Unsatisfaction with current politicians is high, ready to explode with any extremist spark. This level of NABO (N-ules, A-bstentions, B-lancs, O-ther, less than 0.5%) is a wake-up call: urgent structural changes are needed, starting with the electoral system.
For example, in the USA, a congressman represents his electorate, because no matter what party he belongs, he will not be reelected if he doesn't vote the way electors wish. Since he does not have a pension after eight years, he works for his constituents, even against his party's advice. Here, for ‘governance’, voting loyalty is demanded, even if it opposes the interests of his electors.
This level of NABO has occurred in other countries; it is a warning of popular unrest. In Brazil, it preceded the military coup of 1964; in Chile, that of 1973. In Greece, the 1970s. In Germany, the discrediting of parliament and the austerity during the recession of the 1930s brought extremists from the left and the right to power, as has now happened in the EU. That's when Hitler seized power and dominated part of Europe with his supporters and killed all others. The promiscuity between the parliament, then closed, judicial, executive (Hitler) and cartels brought a regime adored by those who gained from it, hated by the small countries occupied by xenophobic Nazism, which propagated, like the EU now, where everything is fine. Cartels, inflation, wars should not exist, but are current. Extremists also dominate the US now.
We need another EU to give credibility to the voter. Perhaps a return to the Maastricht Treaty, which allowed small, peripheral countries some autonomy. These details are increasingly discussed by the thinking elite, and the bilingual book “Portugal post-troika? Economic Democracy?” addresses it and presents solutions, as unsatisfaction grows.
To carry on as before is to try to cover the sun with a sieve. Unsatisfaction with current politicians is high, ready to explode with any extremist spark.
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