’s capacity to lead a nation, let alone a whole continent. Godspeed Manu…for the sake of all of us.
9. Love Story — Erdorban
Meanwhile, while it seemed that the EU had enough near heart attack moments to deal with, the enfants terribles inside the EU were striking a tone much like the enfants terribles outside the EU. We call this particular unholy matrimony ‘Erdoban’.
10. Are We Really Doing This? — Bremain?
Rolling into the summer EU came out battled and bruised but proud of a good first round of the year which included the defeat of some pretty big populists, the taming of the orange spectre on European soil and the apparent outclassing of negotiating positions for Brexit. On this last point, the ball is definitely in the UK’s court in this one and more and more saboteurs (other than the Liberal Democrats) are coming out of the woodwork against the whole thing from even happening.
11. Whats happening next?— Brussels Brief has you covered
Rest assured no matter how real or how ridiculous things get for the EU the rest of this year, Brussels Brief will provide the coverage casting a irreverent and critical yet entertaining eye on the ins and outs of the Brussels bubble in the midst of a seemingly global chaos. Here is to seeing all of you weekly, one GIF at a time. SIGN UP and find out what you always thought you were missing!
