By Mayank Jain:
Change almost never fails because it’s too early. It almost always fails because it’s too late. — Seth Godin
It’s that time of the year again as European Union goes to poll in all its member states and the election of 751 Members to European Parliament (MEPs) is done across the electorate that’s only second in size to Indian electorate and the world’s largest trans-national electorate.
The elections to the European Parliament are held in each country at a national level where each country is free to elect its mode of elections and people vote to elect representatives from the nation itself through a proportional representation system of voting.
The elections results are still coming in for some countries but the trends are almost clear and there is a lot to take away from these figures and statistics which predict trend reversal in many countries.
France Swept By Right
France’s far right National Party had a sweeping victory as they secured 26 percent of the total votes polled. Their tally has seen a sharp rise from the 6.3 percent they were able to manage in the previous elections in 2009.
The implication of these results lie in the more representation that the Right wing will achieve after the elections among those 74 representatives who sit in the European Parliament. They will draw more power to propose stricter measures to conserve sovereignty of the EU and containing immigration.
Greece Goes The Left Way
The trends for the Greece shows a clear alignment to the major opposition Leftist Syriza party emerged the winner with a clear margin of nearly four points over the conservative New Democracy party. New Democratic Party is led by Prime Minister Antonis Samara. The Leftist party is anti-austerity and rejects the harrowing reforms suggested by the EU to tackle the debt crisis.
Another new contender has bloomed in the form of Golden Dawn party that has emerged as the third largest party in the country. The party is often described as ‘neo nazi’ and ‘fascist’ by the liberals though it has always denied the allegations. Anyway, the party is ready to enter the European Parliament for the first time and it will be interesting to see how they fare.
UKIP Scores in Britain
United Kingdom Independent Party from England which wants the country to pull out of the EU has managed a humongous 29% of vote share so far. The conservative party lead by David Cameron is trailing by 5 percentage points.
This score has confirmed at least 22 seats to UKIP and they might increase as the counting proceeds but the party president is already celebrating. UKIP leader Nigel Farage said Sunday that “up until now, European integration always seemed to be inevitable and I think that inevitability will end with this result tonight.”
Euro Supporters versus Euro Sceptics
An important aspect that people always watch out for is the concentration of votes on the either side of European Union. This time, parties which are hostile to their respective country’s presence in the EU have come on top of the election in France, Britain, Greece, and Denmark.
Meanwhile, Cameron has promised to hold a referendum on Britain’s inclusion in EU if he wins the elections in 2015.
The voices of dissent against the EU membership have grown considerably over the last few years and countries like Ukraine are a testimony to what this debate can lead to.
It will be interesting to see what the final assembly looks like after the results are announced and the mix of radical and conservative that goes into the Parliament promises some definite contentions and push-pulls.
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