Thursday 4 July 2019

Europe's new leaders, handpicked

All change in Europe! 

As far as I can tell the handpicked new leaders break down as follows: 

Charles Michel; 
Competent lawyer and compromise builder running the council (the forum of 27 government leaders) and appointed to help persuade the government leaders. 

Ursula von der Leyen; 
Incompetent, former doctor, compromised in Germany, leading the Commission, so effectively the head of the EU civil service and Martin Selmayr's boss. 

Christine Lagarde; 
Taken seriously by the government leaders, she is a lawyer and can help push through integration and fiscal reforms as head of ECB with Michel Charles. 

The Spanish and Italians have been thrown bones in the form of the Chief Diplomat (Spanish, corrupt, incompetent, socialist, and integrationist) and Head of the Parliament (Italian, socialist and integrationist) 

So overall I would have thought that if Martin Selmayr can hold on to his job as the most senior civil servant in the Commission (the Sir Humphrey), he will be the controlling force here. 

If they push through integration and fiscal deficits, it should underwrite the left field economic outcomes. Perhaps they will even make the Euro and European equities investable again for a while.

 I cant see any budge on the Withdrawal Agreement.