The result of European Elections 2019 seals the end of the business as usual era in Brussels

Pisa, Italy (Jakob Owens, Unsplash)

On the morrow of the European election 2019, the ballots showed to Brussels that it will not anymore continue to do tax free business as usual for long. 10 years after the global economic crisis, this election’s result shows that the excuse that austerity brought disappoitnment which subsequently lead towards the rise of far right extremism cannot hold anymore. The problems with the European Union are much deeper and existential as well as the frustration of its citizens for being the “left-behind” from the honey party. Apparently, in the empowering era of snapchat and instagram everyone demands the same size of burger, if not yours.

In Britain, with 371 out of the 373 counts the newly established Brexit party lead by the chauvinist devil Nigel Farage crushed the EU elections with 31.6%, while the Liberal Democrats received 20.3%, the Labour 14.1% and the Green 12.1%. Poor Tories won a slim 9.1% of vote share. This large win of demagogue Farage is about to polarize even further the risky Brexit connundrum, stimulated by the extremely conservative sentiment that is being nourished these days in the UK. Of course, if Brexit actually takes place by October, poor Nigel will not enjoy his tax free MEP salary as he did during the past 5 years. Instead he will be confined to the Westminster theatrical play where another demagogue, Boris Johnson, is foreseen to be holding the keys. Really, between two demagogues who is the lesser of the two evils?

The big boys’ derailment

As regards the big boys of Europe, on the one hand in Germany Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats suffered stark losses and received only a 29% of the vote share. Most worryingly, Germany’s far right AfD party has climbed close to 11% from the 7.1% they had rececived in 2014.

On the other hand, in France Le Pen’s frightening National Rally party battered poor Macron by 23.5% to 22.5%. It seems that France’s too proud country-side, who is allured by “La grandeur de la France” voted for far right in a country that basically invented the European Union. That is very bad news for the EU, if not anything else.

The Salvino-Orbanistan of Europe et al.

Salvini’s ruling Lega that overtly promulgates the despicable stance to let the refugees and migrants drown in the mediterranean sea in order to block them from reaching the shore is estimated to seduce over 30% of Italy’s electorate.

In Hungary, also known as “Orbanistan”, Orban’s incumbent government won the extreme 52% of the share.

In Austria, the incumbent government astonishgly received the record vote share of 34.9% despite the recent scandal revealing its dodgy relations with far right.

For Belgium, the hosting country of the European HQ, the result highlights the rise of the Vlaams Belang flammish party to 11%. This is the party that demands while eating sprouts and drinking La Chouffee that the extremely powerful Flamish part of Belgium keeps all the industry’s profits only for itself and not share a dime with the poor and more meditaranean/pretty Waloonian part of Belgium.

In Greece, the new hybrid Right party that Syriza had been meticulously building for 4 years without being a meritocracy or sticking to left ideology, lost the trust of the cunning Greek electorate who had brought them to power in 2014 out of 4%. Consequently, Syriza grandiosely lost to New Democracy by 9%.

In Poland, the incumbent Law and Justice party is about to win with more than 40%.

In the Netherlands, the anti-islam party of Geert Wilders was devastated and another populist party “Forum for Democracy” grew its power.

On the less negative side, Spain showed a great win for the socialists PSOE and managed to shrink the far right VOX from 10.3% in last month’s election down to 6.2%. In the same Iberian Pensinsula, Portugal’s Partido Socialista won over 30% of the vote. Some really great news though came from Finland who saw the Green party winning a record 16% of vote.

What do the results mean for the new European Parliament 2019-2024?

The two main groups, EPP and S&D, suffered substantial losses and possibly the majority in the parliament, although remaining the two big mainstream boys in Brussels and Strasbourg. At the same time the Greens and Liberals have gained power together with the nationalist, far right, populist and opporunist political parties. All this creates a new political map at the European Parliament whereby the socialists and conservatives cannot just impose whatever they wish but instead they should seek for the consent of the Greens and the Liberals at least. What is more, given the stark changes, the mainstream European parties cannot turn a bild eye on the growing power of the dangerous far right/populist/nationalist/opportunist groups but take safety precautions against.

A total eclipse of political talent in Europe

All in all, the turbulent times that the European elections 2019 put the EU into cannot be anything else but a direct consequence of the total eclipse of political talent, inspiration and vision from mainstream political parties in Europe. Every single mainstream politician built his/her career with the scope to accumulate tax free wealth and hire his family and the friends of the friends of someone but nothing else beyond that.

Next to that there are the too conservative Brussels expats who disgustingly gossip holding a glass of free of charge cava at the sidelines of galas that it would better that only the “capable enough” should have the right to vote. This is exactly what brings Europe to its very knees, the lack of seriousness in political aspirations. No wonder that the peoples turn to demagogues in sought for revenge. It would be more prudent though to launch better alternatives than the self-oriented and often dangerous far right parties.

For instance, the grand momentum for the environment instead within the 2019-2024 European Parliament should be more seriously invested upon than the next EPP/S&D congress. It is thus a great responsibility of the growing environmentalists at the European Parliament to show seriousness in vision and not prove to be also disoriented by power and deep tax free pockets.

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