{"id":565957,"date":"2025-11-12T18:11:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-12T18:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/565957\/"},"modified":"2025-11-12T18:11:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-12T18:11:12","slug":"eu-leader-should-be-elected-by-the-people-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/565957\/","title":{"rendered":"EU leader should be \u2018elected by the people\u2019 \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Musk was reacting to von der Leyen&#8217;s unveiling of the European Democracy Shield, a new strategy to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/document-commission-plans-guidance-on-use-of-ai-in-elections\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/document-commission-plans-guidance-on-use-of-ai-in-elections\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">step up the fight against foreign interference online<\/a>, including in elections.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Democracy is the foundation of our freedom. Democracy is the foundation of our prosperity. Democracy is the foundation of our security,&#8221; von der Leyen <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/vonderleyen\/status\/1988567591925756079\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/x.com\/vonderleyen\/status\/1988567591925756079\" target=\"_blank\">wrote<\/a> on social media.<\/p>\n<p>The German politician had pitched the Democracy Shield idea in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/von-der-leyen-proposes-new-eu-disinformation-law-to-counter-foreign-meddling\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/von-der-leyen-proposes-new-eu-disinformation-law-to-counter-foreign-meddling\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">campaign speech at the Copenhagen Democracy Summit<\/a> last year as she sought another term as Commission president ahead of the 2024 European election.<\/p>\n<p>The Commission president \u2014 head of the EU&#8217;s executive, though not literally the &#8220;leader of the EU&#8221; \u2014 is proposed and voted on by the European Council, comprising the EU\u2019s 27 heads of state and government, for a five-year term.\u00a0The proposed candidate also has to win a vote among members of the European Parliament.<\/p>\n<p>After getting the required backing last year, von der Leyen survived three motions of no confidence by factions in the Parliament in July and October this year.<\/p>\n<p>The centerpiece of the Democracy Shield strategy is the European Centre for Democratic Resilience, which draws on expertise across current and aspiring EU member countries to counter disinformation.<\/p>\n<p>Other elements include guidance on how to use AI in elections or on using influencers to help people understand EU rules, such as regulations on online content or political advertising.<\/p>\n<p>Musk, who played a brief but prominent role earlier this year as U.S. President Donald Trump&#8217;s adviser after supporting him vigorously throughout the 2024 election campaign, has often used his platform to amplify controversial views on democracy, free speech and political leadership <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/elon-musk-endorses-germanys-far-right\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/elon-musk-endorses-germanys-far-right\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">around the world.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Musk was reacting to von der Leyen&#8217;s unveiling of the European Democracy Shield, a new strategy to step&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[1394,11576,13071,295,2000,7335,299,5187,11587,1220],"class_list":{"0":"post-565957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-big-tech","9":"tag-brussels-bubble","10":"tag-disinformation","11":"tag-elon-musk","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-eu-commission","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-european","16":"tag-transparency","17":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115538079607044261","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}