> They literally just voted it down. Twice in 2 days.

And they will try again tomorrow. Until it passes.

> Also compared to whom?

Why compare? The fact that there are worse regimes than the EU doesn't make the EU even a single bit better. Lesser evil is still evil. Let us strive for good.

> I don't think any EU directive on gay marriage exist

Not an EU directive. This was more a comment about various EU member states, which pushed it against the will of own citizens.

> Which decisions? GDPR? DMA?

Every directive. There was no single directive that had popular support from all member state populations. But the EU regime decides something and boxes it through the EU Commission and then uses the EuGH to force it upon all members.

Examples?

At least some EU regimes and people are against Russian sanctions and Ukraine support, they get bullied until they yield.

Illegal migration: there's no single EU country where the population supports it, yet they all got bullied to accept and support criminal migrants.

Electric cars, CO2, maybe not the majority but many country populations are against it, yet decisions get forced upon every single state.

Now, for every single topic you may say it's an exception, that it must have been like that, but in the end, if the wish of population is ignored on so many levels on so many topics, EU can be seen only as an illegitimate, corrupt regime trying to mess up everything. To the point, that even the Chinese regime feels less invasive, at least they care about the basic needs of the majority of their people.

> Right but thats just the system working as intended?

No, it is a one way street and thus creates an imbalance. EU regimes never push new legislation that gives more rights to their citizens, only try to limit them again and again.

> Gay marriage would still be illegal if unpopular ideas couldn't be reraised.

Gay marriage is a good example. It got passed despite being unpopular. In many countries where it was pushed by force from above, from the EU to the national level, it is still unpopular.

> Democracy is a balance, unfortunately you have to put up with fighting against the shit ideas as well as for the good ones.

The issue with democracy as we have it in the EU is the imbalance of power and responsibility. Given the EU regime's decisions in the last few decades, I consider it just a shell to push unpopular and undemocratic decisions to their member states, so lobbyists don't have to bribe everyone, just the EU regime.