Far from 'hairsplitting and meaningless' the issue is at the very crux of 'democracy'. That almost nobody voted in the election, that nobody knew who the leade

Far from 'hairsplitting and meaningless' the issue is at the very crux of 'democracy'. That almost nobody voted in the election, that nobody knew who the leader - or the platform - was going to be, and that she was absolutely chosen after the fact, by unelected leaders, that she cannot be sanctioned or replaced, and that elected MEPs cannot propose legislation - is fundamental to the nature of democracy. Even in proper democracies, particularly in Parliamentary systems, even the budget requires approval without which the government falls and elections are called. Why? Because the proposition of budgets necessitate popular sanction. Parliament - and even legislative assemblies can dissolve government if necessary. Ursula von der Leyen has unambiguously the least democratic legitimacy of any leader in the free world, by far. The fact that the EU was purposefully designed this way - in the very face of very healthy democratic institutions i.e. Switzerland, UK, Germany - implies the lack of democracy was very much 'by design'. It's an existential issue.