European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the election results showed the “centre is holding”.[Piroschka van de Wouw/Reuters]
Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said the results showed that the “centre is holding”.
“We won the European elections. This election has given us two messages,” von der Leyen said.
“First, there remains a majority in the centre for a strong Europe, and that is crucial for stability. In other words, the centre is holding. But it is also true that the extremes on the left and on the right have gained support, and this is why the result comes with great responsibility for the parties in the centre.”
Reporting from Berlin, Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen said Eurosceptic parties would form a large bloc in the next parliament.
“With this very large bloc of far-right parties, there can be an influence on climate policies, for example … Also, [the EU’s] agriculture policies… and migration policies, which is a very important issue here in Germany and in the Netherlands,” she said.
However, Vaessen noted that the far-right parties are not united.
“They have a lot of divisions among themselves and they have been trying to reach out to each other. We’ve seen [France’s] Marine Le Pen, for example, reaching out to Giorgia Meloni in Italy,” she said.
“But after tonight, we will have to see how these groups will be formed and what kind of influence they will have.”
Source link : https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/9/germany-and-frances-far-right-make-gains-in-eu-elections
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Publish date : 2024-06-10 02:19:23
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