That is the question raised by European Parliament member and Lega deputy secretary general Roberto Vannacci in an open letter to the Rome daily Il Tempo, after the proposed EU budget was rejected by Germany. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has failed, even though she filled Brussels with posters on the “urgency” of an EU budget increase. She is on her way out, Vannacci forecasts.
“The European scene has been shaken by an unprecedented rejection. Germany has rejected the €2 trillion budget (1.26% of the EU’s gross national income) proposed by President Ursula von der Leyen for the period 2027-2034. This is not a one-off incident: Germany’s ‘nein’—which was promptly echoed by Dutch Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra—is symptomatic of a more general unease, a serious disconnect between Brussels’ dreams and the real needs of European citizens. ‘Such an increase is not acceptable,’ said German government spokesman Stefan Kornelius, pointing out that member states are already making enormous efforts to balance their budgets.”
Vannacci, a former Special Forces general, blasted the decision to spend €800 billion on rearmament, while cutting funds to farmers and strangling industries through Green Deal regulations. In the (rejected) budget proposal there is nothing to alleviate households from home prices increases and SMEs from high energy prices.
