[petre]

I don't know about the woulds or would nots, I'm not an expert in constitutional law or international treaties. The former head of the CC is the former. I listen to what he has to say. It is what it is. What I can tell you is that the current situation suits me because there are mechanisms in place that make it considerably harder for local politicians to tighten their grip on power and turn my country into a dictatorship again. I will never support eurosceptic parties precisely because of what happened in Poland and Hungary, among other issues like Holocaust denial.

[jollybean]

It's fine that it 'suits you' but that's not what it's about.

If there is no treaty validating ECJ Supremacy, then that's it. Even a 'statement' or 'interpretation' by an Judge or Expert will be called into question.

Also - you may despair in the short run for the authoritative nature of 'Hungary' but there is a much bigger issue and that is the consolidation of power at the EU level.

Hungary has elections for it's leaders.

The EU does not.

You did not vote for Ursula Von Der Leyen. She was not a candidate, and was totally unknown outside Germany before the election. She was not vetted. She had little public history. Voters did not select her.

She was chosen in a backroom deal: "Here is your new President. We selected her for you. You will find about her platform, later, we hope you like it because obviously you didn't vote for it". Ursula von der Layen layed out her vision for EU long after voters even knew who she was.

The EU Treaties only in 2007 even require the selection of the Pres. to even barely take into consideration the 'recommendation' of MEPs, even then, they have no power. MEPs cannot introduce legislation or sanction leaders.

The EU is the least democratic 'layer' of European governance, combined with the fact that it is at the 'top' and sometimes has the most authority, is a pretty scary thing in terms of the balance of power.

So the EU is 'good for dealing with PiS' yes, probably. But there are other, broader issue.

[petre]

That's how the EU works. You vote for a political direction by choosing between EU party groups. The EUCO defines priorities and the political direction of the EU, not the head of the EC. The EPP which Von Der Leyen is part of won the most seats in the EP, David Maria Sassoli is part of the S&D which has the second most seats in the EP and Charles Michel is part of Renew which has the third most seats in the EP. The comissioners are also part of different other EP groups, yet they all work together. It's somehow similar to the UK where you don't vote for Boris Johnson, but for the Conservative Party. The difference is that the EU is almost always led by a coalition, not a single party.

In Russia people vote for the president, but that does not matter much - what matters is who owns the press and counts the votes. Which is exactly what PiS and Fidesz did: they owned the press. And PiS also messed withe the judges and quite openly admitted to having bough spyware which was used to spy on the opposition. That's the difference between the EU, Poland and Hungary.