March-march right

European Parliament elections: France shocked, but pro-European parties retained the “controlling stake”

Elections to the European Parliament were destined to become the first great expression of popular will, reflecting the despair of the layman, exhausted by the financial and economic crisis. Some believe that this is the low point, after which the EU's confidence should be on the mend. Provided that the pro-European parties draw the right conclusions.

Although the pro-European parties retained a controlling stake and leadership in the 2014-2019 EU assembly, the predicted breakthrough of extremists, both from the right and from the left, has occurred. Not everywhere is the same, but definitely in France, where Marine Le Pen's "National Front" is in the lead. The European Parliament will be more diverse and it will be more difficult for mainstream parties to carry out their decisions.

“Post-election night” in the Brussels premises of the European Parliament, with the presence of hundreds of VIPs and journalists, reminded me of the television show of the first parliamentary elections in the new Russia, when Yuri Karyakin exclaimed “Russia, you are crazy!”, and the Zhirinovites, walking between the laid tables, triumphed.

However, the color scoreboard, which was updated as data became available, was for the pro-Europeans not only inspiring, but far from hopeless. In total, there are 751 seats in the amphitheater of the European Parliament. The centre-right parties (Christian Democrats, Conservatives) retained the first place (211 seats - the data hereinafter are preliminary). Socialists are still second (193), liberals are third (74), Greens are fourth (58). All of them are in favor of deepening European integration and believe that the EU is not a source of problems, but a way to solve them.

In the representative Assembly of the EU, there will be noticeably more than in the previous convocation, those to whom the EU is unpleasant and who seek to weaken it, if not destroy it - 129 seats.

France has experienced a tectonic shift. The success of Marine Le Pen's "National Front" was predicted, but not with such a result. With 26 percent of the vote, it is seriously ahead of Nicolas Sarkozy's also right-wing but moderate Union for a Popular Movement and far behind François Hollande's Socialist Party. Le Pen is more serious than the success of the British Euroskeptics from UKIP, given the role of France as one of the EU's locomotives and the marginal position of the UK in the history of European integration.

Right-wing nationalists took the lead in Denmark, sat on the tail of the ruling coalition in Austria. In some places, neo-Nazis announced claims to parliamentary seats, but they did not acquire serious positions (in Austria or Greece, for example). In Belgium, the moderately nationalist "New Flemish Alliance" of Bart De Waiver pushed the ruling coalition led by the socialist Elio Di Rupo, which, however, still remained in first place.

A breakthrough was expected from the Greek Coalition of the Radical Left (SYRIZA), which played on Greek outrage at the draconian austerity measures imposed by the European Union and the IMF to prevent default.

Similar protest moods are in other southern EU countries. Beppe Grillo's euroskeptics in Italy have fallen slightly behind Matteo Renzi's ruling coalition, overtaking Silvio Berlusconi's supporters. In Portugal, voters punished the right-wing government by voting, however, not for newcomers, but for traditional socialists. In Spain, the ruling Popular and opposition Socialist parties had to give up some of their seats in the European Parliament to the protesting fringes, mostly leftists.

There are also examples to the contrary. The surprise was the result of the anti-Islamic, anti-immigration and anti-European Freedom Party of Geert Wilders in the Netherlands. It came in fourth, with an overwhelming majority of Dutch voters for pro-European parties.

In Germany, which has the largest quota in the European Parliament (96 seats), Angela Merkel's conservative CDU/CSU won. And this is the most persistent and powerful engine of European integration. True, the Euroskeptic "Alternative" for Germany, which is a year old, triumphantly entered the European Parliament, receiving 6.5 percent of the vote.

For the first time, the results of the elections to the European Parliament officially influence the choice of the head of the EU executive board - the European Commission. The likely contenders to choose from are the former head of the government of Luxembourg and the eurozone, the Christian Democrat Jean-Claude Juncker, the former chairman of the European Parliament, the socialist Martin Schulz, and the first liberal of the current EP, the former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verkhovstadt.

The results of the elections to the European Parliament are, of course, not a crushing blow to the enthusiasts of European integration and the liberal social European model, but certainly a cold sobering shower.