The tightest Presidential race that never happened just elected the first woman President of the EU Commission. Don’t remember getting a ballot paper? Me neither. Even so it was a close race with the winner scraping in with just 9 votes in it.

Wow! So who came second? Who was the close runner up? … no one. That’s right there was no contest in the real sense. There was no line of hopefuls all putting themselves forward for the job, this was all done as Magid Magid said the other day… agreed and sorted out behind the scenes.

But it was an election? Yes, in the show sense. Once all the back room dealing had selected one candidate then the MEPs got to vote between a choice of one person. Amazingly that one person won.

Hopefully, for the rest of us, even as the only candidate they scraped through with only 9 votes more than the bare minimum. Hopefully, because it perhaps shows that the fakery in this EU pre-selected democracy is wearing thin. That its show of democracy but without the substance is not well received after all.

Well done, whoever she is, it must have been hard beating no one to the top spot, you must have been the better candidate, though I’m not sure that no one wouldn’t have been better.

This resounding show of support fills us not at all with confidence, I’m glad we’re leaving. Hang on, let me stop typing briefly so I can clap, the “applause now” sign has been held up and one of the security guards is looking at me.

Source: Von der Leyen elected EU Commission head after MEPs vote – BBC News