Five things to know about Europe’s surprisingly dramatic parliamentary elections

[Peter1469]

Five things to know about Europe’s surprisingly dramatic parliamentary elections

Voting began today for the European Parliament. They continue through Sunday. The European Parliament has 751 members and is the largest supranational institution in the world.

Members of European Parliament are sent as representatives of the 28 countries in the E.U. Each country decides how the elections are held. Anything goes as long as the ballots are secret and women and men can both vote. (The voting age is 18 everywhere but Austria, where it is 16.) Seats are apportioned to each country according to the size of its population. Germany, the E.U.’s most populous state, has 96 representatives, while small countries like Cyprus, Malta and Luxembourg have six each. That said, members of the European Parliament — or MEPs — do not always vote along nationality lines. Once elected to the European Parliament, they join larger parties and coalitions.

MEPs are elected to five-year terms and have a say in the bloc’s finances, international presence and general direction. Since the Lisbon Treaty of 2009, which expanded the body’s powers, the European Parliament has appointed the head of the European Commission, the E.U.’s executive body, approved or rejected international agreements such as a recent trade pact with Singapore, and decided on the E.U.’s full budget. The body is involved in decisions on a vast array of topics, including agriculture and fisheries, environmental issues and migration policies.

It will be interesting to see how the votes go.

[MMC]

Anyone put forth a resolution to not allow votes for the EU?

[Peter1469]

Anyone put forth a resolution to not allow votes for the EU?

We will see if the Euro-skeptics gain power in Parliament. If so, they would be a good check on the EU to keep it more of an economic union than a political union.

[Peter1469]

Update: The various populist parties inside EU nations plan to break the EU from within. And seem to be doing well at the polls.

“This Europe must be changed, this Europe of bureaucrats, do-gooders, bankers, boats of migrants, it has to be changed,” Ms. Ceccardi, the 32-year-old mayor of Cascina, Italy, roared to smatters of applause.


She is among scores of nationalist candidates from across the Continent who are vying to win an office at the heart of the European Union — so they can break it from the inside.

The elites don't understand why the common European is pushing back against unfettered migration.

Not so long ago, Europe’s populist movements were advocating a departure from the bloc, or at least from the euro currency area. But with voters overwhelmingly in favor of staying in — an attitude hardened by two years of Brexit chaos — that strategy has changed: Now they are promising an insurgency from within.

By stoking fears about mass migration, Islamization and a European elite grabbing ever more powers from national capitals, populist parties hope this election will sufficiently increase their weight in the European Parliament to allow them to gum things up, block budgets and trade deals, introduce legislation they like and interfere with things they do not.
A bigger bloc in the Parliament, even if it falls short of a majority, could also give them influence in selecting candidates for some of the big jobs in the European Union, like the president of the European Commission, the union’s executive arm.

In voting that began on Thursday and ends on Sunday, Europe’s motley crew of populists are not expected to win the biggest number of the Parliament’s 751 seats, much less a majority, when results are announced late Sunday. They are deeply divided on some key issues — notably Russia. But they are united in their hope for an electoral breakthrough that could disrupt European politics.

[MMC]

Update: The various populist parties inside EU nations plan to break the EU from within. And seem to be doing well at the polls.



The elites don't understand why the common European is pushing back against unfettered migration.

That doesn't bode well for Democrats, huh?

[Peter1469]

Anti-establishment parties (both left and right) did well in the elections.

Voters turned out in droves — the highest participation in 25 years — for the opportunity to take a shot at the traditional center-left and center-right parties that have driven Europe’s consensus-driven policies for decades.

But although far-right leaders were on track for their best Europe-wide result ever, an anti-immigration wave did not appear to be as strong as polls had predicted, and Greens and other pro-European Union leftists also posted strong gains.


The vote followed a tumultuous period for the 28-nation, border-erasing European Union. In the five years since the last elections for European Parliament, the continent has been rocked by repeated terrorist attacks, a refugee crisis, Britain’s decision to leave the bloc and the lingering pain of the global financial crisis.


Now the anti-establishment raiders will have a better foothold to try to transform the European Union from the inside out.

[Ransom]

Greens and pro-union leftists did well......as did the parties of Le Pen and Nigel Farage.....

Seems the Political Center is getting smaller in coalition type governments as well...doesn't it? This Forum chock full of claims and assertions that America's two party system is too corrupt, leads to isolationism, extremist viewpoints can gain too much power.

Here we have coalition governments and what Pete tells us is the world's largest Parliament......pushing to the far left or right and vacating the center. Pete himself pointing out how the anti-immigration interests aren't far right, merely 'misunderstood.'

My only point here to point out the fallacies of believing third...….or multi-party coalitions broaden the conversation or prevent voters from pushing far left or right. Those who believe so should merely look at reality. It is the United States' two party system that gets the most done, that I feel is the most successful. We primary up. Carve out platforms behind closed doors, primary in states and eliminate all but one nominee.....and then we get behind that nominee after we cut each other to pieces on a platform....and then present our party to the voters.

Coalition governments too are pushing left or right. 'Extremism' the deciding factor in their election of 2019.

[Peter1469]

Greens and pro-union leftists did well......as did the parties of Le Pen and Nigel Farage.....

Seems the Political Center is getting smaller in coalition type governments as well...doesn't it? This Forum chock full of claims and assertions that America's two party system is too corrupt, leads to isolationism, extremist viewpoints can gain too much power.

Here we have coalition governments and what Pete tells us is the world's largest Parliament......pushing to the far left or right and vacating the center. Pete himself pointing out how the anti-immigration interests aren't far right, merely 'misunderstood.'

My only point here to point out the fallacies of believing third...….or multi-party coalitions broaden the conversation or prevent voters from pushing far left or right. Those who believe so should merely look at reality. It is the United States' two party system that gets the most done, that I feel is the most successful. We primary up. Carve out platforms behind closed doors, primary in states and eliminate all but one nominee.....and then we get behind that nominee after we cut each other to pieces on a platform....and then present our party to the voters.

Coalition governments too are pushing left or right. 'Extremism' the deciding factor in their election of 2019.

The democrats and the republicans in the US are both corrupt and hell bent on spending the US into a currency collapse.

That is why I vote 3rd party: Constitution Party or Libertarian.

[Ransom]

The democrats and the republicans in the US are both corrupt and hell bent on spending the US into a currency collapse.

That is why I vote 3rd party: Constitution Party or Libertarian.

Constitution Party or Libertarian = irrelevant

[Ransom]

We have Constitutional and Libertarians within the Republican Party.