albeit only just.
Sunday saw the completion of the European parliamentary elections, and the results were fairly much in line with the gloomy predictions. Some member states moderated or at least stabilized – Poland, Hungary, Spain, Portugal, for instance. Some continued a marked rightward tendency, including the big three – France, Germany, Italy.
Primary sources are always the best, so here are the results on the European Parliament site. For the curious, a multitude of resources – data, diagrams, FAQs, etc. – invite to further research.
For orientation, the EPP (European People’s Party) is the largest group and consists of members sent from national center-right parties of the European ‘Christian Democratic’ tradition, e.g. the largest being the CDU in Germany. To its left is Renew – broadly described as Liberal, e.g. Renaissance, France; then Greens and Socialists to various degrees and of various persuasions. Messy is it right of the EPP – the ECR (-Conservatives and Reformists), think Meloni, and ID (Identity and Democracy), think Le Pen.
On the last mentioned, in the wake of the Rassemblement national blow out victory in France, and his own coalition’s dismal performance, President Emmanuel Macron immediately dissolved the Assemblée nationale (that is, the legislative body) and called snap elections for June 30. An absolute political bombshell! The logic is hard to get around, but I think it probably is something like this, if you were to imagine Monsieur le Président in conversation:
So, beloved citoyens de la république, you have made clear in recent times and in a myriad of ways your collective disapproval of my politics and my person and I understand that sentiment to have been cemented with this vote, from which I can only take away that many of you would prefer a right wing nationalist government, so I give you now a chance to vote for one. I say many of you and I hope that it is not a majority. But I say, should you give them – or other extreme factions – a majority you will soon see whether they can deliver on what they promise, whether your life is any better. I’m betting not and hope that Le Pen’s chances of the presidency in 2027 will diminish accordingly. On the other hand, I remain optimistic that reasonable minded coalitions may ultimately (in the second round on July 7) coalesce to block RN’s path, as they have done previously. And, then, my beloved citoyens and those newly elected members of the Assemblée, perhaps during these last years of my presidency we can pursue a more conciliatory course for the benefit of our grande nation.
A god almighty risk, to be sure, but all power to him. Such balls are not to be had in Berlin.