Far Right, Euroskeptics Make Big Gains In EU Vote

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

May 25, 2014 11:42 PM
By Mike Corder / Associated Press

BRUSSELS -- Far-right and Euroskeptic parties made sweeping gains in European Parliament elections Sunday -- triggering what one prime minister called a political "earthquake" by those who want to slash the powers of the European Union or abolish it altogether.

Voters in 21 of the EU's 28 nations went to the polls Sunday, choosing lawmakers for the bloc's 751-seat legislature. The other seven countries in the bloc already had voted in a sprawling exercise of democracy that began Thursday in Britain and the Netherlands.

One of the most significant winners was France's far-right National Front party, which was the outright winner in France with 26 percent support-- or 4.1 million votes.

"The sovereign people have spoken ... acclaiming they want to take back the reins of their destiny," party leader Marine Le Pen said in a statement.



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/news/world/2014/05/26/Far-right-Euroskeptics-make-big-gains-in-EU-vote/stories/201405260101#ixzz32n8MnDjq

[ballyhoo]

1. That National Front Party win was amazing. Could

not believe it.

[blkmusclmachine]

2. Who's "counting" the votes?!?!

[ballyhoo]

3. No idea. Hard to follow anymore.

[fujiyama]

5. Why is this so hard to believe?

France's Front National almost won the French presidency a few years ago.

There's a nasty xenophobic streak through much of European politics (and French in particular). I know that's hard to believe for all the Europhiles on this site. Blaming this on the "counting of the votes" isn't going to cut it. Sorry.

[Scootaloo]

10. Well, no, when you realize that Europe mostly hates Muslims and brown people...

it ends up looking very similar to DU.

[2naSalit]

4. Since I

only understand the peripheral arguments, I hope it turns out to be a positive shift.

[ucrdem]

7. National Front is pretty out there

What exactly this means for the EU though is hard to predict. It seems to be a reaction against austerity which people are pretty fed up with but as for other issues like immigration it's probably not a good thing.

[dipsydoodle]

13. In places its the inter relationship between austerity and immigration.

.

[2naSalit]

23. Thanks

I'll have to do some reading and getting in touch with my European friends... from several countries. I've been a little isolated lately.

I have been rather horrified at the austerity moves of the past couple/few years.

[ucrdem]

6. Just posted a France update here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014811755

ETA - Never mind, self-deleted, already posted

[1000words]

8. Ah, the fruits of austerity.

Dark clouds continue to gather ...

[joshcryer]

9. Strange how the US is getting more liberal.

As EU falls into the nationalist trap.

[villager]

11. maybe they'll have war with fascists and we'll have a new deal

n/t

[joshcryer]

12. Likely.

Look at US demographics. It's about to get crazy. US, far left, South America, right-populist, EU, right-populist, China, state-capitalist, India, far right.

It's like, literally, the US doing the opposite of how the world is going. Craziness. I'm serious.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. "US, far left" ???

The US does not show any sign of going anywhere beyond centre-left at the most.

[theHandpuppet]

15. Yeah, I'd agree

Center-left at most. Still, the Tea Party made its push and lost -- thankfully. But I haven't seen a corresponding shift to the left.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. The Republicans are pretty far right these days, though

To win their primaries, a lot of Republicans take some pretty far right positions. Immigration reform, that 'mainstream' Republicans like Dubya and McCain wanted to do (at times, anyway), has been pushed aside. The Tea Party has shifted the Republican 'window' further right.

[theHandpuppet]

19. The moderate republican has gone the way of the dinosaurs

I'm rather surprised another "party" hasn't staked out is claim in the presence of this political vacuum but I suspect it would most likely be comprised of conservative Democrats.

[octoberlib]

21. Republicans are still extremists whether the Tea Party's involved or not.

I point to North Carolina as proof. They've still got a grip on a number of states.

[joshcryer]

24. Look at drugs, gay marriage, immigration.

Complete opposite of the rest of the world.

[muriel_volestrangler]

26. I don't see anything 'far left' about the US's attitude to those

Gay marriage is a highly divisive issue in the US; more so than in Europe, where it's happening with far less controversy. Some US states are getting liberal (not 'far left') on some drugs, but then, so are some European countries (eg Portugal) or some South American (eg Uruguay). On immigration, the US have shelved reform - the influence of Tea Party types is still very strong. You can't call it 'far left'.

[LeftishBrit]

30. 16 countries allow same-sex marriage, as do some states within the USA, and within Mexico

As regards drugs, the USA still keeps to the drug wars, unless you live in Colorado or Washington. The most liberal country with regard to cannabis is Uruguay of all places. There are a number of countries where cannabis is technically illegal but decriminalized.

Immigration? I wouldn't say that the USA is more liberal on immigration than many other countries.

[LeftishBrit]

28. How is the US 'far left'?

President Obama is centre-left at most ; and much of Congress is pretty far right, as are many governors. Indeed, I can't think of a single mainstream American politician, not even Bernie Sanders, whom I would call far left.

South American countries are hugely diverse in every possible way, with leaders ranging from pretty far-left to pretty far-right.

'EU right-populist'? Not really. There has been a recent rise in populist-right anti-EU parties; but, whatever some of the media may suggest, they do not rule the EU countries, but represent a worrying large but still definite minority. Some countries in Eastern Europe are strongly dominated by the far Right; but on the whole, the countries of Western Europe are ruled by either the centre-left or centre-right.

China, state-capitalist - Yes, I'd agree on that.

India, far right - Yes, sadly this seems to describe the current national government, though certainly not all the citizens, or all the state or local governments, in that huge country.

[joshcryer]

29. I'm talking trajectory.

[seveneyes]

17. Did the British soldier getting beheadded by Muslims on the city street assist in this?

I wonder how much of this vote was influenced by extremism committed by immigrants?

[unreadierLizard]

18. Can't bring that up though.

If you do, dats wacist!

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. No, I don't think so

That was on the 22nd May 2013; UKIP's rise had started before that - eg the Eastleigh by-election, 28th Feb 2013, in which their share of the vote increased from 3.6% in the 2010 general election to 27.8%, or the 2013 county council elections, in which they went from 8 seats to 147, and got 22% of the vote.

UKIP's anti-immigration rhetoric is aimed mainly at (white) Europeans - Romanians especially at the moment. The party that was explicitly racist - the BNP - has actually collapsed over the past few years (from over 6% in the 2009 European elections to 1% this time). UKIP concentrates on fearmongering about immigrants taking jobs or benefits, and using resources like schools and hospitals.

[dipsydoodle]

22. Nope - that's not the issue here : its uncontrolled immigration in general.

He's a UK citizen anyway.

The issue is the general one of immigration particularly with respect to payment of benefits and in the UK use of our NHS. The open borders policy with regard to EU labour had expectations of skilled labour movement with those involved earning money in the adopted state , paying taxes and spending their earning in that state thus further helping the economy.

It WAS NOT taking a low paid unskilled job, receiving tax credits and child allowances for children not even living in the UK, and shipping earnings and benefits back to the home country.

Issues are becoming apparent in Germany too :

(Reuters) - Net immigration to Germany leapt by over 18 percent to a 20-year high in 2013, fuelled largely by migrants from euro zone debt-crisis states Italy and Spain as well as a continued influx of Poles, data from the Statistics Office showed on Thursday.

With Germany's population shrinking and ageing, industry has actively called for immigration to help fill the gaps. But abuse of the welfare system has also been a hot topic, especially before European Parliament elections this week.

>

But welfare abuse by immigrants has been an issue in campaigning for this weekend's European Parliament elections.

"The EU is not a welfare union," Chancellor Angela Merkel was quoted as saying on Thursday, just as voting kicked off in the Netherlands and Britain. Germans go to the polls on Sunday along with most other EU member states.

The news website Spiegel Online quoted Merkel as saying Germany wanted to limit the payment of unemployment benefits to EU citizens who had come to Germany to seek work.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/22/us-germany-immigration-idUSBREA4L0SK20140522

[pampango]

25. That's what UKIP claims. That does not mean that all UK citizens agree with UKIP.

While it increased its vote total significantly, it is not exactly a majority party.

[LeftishBrit]

31. As a Brit, that had very little to do with it.

The economic mess, an increasing distrust of the mainstream parties, and a longstanding dislike of immigrants and foreigners by many Brits (by longstanding, I mean hundreds of years), which can be manipulated by ambitious politicians, all contributed. And the equivalent in a number of other countries. It should also be remembered that only about a third of people bother to vote in Europaean elections, and those who do, are often those with unrepresentatively strong views on many issues.

By the way, the murderers of Lee Rigby were not immigrants: they were born in Britain, of Nigerian descent. They were not originally Muslims either, but converted to Islam.

[elzenmahn]

27. This is entirely consistent with what happens...

...when a desperate population, under the weight of "austerity" and decreasing standards of living with no end in sight, voices its desperation through the ballot box (and in the streets). The right wing's authoritarianism begins to look appealing in these dire straits.

And don't think that the Right Wing in America doesn't know this.