Liczba wyświetleń: 461
One of the main events in the political life of Europe took place. The elections to the European Parliament were held.
In general, I note that the main trend has been the loss of confidence in most countries of traditional pro-European parties, which have defined the direction of European foreign and domestic policy in recent decades.
Separately, I would like to dwell on the results of elections in the UK, since the redistribution of seats in the European Parliament and the possibility of further coalition formation depend on the implementation of the Brexit procedure, which will significantly affect the political course of the European Union.
The Conservative Party in the most conservative European country received only 9% of the vote (it took fifth place), whereas just two years ago in the British general election, the Tories had a figure of 42%. Similar results were shown by the Labor Party, which received 14% of the vote (in 2017 it had 40%). The convincing victory in the country was won by the party Brexit. For it voted 32% of voters. In general, voting in the UK showed that about 40% of the votes were received by the parties that advocate to stay in the EU (green and liberal democrats), 35% of voters cast their votes for the parties supporting withdrawal from the EU. And the traditional Tories and the Labor Party, who consider it necessary to withdraw from the EU with the agreement, received in total only 23% of the vote. The collapse of votes showed the population’s discontent with the fluctuations of the parliament, which was unable to formulate a unified policy that would be supported by the majority in the House of Commons.
The economic aspect of the British problem is as follows. The country has decided to leave the EU. But to stay on the single trading market. Leaving the union, London loses the right of a decisive vote and will not be able to influence on the rules of trade in the EU markets, which will lead to losses in the national economy. At the same time, the British Parliament demonstrated its inability to fulfill the promise made by the main parties two years ago to withdraw from the EU with the agreement, which led to the biggest shock of the national political system over the past decades. The newly appointed prime minister is likely to offer a withdrawal from the EU without a deal, but the parliament will not support such a decision, which will lead to the appointment of new general elections.
Changing public opinion is typical for most European countries. A total of 751 deputies were elected. According to the results of the voting, the European People’s Party, which received 180 seats, became the leader. 145 mandates received the Bloc of Socialists and Democrats. The Alliance of European Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) will be represented by 109 deputies. They are followed by the Greens (70 places). Euroskeptics received 60 mandates, and the Marine Le Pen party “The Europe of Nations and Freedoms” received 58 votes. This distribution of deputy seats has led to a large fragmentation of the new parliament. Now the formation of a coalition will be, if not impossible, then very difficult. If earlier the basic agreements were reached between the right and left-centrists, now it’s impossible to do without greens and liberals. The current composition of the parliament says that Euro-skeptics will at best get less than a third of the votes.
Elections have shown a change in the contingent of voters, as well as a certain perception of social values. So, more and more young people are politically active. And with their arrival at polling stations, the Social Democrats receive less and less support. It is becoming more difficult for them to find a common language with the modern generation. Because of this, for example in Germany, they even lag behind the green ones.
Euroskeptics, who displayed quite large ambitions, gained about 170 seats in the new parliament. These include the British party Brexit, the Polish “Law and Justice”, the German “Alternative for Germany”, the French “National Unity”, the Italian “Movement of Five Stars”. Euroscepticism is probably the only idea that brings together very heterogeneous parties. For this reason, they will continue to remain in the minority in parliament. After Britain’s withdrawal from the EU, its seats will be redistributed, and the number of euro-skeptics will further decrease.
It turns out that in general, the direction of European politics will be determined by centrists with some participation of greens and liberals. However, in some countries, the ruling parties will have to make concessions to the right-wing parties. In particular, this will affect a number of burning issues, such as the implementation of migration policy.
The election results surprised many. It is quite expected that Eurocentrists lost many positions. But euro skeptics have not found the desired majority. Most likely, the current situation will not allow, at least in the foreseeable future, reaching parties that are satisfied with all the inter-party agreements. And this will negatively affect the coherence of the EU policy as a whole. And how quickly the parties will be able to achieve common approaches will affect the weight of the European Union in world politics. Either it will be considered as a single organism, or it may seek agreements with individual countries, parties and associations.
Authorship: Vitaliy Timoschuk
Source: WolneMedia.net
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