Tino Chrupalla and Alice Weidel, co-leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) political party, celebrate at the AfD election evening gathering following the release of initial election results in European parliamentary elections on June 9, 2024, in Berlin, Germany. Elections to the European Parliament have been taking place since June 6 across European Union member states and are concluding tonight.
The ECR will have 83 seats with by far the biggest gains, though media tried to position the EPP’s gains as a bigger story after the party had lost seats in previous elections. ECR also registered strong numbers in Poland, where it gained 20 seats, as a runner-up to EPP, which indicates the divided nature of politics in many European countries.
National parties in each country take seats and then filter into one of the parliamentary groups, which means that wins from parties such as Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) — which enters the European Parliament for the first time with 15 seats — and Wilders’ PVV, helped bolster ECR’s standing.
A party needs at least 23 MEPs from seven member states to have a presence in the European Parliament, according to Reuters. This means that winning even one seat — especially in countries that have only a handful of MEPs to elect — in some countries often proves a vital step in securing a place at the table.
In Germany, EPP won its most seats, followed by NA and Greens, while France saw ID take command over S&D and Macron’s own party, Renew. Italy gave ECR its biggest win, with S&D the runner-up by only a few seats. Spain gave both EPP and S&D strong support, while the Netherlands virtually provided even support to Renew, EPP and ID each.
Politicians on the left have voiced concerns that ECR’s major success has given the right a significant bargaining chip in future policy discussions, with the ruling EPP likely to engage with them as needed to pass its desired legislation and giving the right wing more of a hand in pushing its own agenda.
The ECR party is a Eurosceptic party most closely affiliated with the right-wing parties of Italy: Brothers of Italy member Nicola Procaccini has served as chairman of the party since 2019, and the group made its biggest gains in France, Germany and Italy.
The party is also closely associated with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who has found herself as an archrival on the continental stage to French President Emmanuel Macron, who also faces a rising tide of right-wing opposition in his home country as Marine Le Pen and her National Rally party — renamed from National Front in 2018 after nearly five decades — seek gains in an upcoming snap election.
Macron called a snap election after National Rally took 31.4% of the vote for European Parliament, blowing away any other party, citing a concern that surging support for the party could hinder his remaining term and arguing that an election was the “most responsible solution,” France24 reported.
ECR describes itself as a “constructive center-right force,” according to Politico: The group also counts Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s party as part of its body, as well as Spain’s far-right Vox party. Romania added five new members to the group, proving once again that every win counts.
French far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party President and lead MEP Jordan Bardella waits for the start of an interview on the evening news broadcast of French TV channel TF1, in Boulogne-Billancourt, outside Paris, on June 20, 2024.
One of the most prominent new faces on the rising right is Jordan Bardella, the president of National Rally, who has served as an MEP since 2019 and has taken a galvanizing role in French politics in the last few years, becoming the party’s “poster boy,” and he now finds himself poised to become prime minister should his party win the French elections set for July. (Note: France has both a President, Macron, who executes national and international policy and a prime minister who guides the parliamentary agenda and domestic policy.)
Bardella has already tried to show a more moderate temperament, turning away from his party’s 2022 promise to prioritize a departure from “the integrated NATO command,” instead insisting that such a move during wartime would “considerably weaken France’s responsibility on the European scene and, obviously, its credibility with regard to its allies.”
Von der Leyen herself hails from Germany’s Christian Democratic Union, the party of former Prime Minister Angela Merkel, but analysts have warned that if she should retain her role as president of the European Commission, she will need to try and balance the demands of both ends of the political spectrum if she wishes to find success.
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Sandro Gozi, the leading MEP in Renew, told Politico that he doesn’t believe that ECR’s upswing at the expense of his own party will provide any kind of fundamental change to the parliament’s policies and approach, arguing that the “pro-European majority” in the left-wing parties will prove enough to keep things much the same.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Original article source: Right surges in Europe: What to know and what it means for US
Source link : https://www.yahoo.com/news/surges-europe-know-means-us-162635587.html
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Publish date : 2024-06-22 16:26:35
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