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http://www.dw.de/opinion-election-results-putting-pressure-on-eu/a-18477600
The European Union is skidding further toward a political crisis. Skepticism is growing across the bloc and the willingness to reform is ebbing, warns DW's Bernd Riegert.
Opinion: Election results putting pressure on EU
26.05.2015
The latest election victories by Euroskeptics in Poland, Spain, the UK, and Finland should make it clear to all the integration romantics: the European Union has massive problems that are only likely to get worse in the coming months.
Tremors are coming from a host of member states - for different reasons. At the core of the EU - in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and parts of France - governments are hoping for business as usual. But that won't be enough to keep things together. The forces at work are too powerful.
Pressure from left and right
The radical left government in Greece is constantly facing bankruptcy and a possible exit from the eurozone. The UK is holding a referendum about membership in the EU with an uncertain outcome. Leftist movements are growing in Spain and Portugal, putting pressure on the conservative proponents of past EU policy, and in Poland, there's been a surprising win by a presidential candidate who is just as Euroskeptic as the Brits. Poland's autumn parliamentary elections could put Euroskeptics back in power.
For the first time, a party that is critical of the EU is part of the government in Finland. Hungary is being governed by a Euroskeptic who has already described the president of the European Commission as a dictator – if only in jest. Only Italy's socialist prime minister has successfully managed to rein in the Euroskeptics. What's going on with the good old EU? Critics from both the right and left are running rampant.