"we sure as hell had an election for EU parliament here in Sweden" And it was irrelevant because the EU Parliament isn't a real Parliament, no more than the as

"we sure as hell had an election for EU parliament here in Sweden" And it was irrelevant because the EU Parliament isn't a real Parliament, no more than the assembly of representatives in North Korea is. It lacks the so-called right of initiation, meaning that only the EU Commission has the power to change the law. As a consequence nobody who cares about politics bothers going there, except in cases like Farage or Le Pen as a way to get free money they can spend on campaigning against the EU as a concept. Why would anyone who cares about politics spend their time in a body where political ideas are worthless because you aren't allowed to propose them? Would you like more evidence? The commissioner who made this tweet about the DSA flew over to California and told Musk to obey the new regulations before the EUP had even had a chance to vote on it at all. In a normal government, the legislature has to actually vote to pass new rules before the executive tells people to comply. But the EUP is a rubber stamp designed to grant the surface level appearance of legitimacy to the Commission's decisions, not a body that can actually keep the EU in check, so Breton didn't even bother waiting for it before starting to implement the DSA. That's how much the EU itself cares about its "Parliament", so why should anyone else care?