In a highly controversial move, Queen Elizabeth II agreed to Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s request to suspend the British Parliament. The Assembly will close its session in two weeks and will keep waiting for another month until next October 14, the scheduled date for the king himself to preside over the opening of a new session period, more than two weeks before the 31st, the deadline and fatal Brexit date.
Johnson and his henchmen took extraordinary steps to prevent the opposition’s attempts to block or prevent through the legislative procedure of a tough, no-deal Brexit. The move immediately angered the opposition, and even some members of the Conservative Party, who saw it as unconstitutional and against democracy.
As such, John Bercow, president of the House of Commons, described the move as a “constitutional outrage”, while Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labor Party, called it a deadly attack on British democracy. Influential and highly respected Financial timespokesperson for capital and markets, After calling Johnson’s efforts an “insult to democracy”, he urged British lawmakers to quickly and decisively oppose Johnson’s move by a vote of no confidence, a parliamentary procedure that would topple his government and force new elections. , where British voters, and not a small minority of a political party, captives of authoritarianism, will decide the country’s future.
Other media like Guardian Among Independent They too have spoken out against it. Even Daily Telegraph, despite his clear conservative and eurosceptic bias, has expressed his opposition to devious attempts to disrupt the democratic process in Britain. This afternoon there has been a popular demonstration outside Parliament, in London’s Westminster district, under the slogan “Stop the Coup!” (Stop the coup!).
If successful, Johnson’s efforts would be the final link in a long-standing chain of attacks on liberal democracy and the enthronement of a new caudillismo of “the strongman and keeper” and the removal of all counterweights to his arbitrary will. than in one of the oldest, most advanced and consolidated democracies in the world.
This goes far beyond the debate between Britain’s supporters of Britain’s direct and uncompromising exit from the European Union and those who want their country’s membership in a supranational entity. What is at stake should, without hyperbole, be a cause for widespread concern in the enlightened world.
Despite its many and obvious shortcomings, the Westminster parliamentary system has been a model of polyarchy, stability, but above all freedom for many other countries. His overthrow, in the worst case, or his questioning, in the best case, would mean a new, perhaps definitive, defeat of the liberal democratic model.
The conservative riots have once again highlighted the fragility of polyarchy and its vulnerability to attacks dictated by reckless leadership. It is clear that we are entering stormy and somewhat murky waters as a global society. Boris Johnson’s attacks on British democracy must be unanimously condemned and strongly opposed.
