This comment about the EU has gone viral tonight after the scenes in Poland

All of this is permitted — as long as you’re on the right side of the European Commission.  Alex Armstrong

• UK: You can try to cancel local elections you know you’ll lose.
• ROMANIA: You can annul an election and bar the winner from running again.
• HUNGARY: You can permanently ban your opponents from standing.
• GERMANY: You can threaten to ban the main opposition party and unleash the secret police on it.
• FRANCE: You can threaten to ban the leading presidential candidate and force them to wear an ankle monitor.
• SPAIN: You can have every ally of your rivals investigated for corruption.
• POLAND: And you can send riot police to seize the constitutional court because you want to control it.

All of this is permitted — as long as you’re on the right side of the European Commission.