Current Events > European Parliament elections

(+) Yeah! (+)

Between today and Sunday (depending on the country) the elections for the European Parliament will take place.

Commonly it doesn't exactly have the largest turnout among elections, which I believe is mostly because to a lot of people the EU government seems like a complicated and faraway thing, which makes them feel their vote is probably not that important or relevant.

Nevertheless, polls from the past several months have indicated that conservative right-wing populist parties (which are generally anti-EU and/or pro-Russia) are expected to gain a lot more votes and seats.
All the more reason for left/progressive-minded EU citizens to cast their vote. No faction will have an absolute majority, though in my opinion this is an especially important time for European solidarity.

So to all my fellow European CEople, please get out there and vote, and feel free to share your (preferably constructive) thoughts about it!

Already voted via post!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f67d35c6.jpg

Final German opinion polls before the election. High CDU/CSU (mainstream right) numbers are blegh, but at least the AfD (alt-right) numbers are low

I voted yesterday in the Netherlands. This is the exit poll:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/d31d1e60.jpg

The ones on top are GreenLeft/Labor Party, followed by Party for Freedom (populistic conservative rightwing).
I honestly didn't expect the former to come out on top. I guess this might be in part because some progressive non-voters might have felt more motivated to go and vote after all, and I've read that a lot of the populistic/rightwing parties' voterbase didn't come out to vote for this election (in some cases even more than 50% didn't end up voting).
A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

Aressar posted...

conservative right-wing populist parties (which are generally anti-EU and/or pro-Russia) are expected to gain a lot more votes and seats

Time to send in the 101st Airborne, the original Antifa

its getting a lot more attention here and in Germany than it has in the past.
I think the turn out will be pretty big compared to the past.

vote green no matter who ( unless you're in USA)

We Swedes have the election on Sunday but I voted in one of the pre-vote stations 15 days ago.

Polling here:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/7343148a.jpg
V = Far-left
S = Socialdemocrats
MP = Greens
C = Neoliberals
L = Liberals
M = Conservatives
KD = Christian Democrats
SD = Nationalists
vriga = Other parties

I'll vote even though my preference is that the EU legislative branch, at least in its current form, ceases to exist.

I cant help but point out that this poll is further proof of the collapse of the mainstream Right in Sweden.

L, M and KD scrape together 26.1%. This is not a good thing even though I lean Left. Since this gives SD the ability to keep dominating the mainstream Right and push them toward extremism.

Need more data from other countries. So far all I'm seeing is that the far right is consolidating power in the right wing parties as a whole, but not neccessarily overtaking the left wing parties--if I'm reading these graphs correctly, anyway.

Danish poll:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/82ea8fcf.png

S = Social democrats
SF = Socialistic people's party
V = liberals
DD = Danish Trumpers
LA = Libertarians
K = Conservatives
EL = uh... communism light?/green party
DF = nationalists
M = moderates
R = slightly more leftleaning moderates
ALT = green (joke) party

FDP 4 % is nice.

Xenogears15 posted...

Need more data from other countries. So far all I'm seeing is that the far right is consolidating power in the right wing parties as a whole, but not neccessarily overtaking the left wing parties--if I'm reading these graphs correctly, anyway.

We gotta look at things long term. Many Americans seemed surprised at Trump becoming the Republican nominee in 2016 but it fits so well into what the Republican party had been doing for several election cycles. The Far-Right gaining seats risk fracturing the current stable partnership between the Center-Left and Center-Right in the EU-Parliament. Because a coalition with a majority is essential for things getting done.

DodogamaRayBrst posted...

I'll vote even though my preference is that the EU legislative branch, at least in its current form, ceases to exist.

Out of curiosity, what exactly would you prefer instead of the current form?

BalanceLost posted...

We gotta look at things long term. Many Americans seemed surprised at Trump becoming the Republican nominee in 2016 but it fits so well into what the Republican party had been doing for several election cycles. The Far-Right gaining seats risk fracturing the current stable partnership between the Center-Left and Center-Right in the EU-Parliament. Because a coalition with a majority is essential for things getting done.

Yeah, I agree with this. In a system like this it's for the best that realistically no single faction can get a majority on their own, as this effectively forces parties to work together (which is also the norm for national governments in several EU countries).

Whatever the general course of action and priorities will be, I believe that one important factor is that there is solidarity. As right-wing populistic parties generally tend to be anti-EU and often try to cause division to the point of getting their country to secede from the EU (example: Brexit), it's for the best to try to limit their influence.

I think this is one of the most crucial reasons to vote in this election. Considering the turnout is already generally lower than with national elections, it can definitely make a difference (especially since there's no winner-takes-all system like in the U.S.).

https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/02/eu-csam-scanning-council-proposal-flaws/

Vote for parties who oppose the scanning law.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/eu-council-presidents-last-ditch-effort-mass-scanning-must-be-rejected

Bat178 posted...

https://techcrunch.com/2024/05/02/eu-csam-scanning-council-proposal-flaws/

Vote for parties who oppose the scanning law.

Bat178 posted...

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/eu-council-presidents-last-ditch-effort-mass-scanning-must-be-rejected

Haven't heard/read anything about this before. I might be reading over it, but does this proposal have a specific name?

BalanceLost posted...

I cant help but point out that this poll is further proof of the collapse of the mainstream Right in Sweden.

i feel conflicted
while i don't really want a Left majority in Sweden cause i don't agree with their policies, i also don't want a Right majority in the EU mostly cause they tend to have higher percentage of dumbasses

In Denmark, the election happens tomorrow.

ROBANN_88 posted...

i feel conflicted
while i don't really want a Left majority in Sweden cause i don't agree with their policies, i also don't want a Right majority in the EU mostly cause they tend to have higher percentage of dumbasses

Are there any options that could be considered more centric or moderate, yet progressive/not too conservative. Personally I think Volt is a good option and they're active in most EU countries, but I'm not sure how they're polling in Sweden right now, like if they're popular enough to get enough votes for a seat.

Alright, i voted now
It was literally the last hour to do it

bad results.

Oh damn, some of the exit polls actually look pretty bad. The populistic far-right parties from France and Austria clearly became the biggest compared to other parties from those countries.

I just read that president Macron has just called for new national elections in France, which will speed things up for the far-right. Considering that France is a pretty significant player in European and world politics, this actually worries me quite a bit.

The Far-Right seem to make fewer gains on the whole though thankfully according to exit polls across the continent

I thought The Netherlands was the one country that would be immune to this bullshit, but they're drifting right as well. It's depressing as fuck

BalanceLost posted...

The Far-Right seem to make fewer gains on the whole though thankfully according to exit polls across the continent

Far right here got to be the second biggest party. I do not like that at all, though overall they only got 3% growth, if I'm interpretating the numbers correctly. I am not good at math

Euripides posted...

I thought The Netherlands was the one country that would be immune to this bullshit, but they're drifting right as well. It's depressing as fuck

It's not pretty, but for what it's worth, the populistic right-wing party that is the biggest there (PVV) doesn't have a majority on their own (no party ever does), so they don't quite have free reign. They're in a coalition with three other parties, one of which is a 'regular' right-wing party that definitely wants the Netherlands to stay in the EU.

Also, one firm condition of that coalition was that the leader of the PVV (Geert Wilders) doesn't become prime minister.
On top of that, it's really just Wilders who has always been the only real driving force behind the party since it was founded 18 years ago, and he's 60 years old now. I'm just hoping he'll retire in a few years, and that the PVV's popularity will fade.

I recently voted in the European Parliament election earlier today. It went rather quickly once I went to the polling station.

Left-wing wave in Sweden! Sverigedemokraterna fall from 3rd to 4th biggest party. General setback for our Right-wing coalition Government though M (Conservatives) and Liberals see tiny gains.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/655f60b9.jpg

Our Christian Democratic party leader is so delulu, they fall to 5.7% (-2.9%), and she says it is a show of strength.

I'm just surprised you have a functioning Christian Democratic party. Didn't realize Sweden was so religious. Our Christian Democrats in Denmark haven't been elected since the 90s.

DodogamaRayBrst posted...

I'm just surprised you have a functioning Christian Democratic party. Didn't realize Sweden was so religious. Our Christian Democrats in Denmark haven't been elected since the 90s.

They have a very strong base in the Region of Jnkping.

Both the centre right (Christian Democrats) and the alt-right (AfD) are around 15% each nationally here. In my area it's 20%

We also had local-level elections. In my district the AfD got 36%, in my town it got 37%.

The BSW, aka the pro-Russian, anti-immigrant "leftists", got 11% in my district.

Not sure how many cares, but anyhow, here's the result from Finland.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/05cf0452.jpg

Thompson posted...

Not sure how many cares, but anyhow, here's the result from Finland.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/05cf0452.jpg

Awesome that our two countries hold the line against the Far-Right.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/ca78c7ae.png

Final result in the Netherlands

8 - GL/PVDA (greens/social democrats)
6 - PVV (far right nationalists)
5 - VVD (right wing liberals)
3 - CDA (christian conservatives)
3 - D66 (social liberals)

So while PVV did have the largest growth, at least it's not the large victory they had in the national elections. And most of their seats came at the cost of alt-right FVD who end up with 0.

Overall it looks like even though the populistic rightwing parties won more seats, it's not enough to significantly change the balance of power. The 'center factions' (christian democrats, social democrats and liberals) still have a majority together.

Based on the preliminary results, this is the expected distribution of seats (in Dutch, but I'm guessing that the words resemble the English equivalents enough that you get the gist):

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/abcd382e.jpg

And here's a map indicating what faction was the most popular one per country:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a51e5c58.jpg

So yeah, on an general European scale, things have scaled a little more towards the right, but not drastically so. Hopefully the non-right factions will learn from this and take some actions to prevent a similar type of result, because if this happens again, next time the far-right could very well become part of the status quo in the European parliament.

I'm more worried about local EU elections, honestly. The right populists are most definitely going to take this momentum to the polls when those elections come up. Germany and especially France are of particular interest.

SoIidLegacy posted...

Overall it looks like even though the populistic rightwing parties won more seats, it's not enough to significantly change the balance of power. The 'center factions' (christian democrats, social democrats and liberals) still have a majority together.

Based on the preliminary results, this is the expected distribution of seats (in Dutch, but I'm guessing that the words resemble the English equivalents enough that you get the gist):

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/abcd382e.jpg

And here's a map indicating what faction was the most popular one per country:

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a51e5c58.jpg

So yeah, on an general European scale, things have scaled a little more towards the right, but not drastically so. Hopefully the non-right factions will learn from this and take some actions to prevent a similar type of result, because if this happens again, next time the far-right could very well become part of the status quo in the European parliament.

The thing is from where that "towards the right" came from:

If we are looking at the total EU results, the right won, the left lost, and the big central parties still stayed the same.

My local newspaper did this graphic for the preliminary results: Factions in the EU parliament are not as strict as in most parliaments, so it's not saying a lot, but should still be able to give some idea of the current changes.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/2/23cd039d.jpg

What exactly is driving voters there away from the left? It can't be solely due to propaganda, right?

Xenogears15 posted...

I'm more worried about local EU elections, honestly. The right populists are most definitely going to take this momentum to the polls when those elections come up. Germany and especially France are of particular interest.

Like with most EU countries there's a concerning growth in radical rightwing populism, but for now it looks like they're not taking over anytime soon over there.

France on the other hand is a different story. Macron has dissolved his cabinet and called for new elections. With the current political climate there, it's pretty much a guaranteed win for the radical right. Considering the role France plays and influence it has in both European and world politics, this looks pretty bad.

Humble_Novice posted...

What exactly is driving voters there away from the left? It can't be solely due to propaganda, right?

As with most socio-political developments, there are various factors, but I believe that one influence that is grossly underestimated is algorithms, specifically by bombarding people with easy-to-read clickbait articles/videos, often containing misinformation or fake news.

People click a few articles or videos on a subject with a shocking title. They may or may not believe it right away, but an algorithm will assume they find this kind of stuff interesting and present them with more. Eventually the people clicking that stuff will assume that whatever views are talked about in that content is probably true. It's quicker and easier than actually researching several different views and sources involving critical thinking, fact-based evidence and feedback through peer reviews.

It's for this reason that I prefer to vote specifically for people with digital expertise, as I believe we definitely need to have more of them in governmental positions if we want to get a grip on this.
Don't get me wrong, I definitely don't want to go as far as the government controlling and checking everything we do online, but giving people pretty much free reign in spreading their views quickly to large masses of people (regardless of whether or not those views have any fact-based merit) can have significant consequences, including what people for for during elections. It's literally how Trump won.

I went on a little longer about this than I anticipated, but I feel that the factor of algorithms is often very much overlooked in this matter, considering how much it can impact what people vote for.

SoIidLegacy posted...

Interesting point. I figure that social media does have a large enough influence that it can be said it's one of the main reasons why populistic parties have become gradually more successful over the past two decades. I just hope that the current status quo catches on to this soon, if they haven't already.

Aside from that, I think it would also help if the government (both on a European and national level) would find a way to simplify what they do and how that works.
That way perhaps more people would realize that some parties are doing the best they can, some parties are enjoying their cushy position calling the shots and try to keep things that way, and that what populistic parties are saying is completely unrealistic and flat-out horrific to turn into reality.

Anyway, I had to let the results sink in for a while, but overall I'm sorta relieved that the far-right hasn't won enough seats to be called one of the big boys (yet). I have no illusions that things will turn more to the left any time soon, as long as they don't turn more to the right.

Something to note is that the electorate voted against their national Government in several countries like France, Germany and Sweden. So the vote can partially be viewed as displeasure with the current ruling party/parties.

BalanceLost posted...

So the vote can partially be viewed as displeasure with the current ruling party/parties.

At least in Germany, we have several state elections coming up (including mine) and I absolutely expect the alt-right to achieve similar results to their European election results. Not looking forward to my Landtag being comprised of almost 50% anti-immigrant, pro-Russia shills

teep_ posted...

At least in Germany, we have several state elections coming up (including mine) and I absolutely expect the alt-right to achieve similar results to their European election results. Not looking forward to my Landtag being comprised of almost 50% anti-immigrant, pro-Russia shills

That is depressing AF.

BalanceLost posted...

That is depressing AF.

yeah. Maybe I should start learning Swedish

teep_ posted...

yeah. Maybe I should start learning Swedish

You may wanna wait on moving here until you see how our next national election goes (in 2026). Cuz the Right-wing parties who did poorly in the EU-election currently govern our country. The Far-Right isnt an official member of the coalition Government but they are the 2nd biggest party in Riksdagen and the biggest Right-wing party. Most things the coalition Government do is stuff they do in accordance with the Tid treaty/agreement which the Cons, ChristDems and Libs signed with the Far-Right in 2022. The Far-Right got the PM by the balls since they are the guarantee for the Governments continued existence.

The 4 Right-wing parties have 176 MPs and the 4 opposition parties have 173.