• I WAS sorry to see that JE Kirby (Should we pander to those who just don’t like a poll result? Letters, August 16) is misinformed about the election of the president of the European Commission.

It is clearly explained on the European Parliament’s English website thus. Following elections to the European Parliament the president of the European Council, the members of which are the heads of government of the member states, consults the European Parliament and, based on that consultation, proposes a candidate to the European Council, which decides by a qualified majority to accept or reject her or him.

If it rejects then the president has to put forward a candidate the council will accept. The chosen candidate is then voted on by the MEPs, elected by the citizens of the EU, in a secret ballot and, to be appointed, must get the vote of a majority of them. If the candidate does not then the council must find another who can.

It is true therefore that there is only one candidate at a time but not true that MEPs have no choice but to elect her or him as implied by JE Kirby. In the recent election the council’s candidate, Ursula von der Leyen, got a majority receiving 383 votes while there were 327 against her and 27 abstentions.

JE Kirby makes much of the fact that only 700 (737 in fact) people could vote.

They are not 737 people picked at random but MEPs elected by the member states’ citizens. Does legislation passed by the House of Commons lack legitimacy by being passed by 350, or fewer, people?

That surely is how representative democracy works.

Finally we have the common leaver complaint that remainers are unsportingly not accepting the referendum result.

Leavers, by definition, did not accept the 1975 result and, before the 2016 referendum some of their leaders made it clear they would not accept the narrow remain majority they expected.

If I remember rightly Nigel Farage said something like “…52 per cent to 48 per cent is not a done deal”.

Quite.

STEPHEN HORNE
Romilly Road, N4