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Comment by tremon

2 days ago

The council is composed of representatives of each state. That means you did not vote for 26 out of the 27 members, and most states don't have special elections for European Council members* -- which means that most of them have not been elected into their Council position.

* the Council of composed of ministers and heads of government. Ministerial posts are distributed among the winning party members in pretty much every country, and only presidential systems have a direct election for their head of government. In constitutional monarchies, the head of government is commonly assigned to the largest party leader, but it's not a directly electable position.

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tremon

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jurip  2 days ago

The parliament seats are also apportioned by state. I don't find that a bad idea, living in a small country, and I don't see why the council seats being divided by country is a worse idea than the system in the parliament.

flir  2 days ago

I didn't vote for 649 of my MPs either. These aren't good arguments.

saubeidl  2 days ago

I mean sure. But that's how most democratic systems work?

A Californian did not vote for the Senator from North Carolina.

A Londoner did not vote for the MP from Edinburgh.

A Berliner did not vote for the Bavarian Bundesrat member.

  • grues-dinner  2 days ago

    At least the Berliner gets an additional vote for the party so they can get both local and representative national representation.

    The Londoner is completely out of luck if their seat is a safe seat but not their party.

    Not that German politics isn't pretty hosed too.

  • guappa  2 days ago

    The USA senate is another example of something that is not democratic. 2 people per state regardless of population is kinda questionable.

    • cedilla  2 days ago

      It's federalistic. It's a bit drastic - but I guess no one could imagine one state having 66 times the population as another in 1789. Other federal states compensate for that - for example, in the German Bundesrat, each state gets 3 to 6 seats according to population.

      A problem for the US is that /both/ chambers of parliament are skewed that way.