The European Parliament election results were disappointing for democrats and progressives.
Politico sum up their opinion of the results but while the far right did well, they did not do as well as much of the press were predicting; it seems another case of the press overestimating and maybe causing events and trends.
Although Volt increased its representation, it’s decision to join with the Green/EFA group cannot disguise the disappointing result for the Greens. The Greens and VOLT were the most supportive of CTOE’s democracy manifesto.
Sadly another factor in the Green’s decline will be the voters unwillingness to fund programmes towards net zero. EU budgetary politics have been complicated by Brexit as the UK was a net contributor even after the famous rebate. The transfer of competencies to the EU also
The most shocking results were in France and Germany. The National Rally in France won the most seats and President Macron’s response was to call a snap election, in the hope that once presented with the precipice, the French people would step back. Voting is today. In Germany, the SPD, the senior partner in the Government Coalition came 3rd with 13.9% of the vote. DW present the results [by state] with even Berlin turning against the SPD. I hope Germany is copying us from 2019, where there was a massive UKIP vote which would seem to be the apogee of Faragism and is not acting as a forecast for what happens in the UK when a timid Social Democratic government fails to address the cost of living crisis and promotes public debt management policies before the ending of austerity. It should be noted that the AfD is in a permanent state of crisis and even Marine Le Pen finds them undesirable allies where she organised their exclusion from the European parliamentary ID caucus.
More Germans came out to vote in the EU election than at any point since reunification in 1990, with nearly 65% of eligible voters participating.
— DW News (@dwnews) June 10, 2024
The far-right AfD topped the polls in the east, while the center-right CDU/CSU claimed overall victory, with 30% of the vote. pic.twitter.com/0JSTAMd8Za
However, it looks like Von der Leyen has won nomination for a continued mandate as President of the Commission together with Antonio Costa (S&D) as Council President and Kaja Kallas (Renew) for External Affairs. Now we’ll have to see if, she can win a majority in the Parliament. There are some quotes in the article about the danger of excluding the right from office and while attempts have been made to increase the transparency and accountability of the institutions’ leadership and its appointment process; with proportional representation systems the coalition is created after the vote once the popular mandate is established and the right is not united nor in a majority.