Saturday, January 4, 2014

Euro Celebrities: Bildt - Dati - Stubb - O'Leary

Carl Bildt - Rachida Dati - Alexander Stubb - Michael O'Leary


The EU's celebrity politicians offer glorious technicolour examples of EU technocracy. Rachida Dati was the one-woman soap opera of French Euro-politics. President Sarkozy's spokeswoman, she was appointed to the French government before becoming too much to handle and being packed off to a seat in the European Parliament. Meanwhile, Carl Bildt, the Swedish foreign minister, and Alexander Stubb, the Europe minister from Finland, take the Nordic reputation for openness just a little too far. (Do just take a look at Stubb's website, and his haunting lycra photos.) As for O'Leary, he's the Ryanair man, so not really a politician. But he displays a fine line in under-dog, man-of-the-people charm coupled with an ability to get rich from EU rules.

With apologies to: aristocratic diplomats; Imelda Marcos; Borat; The Beverley Hillbillies