Through a combination of canniness and capitulation, Tonio Borg was approved last week as the new European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection. The final vote was 386-281 with 28 abstentions.
As I noted in these pages , faithful Catholics feared that a coalition of atheists and leftists would scuttle the Borg nomination over his views on abortion and homosexuality. The left avoided wide-spread criticism by not asking Borg any explicitly religious question such as those posed to Rocco Buttiglione, whether he agreed with the Catholic Church on homosexuality.
Borg expertly placed the life issues into the competence of the E.U. Member States based on the principle of subsidiarily. On the question of gays, Borg seemed to capitulate saying homophobia should be hunted down in each and every remote corner of the European Union and quashed. This made his pro-family supporters squeamish but pleased enough of the left that his nomination was saved.
Borg joins 26 other “Commissioners” as the rulers of Europe on what is perhaps the least democratic “democratic” body on Earth.
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