The BBC gives a look, amid the conflicting interpretations, at the trends that emerged in the European Union after the European Parliamentary elections.
Katya Adler, the BBC Europe Editor, points out the European election results 2019 can be read in different ways but the extreme right didn’t sweep the board with traditional governing parties not all decimated, as some commentators had breathlessly predicted.
Voter engagement is clear she writes, looking at the higher-than-usual turnout figures and at a time driven by identity politics, people care.
Adler writes that the loss of the majority for the first time in the European Parliament of the traditional centre-left and centre-right parties, reflects a tendency already apparent in national elections all over Europe: rejection of the status quo.
She gives the example of France’s centre-right and centre-left; to Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Social Democrat coalition partners; plus the slap in the face delivered to the UK’s Conservative and Labour parties.
Adler points out that Europe’s voters are looking elsewhere for answers and are being drawn to parties and political personalities that they feel better represent their values and priorities.
Some are attracted by the nationalist right, promising a crackdown on immigration and more power for national parliaments, rather than for Brussels. Italy’s firebrand Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini is a successful example, as is Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Other voters prefer a pro-European alternative, like the Green Party and liberal groups, which also performed well in these elections.
Via BBC
