The result in Denmark is really exciting! The polls show that Venstre, the biggest right-wing party, in line to take back the government after the next election, would get three mandates, same as last time. But then the leader, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, got caught in a scandal because the party had spent 152.000 kr on clothes for him during the last election (more than 15.000 pounds) as well as buying planetickets for a vacation for his wife and son afterwards. So people said that if they lost a mandate, it would be his fault. And now the exit-polls are divided, with one showing three and one showing two. The mandate would otherwise go to the Socialist Peoples Party, part of the Green block in the parliament, whom I also voted for. Fingers crossed!
― Frederik B, Sunday, 25 May 2014 19:14 (nine years ago) link
Supporting the interpretation of the European results as a rejection of austerian EU policies rather than a lurch back towards the early-middle twentieth century, Euroskeptic parties of the left did quite well in Italy and Greece. The most likely practical effect in the EU itself will be a displacement of the governing Socialist-led center-left coalition by a center-right coalition. So talk of an “earthquake” in this election will be muffled a bit by the time the aftershocks subside in Brussels. But these are perilous times for the European project.
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal-a/2014_05/not_a_real_good_day_for_the_eu050507.php
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 27 May 2014 14:39 (nine years ago) link
to what extent do ppl feel like there is a lot of anti-immigration sentiment in these results?
― Mordy, Tuesday, 27 May 2014 14:41 (nine years ago) link
The anti-immigration National Front won in France.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 27 May 2014 14:46 (nine years ago) link
but i feel like everything i've read so far has been about the results being EU-skeptic as opposed to more prosaic domestic concerns?
― Mordy, Tuesday, 27 May 2014 14:49 (nine years ago) link
Well, I think that the EU-sceptic victories far outstrip the polling for the immigration-skeptic parties in most countries. Like, the immigration-sceptic Danish Peoples Party got 26% of the vote in Denmark, and was by far the biggest party. But that result exceeds every poll for parliamental elections, so it's probably not a blanket vote on their political platform.
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 27 May 2014 14:54 (nine years ago) link
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BogcqQdIYAEJXne.jpg
― ogmor, Tuesday, 27 May 2014 15:12 (nine years ago) link
The National Front is anti-immigration, EU-skeptical, and racist. Mordy, surprised by your blase reaction to their win.
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 27 May 2014 15:30 (nine years ago) link
Blase? I speculated on the anti-semitism thread that NF winning would hasten the French-Jewish community's emigration (already at historical peak)
― Mordy, Tuesday, 27 May 2014 15:36 (nine years ago) link
I hadn't read your comments there, just the last few itt
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 27 May 2014 15:50 (nine years ago) link
oh, yeah, i'm really just curious about what is driving this rightward swing. obv the economy has a lot to do w/ it (and immigration politics are often caught up in economic concerns) and you can't really separate issues like unemployment from EU-skepticism. it's also kinda surprising to me, particularly wrt to france which i thought was on a much more left wing swing (i guess i thought this bc hollande instead of sarkozy) but obv i was naive/wrong.
― Mordy, Tuesday, 27 May 2014 15:53 (nine years ago) link
Well, Hollande is at the moment one of the most hated presidents ever in France. Also, I think these populist movements are sorta divorced from the general left-right swing in Europe. Denmark changed from a right-wing to a left-wing coalition last election, but the populists keep getting bigger. The main two old right-wing parties are both in crisis. A lot of voters for the populists want a big government with many benefits, just not for the wrong people.
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 27 May 2014 16:06 (nine years ago) link
Yeah, what has happened across a lot of countries is that the total of votes for established centre-left and centre-right parties has gone down and the total for populist left and right parties has gone up. People are generally feeling fed up and alienated.
― popchips: the next snapple? (seandalai), Tuesday, 27 May 2014 16:23 (nine years ago) link
Does Merkel still think her austerity philosophy for Europe is a good idea?
― curmudgeon, Tuesday, 27 May 2014 16:42 (nine years ago) link
She still thinks it's a good idea for Germany iirc
― popchips: the next snapple? (seandalai), Tuesday, 27 May 2014 17:10 (nine years ago) link
The objections to austerity play out in different ways (FN in France, Syriza in Greece) but have a common root. There's a growing sense, even from people who are broadly pro-Europe in theory, that the current hegemony isn't working for them. In some ways immigration is only a small part of that. It's seen as much less important an issue when the economy isn't stagnating.
The biggest surprise of the weekend was Renzi demolishing Grillo. Idk, maybe Italy is just a few years ahead and everyone else will revert to the mean again soon.
― Yuri Bashment (ShariVari), Tuesday, 27 May 2014 17:26 (nine years ago) link
wow, the FN took 42% of the vote in the 14th arrondissement in Marseille (30% overall for Marseille). & the UMP was 2nd or 1st in almost every arrondissement.
we'll see how things shake out for the UMP with the latest scandal though
― Euler, Tuesday, 27 May 2014 18:39 (nine years ago) link
sharivari otm these results are a reaction to the reserve status quo from the last elections everywhere not having worked, hence a wider shift towards the political margins
PS nobody really cares about European elections I def wouldn't bet on the results here,for instance, being in any way replicated in a general election tomorrow
― the only thing worse than being tweeted about (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 May 2014 19:25 (nine years ago) link
Another factor in France is the massive corruption scandal affecting the mainstream centre right UMP party
http://www.france24.com/en/20140527-france-ump-party-conservatives-scandal-bygmalion-crisis-meeting-cope/
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Tuesday, 27 May 2014 20:58 (nine years ago) link
yep, that's I mentioned above obliquely
― Euler, Tuesday, 27 May 2014 21:09 (nine years ago) link
apologies, I must have skimmed over it
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Tuesday, 27 May 2014 23:41 (nine years ago) link
Venstre went from 3 to 2 mandates. There are rumours that their leader Lars Løkke Rasmussen had promised to withdraw if that happened, but that he on the night chose to carry on. Now he has called for a meeting next tuesday, and people in the party has openly come forward and said that they are trying to get enough votes to make him resign. This is really exciting. EU elections are rarely this important.
The funny thing is, that Lars Løkke became prime minister when Anders Fogh resigned to become leader of NATO, and then he lost the next election by a very small margin. Almost immediately the polls were showing that he would win the next election, as they still do, but now he might be fired before. So he will perhaps never manage to actually get elected.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 28 May 2014 12:38 (nine years ago) link
Montebourg, 51, fired his first broadside in an interview with Le Monde on Saturday and followed up with a speech to a Socialist party rally the following day. In a veiled reference to President François Hollande, he said that conformism was an enemy and "my enemy is governing". "France is a free country which shouldn't be aligning itself with the obsessions of the German right," he said, urging a "just and sane resistance".
― Nothing less than the Spirit of the Age (nakhchivan), Monday, 25 August 2014 14:41 (nine years ago) link
http://www.marianne.net/photo/art/default/985519-1168625.jpg
― droit au butt (Euler), Wednesday, 24 September 2014 09:34 (nine years ago) link
^^^ kinda disconcerting to see this graphic all over the streets (it's the cover of Marianne this week)
― droit au butt (Euler), Wednesday, 24 September 2014 11:11 (nine years ago) link
have i missed the thread about the biggest migration crisis modern europe has possibly ever seen?
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 1 September 2015 20:39 (eight years ago) link
to sum up, my new username is the distinction david cameron draws between "genuine" emigres from syria (and elsewhere) fleeing physical violence and political persecution, and uh non-genuine migrants, possibly from the very same countries, who are coming to the UK because life is economically untenable where they live
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 1 September 2015 20:48 (eight years ago) link
Refugee situation / EU response - rolling news
this started but obv it's not much
― MC Whistler (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 1 September 2015 20:48 (eight years ago) link
Cameron - well, yes, his true colours. The extent of his constituency on this - unknowable as that is, it's big enough - is the real horror i guess
― MC Whistler (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 1 September 2015 20:53 (eight years ago) link
oh gotcha thanks for the link
― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 1 September 2015 20:57 (eight years ago) link
Don't know whether this is the right thread to draw attention to this fucking disgrace:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-romania-lgbt/romania-moves-closer-to-ruling-out-same-sex-marriage-idUSKCN1LR24R
It's already illegal, you retrograde morons, what more could you possibly want? Way to further widen the gap between Eastern and Western Europe – and this time, we won't have communism to blame.
― pomenitul, Wednesday, 12 September 2018 11:02 (five years ago) link
98% of Romanians are Christian – could that have something to do with it, I wonder? Never mind that in practice, this merely means crossing yourself when you walk/drive in front of a church, saying 'God help us' when you bump into a priest, and making copious use of homophobic/antisemitic slurs at all times.
― pomenitul, Wednesday, 12 September 2018 11:06 (five years ago) link
Thought this thread was bumped because of the pending use of Article 7 against Hungary. But it is sorta related, perhaps? A clash between two parts of Europe.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 12 September 2018 11:18 (five years ago) link
It seems to me that Hungary's neo-fascism is less religiously-oriented than its Romanian counterpart. For what it's worth, I think the latter is less deleterious at the moment, but that's liable to change, especially if Patriarch Daniel has his way with it.
― pomenitul, Wednesday, 12 September 2018 11:20 (five years ago) link
'Patriarch' is a title that goes without saying in Romania but that is quite… amusing when you look at it from a Western perspective.
― pomenitul, Wednesday, 12 September 2018 11:22 (five years ago) link
Austrian and Italian fascists giggling at your East v. West take on things.
― Three Word Username, Wednesday, 12 September 2018 12:05 (five years ago) link
Oh, I'm just commenting on perceptions, what the EU might think it's doing. I'm also fairly certain that the Visegrad countries consider themselves Central Europe, no?
The Parliament overwhelmingly voted for Article 7, btw.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 12 September 2018 12:07 (five years ago) link
Have you seen a breakdown of the voting? (A genuine question; I haven't seen it yet.) The Austrian conservative party announced they would vote for it, which is taken as a sign that they aren't worried about Hungary facing any actual sanctions given Wunderboy's adoration of Urban.
― Three Word Username, Wednesday, 12 September 2018 12:31 (five years ago) link
Orban.
The UK Conservatives voted with Hungary - though Theresa May is saying the MEPs didn’t tell her they were going to do so, which is bizarre.
― Wag1 Shree Rajneesh (ShariVari), Wednesday, 12 September 2018 15:26 (five years ago) link
OK, the Austrian governing parties split on the vote: "conservative" ÖVP voted yes, far right FPÖ voted no -- given that Austria would be in charge of proceedings under Article 7, I think Sebastian "Hey, I'm a high school graduate" Kurz has something cute planned.
― Three Word Username, Thursday, 13 September 2018 09:39 (five years ago) link
It's unusual insofar that not before Austria expressed their intention to vote for it - breaking the christian democratic ranks, which also include Orban and Merkel, for one - no one gave this a chance. I'm assuming Merkel gave her MEP's the nod to follow Austria and that sealed the deal.
May's reading is bizarre indeed, in more than one way. Saying her MEP's don't actually listen to her/keep her informed isn't agl.
― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Thursday, 13 September 2018 10:00 (five years ago) link
maybe marginally better look than "i control my racist MEPs"??
― every day there's a whining choad (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 13 September 2018 10:12 (five years ago) link
Perhaps. Is it better to have controlled and lost them than to not ever have controlled at all?
― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Thursday, 13 September 2018 10:34 (five years ago) link
French right-wing MEPs split on Hungary. There's a hope among some French that the EPP will split and one side will ally with LREM, Macron's party, thus (I suppose) strengthening Macron.
― droit au butt (Euler), Thursday, 13 September 2018 11:38 (five years ago) link
Macedonia votes 90% in favour of changing their name but with only 36% turnout. Standard reports of Russian interference, PM determined to carry on regardless
― ogmor, Monday, 1 October 2018 15:27 (five years ago) link
Wanted to write something about the #CumEx scandal that has scammed European taxpayers for billions of euros, but I'm having trouble finding English-language stories, lol. A German whistleblower says thank god for Brexit, because apparently it was organized from London. Plenty of continental banks involved, though.
― Frederik B, Thursday, 18 October 2018 10:11 (five years ago) link
Le Monde is calling it 'the tax heist of the century' while The Guardian is harping on about the Irish backstop. I guess when you're already on your way out…
― pomenitul, Thursday, 18 October 2018 10:21 (five years ago) link
iirc English media wasn't in the #CumEx media group exposing this (Le Monde, Die Zeit, De Tijd, NDR, Politiken, DR, Reuters, Follow The Money etc)
Give it time though, the project names #CumEx and #CumCum are guaranteed to draw attention to English media. xp
― lbi's life of limitless european glamour (Le Bateau Ivre), Thursday, 18 October 2018 10:22 (five years ago) link
so excited for our future as the Nigerian 419 centre of Europe
― the Warnock of Clodhop Mountain (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 18 October 2018 10:23 (five years ago) link