WHO IS RUNNING EUROPE? - The Unelected Empress, 25,000 Lobbyists, and Your Money Feeding Corporate Giants

You think you live in a democracy. You think your vote matters. You think elected leaders run Europe. Wrong. Europe is run by an unelected German bureaucrat who won't release her text messages, 25,000 corporate lobbyists spending €343 million a year, and a system designed specifically to eliminate your voice. Welcome to the Brussels machine, where your taxes fund corporate profits and democracy goes to die.

Ask any European: Who runs the EU?

Most will say "Brussels." Some will name Ursula von der Leyen. A few might mention the European Parliament.

But here's what nobody will tell you: You don't elect the people making your laws. The European Parliament, the only body you actually vote for, can't even propose legislation. That power belongs exclusively to the European Commission: 27 unelected commissioners and 32,000 bureaucrats who answer to no one.

And at the top of this pyramid? Ursula von der Leyen. Failed German defense minister. Appointed, not elected. Running Europe like a personal fiefdom. Centralizing intelligence services under her control. Refusing to appear before Parliament. Building a "consiglieri" system, literal mafia terminology used by the EU's own transparency chief.

And at the top of this pyramid? Ursula von der Leyen. Failed German defense minister turned unelected empress. Appointed, not elected. Running Europe like a personal fiefdom.

But von der Leyen isn't working alone. She's got 25,000 lobbyists spending record sums to write Europe's rules. Big Tech alone: €151 million annually, up 50% in four years. The top 162 corporations and trade associations: €343 million per year, 13% more than last year.

And where's all this money going? To make sure EU policy serves corporate profits while you pay for it through taxes, austerity, and regulations that crush small businesses while feeding giants.

This isn't democracy. It's corporate feudalism with a blue flag and twelve golden stars.

The Unelected Empress: Ursula's Power Grab

Let's start with the woman actually running Europe.

Ursula von der Leyen. President of the European Commission. The world's most powerful woman, according to Forbes. And you didn't vote for her.

Oh, the EU will tell you she's "elected." Technically, the European Parliament approved her. But you know who nominated her? The European Council, heads of state meeting behind closed doors. You know who really picked her? Angela Merkel. Classic nepotism.

Von der Leyen's German political career was a disaster. As defense minister, she left the Bundeswehr in "catastrophic" condition, according to former minister Rupert Scholz. Equipment didn't work. Morale collapsed. Scandals multiplied. So Merkel shipped her to Brussels where failure gets rewarded with more power.

And von der Leyen? She's consolidating like it's going out of style.

But von der Leyen isn't working alone. She's perfected the playbook we exposed in The Fear Machine-using crisis to centralize power while eliminating democratic oversight.

November 2025: She launches a new EU intelligence structure under her personal control. Not under the External Action Service where it belongs. Under her. In the Commission. The unelected head of the European Commission now commands intelligence operations that bypass national oversight.

As one source told the Financial Times, member states are "likely to oppose" this power grab. But von der Leyen doesn't give a fuck. She's building it anyway.

The Democracy Shield: Von der Leyen's latest Orwellian masterpiece. Officially, it's to "protect democracy" from disinformation. In reality? A censorship machine. A Ministry of Truth. Funded by you, controlled by Brussels, designed to police speech and manipulate narratives.

The initiative proposes a Monitoring Centre to identify and remove "false content" from the internet. But who decides what's false? The same institutions that spread COVID fear-porn, pushed vaccine mandates, and now tell you Russia's about to invade Poland.

Von der Leyen claimed Russia jammed her plane's GPS. Analysts debunked it immediately. The BBC edited Trump speeches to make them look extreme. But Brussels wants to be the arbiter of truth.

The Pfizer Scandal: Remember those €71 billion in vaccine contracts von der Leyen negotiated during COVID? The texts with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla that mysteriously disappeared? The European Court of Justice ruled von der Leyen's deletion of those messages was illegal. Her office still refuses to release them.

No consequences. No accountability. Just more power.

This is how Brussels works. Scandals break. Courts rule. Nothing changes. Because the system isn't designed for accountability. It's designed to protect itself.

The Corporate Army: 25,000 Lobbyists Writing Your Laws

Now let's talk about who's really writing EU policy.

25,000 lobbyists operate regularly in Brussels. That's more lobbyists than there are EU parliamentarians and commissioners combined. Another 10,000-15,000 work elsewhere in Europe, occasionally influencing Brussels decisions.

Total: Over 35,000 professional influence-peddlers making Brussels the world's second-largest lobbying hub after Washington D.C.

And they're not fucking around with pocket change.

€343 million per year declared by the top 162 corporations and trade associations spending over €1 million each on EU lobbying. That's a €41 million increase just in the last year. A €86 million increase since 2020.

But those numbers? Massive underestimates. The EU's Transparency Register is voluntary and riddled with inaccurate data. Many corporations under-report. Some don't report at all. The real total is significantly higher.

Big Tech: The New Masters

Tech companies are outspending everyone. €151 million annually, up 50% in just four years.

The top 10 tech spenders:

• Meta: Over €10 million
• Microsoft: €8+ million
• Apple, Amazon, Google, Qualcomm: Millions each
• DigitalEurope (industry lobby group): €3.5 million

Combined, these tech giants spend three times more than the top pharmaceutical companies, twice as much as the energy sector, and dwarf automotive and financial industries.

And it's working. Between January and June 2025, Big Tech held 146 meetings with EU Commission officials, averaging more than one per day. Amazon led with 43 meetings. Microsoft: 36. Google: 35. Apple: 29. Meta: 27.

What were they lobbying for? To weaken or delay the AI Act, the Digital Markets Act, and the Digital Services Act. Regulations designed to rein in their power. And they're winning, calls for "simplification" and "pausing" implementation are gaining traction, with Trump administration backing.

890 full-time lobbyists now work on EU digital policy. That's more than the 720 Members of the European Parliament. Of those 890, 437 hold lobbyist passes granting nearly unrestricted access to Parliament buildings.

Think about that. Corporate lobbyists have more people with Parliament access than elected representatives.

"Corporate Europe Observatory"

The Influence Machine

But direct lobbying is just the start. Tech giants spend over €9 million annually on consultancy firms, PR agencies, and think tanks to amplify their message.

Bruegel, Centre for European Reform, CEPS, CERRE, all major Brussels think tanks, now receive funding from all five digital giants: Google, Meta, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft.

When these think tanks publish "independent research" supporting Big Tech positions, guess who's funding them? The same companies benefiting from the conclusions.

It's intellectual capture. And it works.

"EU Transparency Register"

The Democracy Deficit: By Design, Not Accident

Here's what EU defenders won't admit: The democratic deficit isn't a bug. It's the entire fucking point.

The EU was deliberately structured to move power away from nation-states, where citizens have some voice, to Brussels, where they have none.

The European Commission is the only body that can propose laws. Not the Parliament. Not the Council. Just the Commission. 32,000 unelected bureaucrats with exclusive legislative initiative.

The Parliament, your only elected representation, can't propose shit. They can amend. They can veto. But they can't write laws. That privilege belongs to bureaucrats you never voted for.

And those bureaucrats? Heavily influenced by corporate lobbyists. 75% of lobby meetings with Commissioners and high-level officials are with representatives of big business. In financial regulation, internal market policy, and international trade, that figure rises to over 80%.

You want to know why EU policy favors corporations over citizens? Because corporations write the fucking policy.

The Green Deal: Corporate Welfare Disguised as Climate Action

Take the European Green Deal. Sold as environmental salvation. Actually? A €1 trillion wealth transfer from taxpayers to corporations.

Von der Leyen's "Clean Industrial Deal" is pure corporate capture. Industry wish-list becomes policy. Subsidies flow. Regulations favor big players who can afford compliance while crushing small competitors.

Companies face fines up to €40 million or 5% of global turnover for environmental violations. Individuals: up to 10 years in prison. But who writes the regulations determining what counts as a violation? The same corporations being regulated, through their €343 million lobbying machine.

Take the European Green Deal. Sold as environmental salvation. Actually? A €1 trillion wealth transfer from taxpayers to corporations—part of the climate control mechanism we documented.

It's a protection racket. Big corporations lobby for regulations they can handle. Small businesses can't comply. Competition dies. Markets consolidate. And you, the citizen, pay through higher prices, fewer choices, and taxes funding "green investments" that enrich shareholders.

Meanwhile, member states that resist Brussels' climate mandates get sanctioned. Hungary, Poland, others trying to maintain energy sovereignty? Attacked as "climate criminals" while Germany quietly restarts coal plants.

The Revolving Door: Brussels' Mafia Playbook

Want to understand how the system really works? Follow the revolving door.

One third of Commissioners leaving office in 2014 went straight into industry lobbying jobs. Commission President Barroso? Joined Goldman Sachs. Commissioner Neelie Kroes? Moved to Uber and Bank of America.

They regulate industries. Build relationships with corporate lobbyists. Then cash in by joining those same industries. It's legalized corruption.

And it goes both ways. Lobbyists join the Commission. Commissioners become lobbyists. The line between regulator and regulated disappears. The EU's own transparency chief described the Commission as staffed with "consiglieri", mafia terminology.

Where the gang consists of consiglieri, the boss must be a don. And von der Leyen? She's the don.

What You're Paying For

Let's be specific about where your money goes.

EU Budget 2024: €189.3 billion. Funded by member state contributions, meaning your taxes. Where does it go?

Agriculture subsidies: Billions to big agribusiness. Small farmers? Get crushed by regulations they can't afford while industrial farms rake in EU cash.

Structural funds: Money supposedly for regional development. Actually funds infrastructure projects benefiting corporations relocating to low-wage Eastern European countries.

Green Deal spending: €1 trillion over time. Corporate subsidies for "clean energy" investments that enrich shareholders while citizens pay higher energy costs.

Defense spending: €381 billion in 2025 alone. Weapons manufacturers posting record profits while you're told there's no money for healthcare or pensions.

Member states exempted €650 billion in off-the-books military spending from fiscal rules. As detailed in The Shadow Army, this permanent militarization serves corporate profits, not security.

Bureaucracy: 32,000 Commission employees. Thousands more in agencies, Parliament, Council. All paid from your taxes. All immune from national oversight.

And the kicker? Member states exempted €650 billion in off-the-books military spending from fiscal rules while cutting social services to meet deficit targets. Defense contractors get billions. Your grandmother's pension gets cut.

The Measures That Do Nothing (Except Enrich Corporations)

You've been sold a litany of EU policies as necessary, urgent, vital. Most do fuck-all except feed corporate profits.

Digital Services Act: Sold as protecting users from harmful content. Actually? Gives Big Tech veto power over implementation while crushing small platforms that can't afford compliance costs.

AI Act: Supposed to regulate dangerous AI. In reality? Big Tech lobbying hard to water it down, pause it, delay it. Meanwhile, regulations favor large players with resources to comply.

Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism: Sounds green. Actually protects EU corporations from foreign competition while doing nothing for climate.

GDPR: Promised to protect your privacy. Result? Only Big Tech can afford compliance. Small competitors died. Market concentration increased. Your data? Still harvested, just with a cookie banner.

Every major EU regulation follows the same pattern:

1. Brussels announces "crisis" requiring urgent action
2. Commission drafts legislation in consultation with corporate lobbyists
3. Parliament rubber-stamps with amendments corporate lobbyists approve
4. Big corporations comply easily (they wrote the rules)
5. Small businesses die from compliance costs
6. Market consolidation increases
7. Citizens pay more for less choice

It's regulatory capture on an industrial scale. And you're funding it.

Where Europe Is Going: Techno-Authoritarian Corporate State

So where is this all headed?

More centralization. Von der Leyen's building an intelligence apparatus. Brussels keeps demanding more power over member states. The goal is a United States of Europe run by unelected bureaucrats.

More surveillance. The Democracy Shield is just the start. Digital identity systems. Health certificates. Financial monitoring. Biometric databases. All justified by "safety" and "security." All building infrastructure for total control.

More corporate power. As long as €343+ million buys policy, corporations will keep winning. Markets will keep consolidating. Small businesses will keep dying. Your choices will keep shrinking.

Less democracy. The democratic deficit will grow, not shrink. More decisions behind closed doors. More power to unelected bureaucrats. More policies written by lobbyists. Less accountability.

Permanent crisis. COVID taught them the formula: declare emergency, centralize power, never give it back. Climate is permanent crisis. War is permanent crisis. Migration is permanent crisis. Each one justifies more Brussels control.

The endgame isn't a democratic federation. It's techno-authoritarian corporatism. Unelected bureaucrats and corporate lobbyists making decisions. Citizens reduced to consumers and data points. National sovereignty dead. Democracy a memory.

And if you object? You're spreading "disinformation." The Democracy Shield will flag your content. The Monitoring Centre will remove it. And Brussels will call it protecting democracy.

The Lie They Keep Telling

"The EU is imperfect but reformable."

Bullshit.

You can't reform a system designed to eliminate democracy. You can't fix an institution structured to centralize power away from citizens. You can't clean up corruption when the revolving door is built into the architecture.

The EU isn't malfunctioning. It's functioning exactly as designed. Power flows up to Brussels. Money flows to corporations. Accountability disappears. And citizens? You get the bill.

Member states tried reform. Lisbon Treaty, 2007. Supposed to fix the democratic deficit. Result? More centralization. More power to the Commission. Less national sovereignty.

Every "reform" makes it worse. Because the EU's purpose isn't to serve citizens. It's to eliminate the nation-state as a locus of democratic power and replace it with technocratic management.

Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek finance minister, left-wing economist, said it plainly in Budapest: "What the hell is the European Commission anyway? Just look at its President: a failed defense minister in her homeland, who has no future in German politics. So, Angela Merkel decided she would be president of the European Commission. This is classic nepotism, and a perfect illustration of the democratic deficit in the heart of Europe."

His conclusion? "We either need a normal European Union, a democratic alliance of states where EU citizens elect a federal government, or we should forget the entire project as it is."

He's right. The current system is unreformable. It's democracy-proof by design.

Who Benefits?

Not you. That's for fucking sure.

Corporations benefit. €343 million in lobbying buys policies that increase profits, eliminate competition, and socialize costs while privatizing gains.

Big Tech benefits. €151 million secures control over digital regulation, allowing continued monopoly power and data extraction.

Defense contractors benefit. €381 billion in annual spending, rising. Wars that never end. Peace talks that always fail. Profit forever.

Bureaucrats benefit. 32,000 Commission jobs. Pensions. Diplomatic immunity. Power without accountability. Cushy post-government lobbying gigs.

Von der Leyen benefits. Failed in Germany. Appointed by Merkel. Now runs Europe without democratic oversight. Building intelligence services under personal control. Erasing embarrassing texts. No consequences. Just more power.

Who loses?

You. The citizen. The taxpayer. The voter whose vote means nothing because the people making laws weren't on your ballot.

You pay the taxes. You follow the regulations. You absorb the costs. You watch your living standards decline while von der Leyen flies around posing as "the leader of Europe" and corporations post record profits.

And when you complain? You're told it's for your own good. Climate. Security. Stability. Unity. Whatever bullshit justification works that day.

The Question Nobody's Asking

If this is democracy, why do you have no power?

If this is representation, why don't you recognize your representatives?

If this is for your benefit, why do corporations profit while you pay?

The answer is simple: This isn't democracy. It never was.

The EU is a post-democratic experiment. A technocracy. Corporate feudalism with a progressive veneer. And it's working exactly as intended, for those at the top.

Von der Leyen's not a bug. She's the feature. The lobbying isn't corruption. It's the business model. The democratic deficit isn't a failure. It's the foundation.

You were never supposed to have power in this system. You were supposed to consent to it. Wave the blue flag. Believe in "European values." Accept that unelected experts know better than you.

And most of all? Keep paying. Because the machine needs feeding. And you, the European citizen, are the fuel.

What Happens Next

This system has two possible endings:

Option 1: Citizens wake up. Demand actual democracy. Force member states to either radically reform the EU into a genuine federation with elected leadership and accountability, or dismantle it and return power to nation-states.

Option 2: The system continues. More centralization. More surveillance. More corporate control. More crisis justifying more emergency powers. Democracy dies by degrees while citizens distract themselves with consumption and entertainment.

Right now? We're firmly on the path to Option 2.

Because the people benefiting from this system, von der Leyen, the commissioners, the lobbyists, the corporations, they're not letting go. Not without a fight.

And the fight requires citizens to recognize they're not in a democracy. They're subjects in a corporate technocracy that occasionally lets them vote for a powerless parliament.

The first step to fixing this? Stop pretending it's democracy.

The EU is run by an unelected empress, 25,000 lobbyists, and 32,000 bureaucrats who answer to corporations instead of citizens.

Your vote doesn't matter because the people making laws weren't on your ballot.

Your voice doesn't matter because policy is written behind closed doors by people spending €343 million to ensure it serves corporate interests.

Your consent doesn't matter because the system was designed to function without it.

This is the Brussels machine. And until Europeans stop believing in it, nothing changes.

You want to know who the fuck is running Europe?

Not you. Never you.

And that's exactly how they want it.

A. Kade

"Democracy is the fiction they sell you. Technocracy is what they deliver. And corporate capture is what you get for trusting that the EU was ever about anything except eliminating your power to choose."

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Related Articles You Must Read:

EU Power & Control:

• Ursula von der Leyen: The Empress of Clean Hands and Dirty Politics - How von der Leyen built an empire behind a motherly smile
• The Fear Machine: How Brussels Uses Crisis to Control - Every crisis expands EU power while democracy dies
• Brussels vs Democracy: The €140 Billion Russian Money Heist - How the EU weaponizes frozen assets

Corporate Capture:

• Green Money, Grey Influence: How Brussels Funds Its Own Lobby - EU funds slipped into private influence
• Law-Making for Sale: How America Writes Europe's Tech Code - Tech giants writing EU policy

The System Exposed:

• The Shadow Army: Inside the EU's €120 Billion War Chest - Military spending without public consent
• Brussels vs Hungary: The Empire and Its Rebel - What happens when you disobey Brussels