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| Europe |
| Europe leans right as voters choose EU Parliament |
| 2009-06-07 |
| Europe was leaning to the right Sunday as tens of millions of people voted in European Parliament elections, with conservative parties favored in many countries against a backdrop of economic crisis. Opinion polling showed right-leaning governments with edges over their opposition in Germany, Italy, France, Belgium and elsewhere. Conservative opposition parties were tied or ahead in Britain, Spain and some smaller countries. "It is a paradox, really. It shows how divided the center-left forces are at the moment. Normally sitting governments are punished at European elections," said Jackie Davis, an analyst at the European Policy Centre in Brussels. The EU parliament has evolved over five decades from a consultative legislature to one with the power to vote on or amend two-thirds of all EU laws. It has 736 seats and lawmakers serve for five-year terms. Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands and five other EU nations cast ballots in the last three days, while the rest of the 27-nation bloc voted Sunday. Results for most countries were expected Sunday night. For many, the Europe-wide elections were most important as a snapshot of national political sentiment. High unemployment across Europe has increased voter dissatisfaction with mainstream national parties, and skepticism over the EU's power to help spur economic recovery. Polls predicted record low turnout and small but symbolically important gains for far-right groups and other fringe parties. Groups like the all-white British National Party could use their EU parliament seats as a platform for their extremist views. But they were not expected to affect the assembly's increasingly influential lawmaking on issues ranging from climate change to cell-phone roaming charges. The parliament can also amend the EU budget -- euro120 billion ($170 billion) this year -- and approves candidates for the European Commission, the EU administration and the board of the European Central Bank. Still, many voters Polls ahead of Sunday's vote showed German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats leading the center-left Social Democrats in Germany, which holds national elections in September. Merkel hopes to form a center-right government after the national vote with the pro-business Free Democrats. Voters in Germany are more concerned about the costs of financial intervention than the commitment to job preservation favored by the Social Democrats, said Tanja A. Boerzel, a political scientist at Berlin's Free University. "The crisis hasn't affected Germany like it has the USA. Most Germans aren't struggling as much," she said. "For Germans, the idea that we all need to pay a little bit for others' debts, that's something that Germans as a nation of savers are uneasy about." |
| Posted by: |
| #3 Ironic that Europe is moving to the right as the US swings to the left; so much so that even Pravda is sniggering. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2009-06-07 21:34 |
| #2 To be fair the Conservatives didn't win this but the Socialists of all shades of red lost big. So not bad at all. If the Brits can get rid of Labour fast enough we can get rid of the Lisbon Treaty (formerly known as the "EU Constitution") |
| Posted by: European Conservative 2009-06-07 18:54 |
| #1 Translation: the voters voted wrong again. We really have to find a way to stop this "voting" nonsense, it's getting in the way of progress! |
| Posted by: gromky 2009-06-07 14:33 |