Parliamentary elections have been
held for the European Union for the first time since 2014. Far-right nationalist, populist, anti-immigrant
and anti-EU parties did well across most of the rest of the EU, winning
pluralities in France, the United Kingdom and Italy, gaining in other Western
European States and winning majorities or at least pluralities in some of the
Eastern European States, but center-right parties won a plurality and
pro-European parties an overall majority.
The “sovereignist” parties are
skeptical of the EU, objecting to the loss of national sovereignty to the
European super-state, are typically opposed to the EU’s austerity policy that
was imposed in response to the debt crisis among many of its members, and
opposed to immigration and sometimes even to asylum for refugees. The rescuing and processing of migrants,
although down sharply from the last few years, has created some fiscal hardships for southern
EU members, while the freedom of movement across the EU has led to economic and
cultural resentments that are exploited by the far-right populists, despite the
need for more laborers because of declining birth rates. Although these parties are nationalist, they
have made international common cause with like-minded parties and are often
pro-Russian, as Russian Federation authoritarian and kleptocratic tyrant
Vladimir Putin supports these far-right parties, in addition to backing
far-left ones, in order to foster divisions between Europeans to weaken the EU
and the West.
The
scattering of votes for parties other than far-right ones varied. In France , the ruling centrists nearly
tied the far-right, which is an encouraging result for them for the next French
parliamentary elections, with center-right and the Socialist parties much
farther behind. In the UK, the ruling Conservatives
suffered a humiliatingly low vote total while center-left to left parties
earned the next most votes combined after the anti-EU populists. The British participated for the last time in
the EU parliamentary elections before the deadline for the UK to leave the EU. The EU elections were seen as a referendum
for hardliners demanding a withdrawal, with or without a deal for an orderly
departure. In Italy, the center-left,
which had won the most votes in the last elections, came in second with less
than a quarter of the votes, but ahead of the ruling populists who earned only
half as many votes as the far-right party, while the main center-right party
lost a significant number of seats. The
elections were seen as a referendum on the far-right party, which is the junior
partner in a tense coalition government with the populists. In Spain , the ruling Socialists
obtained a plurality of votes, but the two center-right parties combined for
more votes, despite gains by a far-right party that finished a distant fourth.
The Netherlands and Austria were notable exceptions to
the wave for far-right nationalist parties.
The Dutch far-right party was shut out of the European Parliament, with the
two main center-right parties, including the ruling party, winning a combined
plurality and the main center-left party earning the most votes for a single
party. The Austrian far-right party lost
seats in the EU Parliament after all of its members resigned from the Government,
of which it was the junior party in a coalition, following the revelation that
the nationalist Vice Chancellor had intended to accept campaign contributions
from the Russian Federation . The ruling center-right party gained seats
while the center-left lost. Today, the
Prime Minister lost a vote of confidence without the support of his erstwhile
coalition partners, which will lead to new parliamentary elections.
Another
consequence of the EU parliamentary elections is that the far-left Prime
Minister of Greece today asked for new elections after being defeated by the
conservatives.
Overall, the
far-right and other allied populists will form a large bloc of the majority of
seats held by parties on the right side of the political spectrum in the
European Parliament, but the main bloc of center-right parties alone won a
plurality of seats in the body, thanks in significant part to their strong
showing in Germany, the EU member with the most seats, while parties on the
left side of the spectrum fell short of an overall majority, despite advances
by the Greens, with the main bloc of center-left parties coming in second. Other far-left parties generally did not fare
well. Pro-European parties across the center
of the spectrum won many more seats than anti-EU populist parties of both the
far right and left.
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