27 countries, 375 estimated voters, one European election

June 7, 2009 8:52 AM

The European elections results 2009 website will open on June 7 at 18.00 CET. While waiting for the results, check out the issues, the EU 30 years ago and now and the EU Parliament twitter feed.
posted by ruelle (97 comments total)

Why is the "twitter feed" a static website with updates and no link through to their twitter account ?
posted by infini at 8:57 AM on June 7

Here you go, infini.
posted by vacapinta at 8:58 AM on June 7

kiitos! vacapinta
posted by infini at 9:03 AM on June 7

UKIPopocalypse part II!
posted by Artw at 9:03 AM on June 7

I voted... did YOU?
posted by Elmore at 9:05 AM on June 7

Shouldn't that be 375 million estimated voters? Unless, of course, each elector elects two MEPs...

It's weird, I took the EUprofiler vote matcher a week ago, and it said that the parties I should vote for are ALDE in the UK but PES in Spain.
posted by Sova at 9:06 AM on June 7

I know turnout for the EU elections is rather low, but I would imagine scheduling elections on Sundays -- when people don't have to worry about getting time off from work -- helps improve voter turnout more generally.
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 9:10 AM on June 7

Am reminded of this

results btw, which surprised everyone
posted by infini at 9:11 AM on June 7

It's weird, I took the EUprofiler vote matcher a week ago, and it said that the parties I should vote for are ALDE in the UK but PES in Spain.

I'm not convinced by what those PES guys are dispensing.
posted by Elmore at 9:16 AM on June 7 [2 favorites]

Unless, of course, each elector elects two MEPs...

They weren't joking when they predicted an all-time low turnout.
posted by mayhap at 9:17 AM on June 7

I know turnout for the EU elections is rather low, but I would imagine scheduling elections on Sundays -- when people don't have to worry about getting time off from work -- helps improve voter turnout more generally.

So I'm guessing that they don't have polling places in churches in the EU like they do in the US.
posted by octothorpe at 9:27 AM on June 7

So I'm guessing that they don't have polling places in churches in the EU like they do in the US.

In Europe we have schools.
posted by Free word order! at 9:31 AM on June 7

In Europe we have schools.

Actually, in several Dutch towns mosques were used as polling stations, which, predictably, enabled the populist parties to get their xenophobia advertised in the media once again.
posted by ijsbrand at 9:43 AM on June 7

The UK voted several days ago but its my understanding the votes aren't being counted until today?
posted by vacapinta at 9:45 AM on June 7

The EU Parliament has a Flickr account too.
posted by vacapinta at 9:47 AM on June 7

I thought that they had already been counted in the UK, but the results weren't going to be released until after 10pm? Either way, it's a bit weird, as the Netherlands didn't hold off, and the same goes for a number of countries. Tbh, this just adds to the European elections being probably the most heterogenous in the world.
posted by Sova at 9:50 AM on June 7

The council results were grim enough, maybe the UK just can't that much depression in one day?
posted by Artw at 9:52 AM on June 7

The UK voted several days ago but its my understanding the votes aren't being counted until today?
Mine too - the vote's been taking place on different days in different countries all week but the count will happen simultaneously today.
posted by Abiezer at 9:52 AM on June 7

Here is an interesting article I just found about how different media outlets in Bulgaria use other metrics to get around the rules concerning early reporting of exit polls.

"Meanwhile, near the governing Socialists' headquarters the temperature is an even chillier 20 degrees."
posted by chillmost at 9:55 AM on June 7 [2 favorites]

so if I said the sun was shining brightly here in Helsinki at 8pm that might be a code?
posted by infini at 10:05 AM on June 7

I really do hope that the Pirate Party gets at least one seat. Neverminding the politics involved, its just a nifty thing that people really can get oddballs elected.
posted by sotonohito at 10:06 AM on June 7

The Guardian thinks there's a chance we're getting not one, but two, BNP twats... England Prevails.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 11:24 AM on June 7

Merkel is ahead in Germany, Austria's isolationists and far-righties are - surprise! - pulling in numbers, and for what it's worth, the Times is projecting a victory for the right across Europe. Is the left floundering so badly on the continent that people are actually thinking, "Yes, pro-business conservatives are best suited to get us out of this financial crisis"? I can understand isolationism, but this is baffling to me.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 11:38 AM on June 7

God I hate timezones...

the EU website (in England mode) says the results come out at 2200CEST. This post says 16:00CET (which is wrong). The BBC claims it's 2000GMT (which is correct but confusing for the UK market).

The results come out at 9pm BST...
posted by twine42 at 11:41 AM on June 7

This guide will show you when 2200 CEST is in most major cities around the world. Gotta love timeanddate.com.
posted by ALongDecember at 11:49 AM on June 7

Is the left floundering so badly on the continent that people are actually thinking, "Yes, pro-business conservatives are best suited to get us out of this financial crisis"? I can understand isolationism, but this is baffling to me.
My take has been, in the UK context at least but I think the effect was seen elsewhere, that the "success" of New Labour was to a large extent accepting the new neo-liberal/monetarist orthodoxy introduced under Thatcher and merely contending with the Tories over who was best suited to light-touch management of the deregulated economy, benefiting also from residual associations with social justice - with the Tories painted as the "nasty party" because in many ways they really were.
That's meant that Labour were never going to offer policies such as a return to nationalisation of public goods and services, public housing and so forth which would involve some sort of ideological debate, and as incumbents are naturally carrying the can for the financial services led economy going tits up. At the same time Cameron's succeeded in making the Conservatives more cuddly and Labour have shown an authoritarian streak, which has removed the "nasty party" advantage.
posted by Abiezer at 11:55 AM on June 7 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I remember after all the fanfare over Blair began to fade I wondered what made him so different from the Tories. I mean aside from appearing to be a pleasant human being and not a cold-hearted authoritarian. Brown's got that whole perpetual scowl thing going on, and like you said, more authoritarian policies. So what you said makes sense.

It seems that continentally, anti-immigration sentiment is what's drawing a lot of people to the polls, from Austria to the Netherlands. I guess most everyone else in Europe either agrees with them or doesn't care. It's kind of depressing.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 12:06 PM on June 7

Most everyone, mind you. I realize a lot of people disagree with the isolationist message; I just wish they were more active and organized.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 12:07 PM on June 7

It's quite interesting how this is playing out in the UK, especially with the local elections here. There's been a semi-fake scandal about MP expenses; as the story has played out, more and more MP heads have been rolling due to either 'questionable' expenses (eg, large-screen TVs and pornographic films) or outright greed andor oversight (claiming expenses on mortgages several years after they have been paid off). This set off a chain of events with MPs repaying loans and denying wrong-doing, which technically is the case, as they are - to a degree - entitled to these expenses, which came about partly due to Mr. Blair's reforms.

Most prominently, it's brought forward the disconnect between the ordinary man and the newly visible political elite. Some of the sums repaid (and fraudulently claimed) by some individuals are magnitudes higher than fraudulent claims their consituents have been imprisoned for; one MP claimed expenses for to cover their costs for non-payment of their local council tax, whereas their constituents - without this entitlement - can reasonably expect prison sentances. More than anything, this is the root of the problem; that MPs are so far removed from the people they are elected by, they cannot see why they are angry about this situation.

People are also realising that 'new labour' - either the rebranding or hijacking, depending on your perspective - of Labour, a traditionally socialist and working class party, has lead to effectively a stalemate of not so much ideology as behaviour between the two major parties - they're both corrupt and duplicitous. The leaders of the two parties have taken different approaches - while Tory Cameron took a strong stance and played to the press on the issue, Brown denied the fiddling while London burned. This seems to be the icing on the cake for those disenfranchised traditional Labour voters, who have turned away from them in huge numbers and given the Tories control of a huge majority of councils across the country.

A few places have succumbed to a cut the nose off to spite the face strategy of voting in the BNP, we're going to find out. This is a wholesale rejection of the political class as representatives and the alignment with a group of fascist incompetents who claim to represent the average (white, male, sun-reading) man in the street in a pro-active response to a lack of alternative; rather than abstain from voting, they have chosen to pick the candidates who least resemble the elected candidates, and their thuggish, small-mindedness and racism is almost secondary to the hand gesture it assaults the 'respectable' political establishment with.

Just my thoughts. If anyone has more insight into what's happening, I'd love to hear it. These are fascinating times in UK politics, and I'd love to know how this plays out continent-wide.
posted by davemee at 12:10 PM on June 7 [1 favorite]

Think you touch on a good point I didn't there davemee - that while Blair wasn't really much of a continuation of the Labour Party tradition, he was able to carry the core base, at least initially. As time's gone on that's no longer so as the experience of successive Labour administrations alienated working class voters - something I thought was especially clear in the vox pops etc. during the Crewe and Nantwich by-election which is where I grew up.
posted by Abiezer at 12:19 PM on June 7

Here in Texas, we vote in schools, churches, and supermarkets - I usually end up going to the supermarkets, because, hey, I can get democracy and a rotisserie chicken for $5.99...
posted by BrianBoyko at 12:48 PM on June 7

Whee, greens got 2 places out of 13 in Finland. 8 women and 5 men got through, which is another positive sign. Negative is that leftist party and social democrats both lost places and populist right with their alliance to the christian party both got one through. Useless creeps, both of them.

There is hope that greens will become a formidable factor in EU politics, as greens across Europe have easier to find common ground and pull together in many questions than for example nationalistic conservatives.
posted by Free word order! at 12:52 PM on June 7

Swedish exit poll - "It indicates the Green Party has doubled its vote, the Left Party has halved its result from 2004. The June List disappears from the European Parliament, replaced by the Pirate Party."
posted by Abiezer at 12:54 PM on June 7 [1 favorite]

Also reading that Labour are reportedly going to finish sixth in a couple of regions (Eastern and SW - behind Cornish Nationalists even!) which would surely have to be it for Gordon Brown if true.
posted by Abiezer at 1:00 PM on June 7

I, for one, am pleased to see the resurgence of Cornish nationalism. Those little hens are delicious!
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 1:03 PM on June 7 [1 favorite]

It's weird, I took the EUprofiler vote matcher a week ago, and it said that the parties I should vote for are ALDE in the UK but PES in Spain.

Actually, it isn't weird at all. In the UK, ALDE are represented by the LibDems, whereas in Spain, they are represented by an ad-hoc alliance of centrist Basque, Catalan and Galician nationalists and Canary Island regionalist. Therefore, if you are a Spanish centrist, but sceptical of regional baronies, you won't vote for ALDE (pretty much my case, BTW). There's a handful of (very) small Spanish liberal parties, of which one claims "observer status" in ALDE, but they have a snowball's of getting into the European Parliament.

The only nationwide centrist party in Spain which appears to have a chance of getting an MEP is the social-liberal UPyD, but above all they are against Basque, Catalan and Galician nationalism, so will hardly be joining them in ALDE...(apparently they may form a group with the "Italy of Values" party of Italian judge Antonio di Pietro).
posted by Skeptic at 1:31 PM on June 7

Labour finished sixth in one local council election in the UK; behind the Monster Raving Loony Party.

Marisa: as an immigrant in the UK, I'm in favour of the Liberal Democrats, the one party who aren't explicitly or implicitly opposed to immigration (other than maybe the Greens; I'd vote Green in a situation where they had a chance).
posted by Infinite Jest at 1:35 PM on June 7

If I lived in the UK, and had the right to vote, I'd probably go Lib Dem myself.

And Sweden's Pirate Party might get a seat or even two?? That just made my weekend.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 1:40 PM on June 7

BBC is reporting results live. The official results website (first link in the post), is, unbelievably, not up to date.

Far right seems to be doing well in Holland and Bulgaria. Early UK results are being announced here.
posted by Infinite Jest at 1:45 PM on June 7 [1 favorite]

Clicked on the BBC link and some idiot from UKIP was blathering about the dangers of "wide open borders to eastern Europe". Thank God for the mute button. The other information on the site was really helpful in getting a visual of the whole.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 1:49 PM on June 7

Hmm, I vote Lib Dems, and to be honest, them sticking at about the same level as they were at last year (so far), is probably as good as we can expect. The pitch has been queered so badly about the European Union, that a clearly pro-EU party just isn't going to win massive support.

Far right seems to be doing well in Holland and Bulgaria.

Netherlands!
posted by Sova at 1:52 PM on June 7 [1 favorite]

Does the Dutch far right want to shut down all the "coffee shops" and the red light district while privatizing the social welfare system, or are they just all about hatin' on Muslims?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 1:55 PM on June 7

So sorry Sova. I know the Netherlands is correct. My bad.
posted by Infinite Jest at 2:06 PM on June 7

Turnout less that half in Greece despite voting being compulsory, I read.
posted by Abiezer at 2:52 PM on June 7

Seems like the pirate party got one seat in Brussel with more than 7% of the votes in Sweden. Thats awesome.
posted by kolophon at 2:57 PM on June 7

Does the Dutch far right want to shut down all the "coffee shops" and the red light district while privatizing the social welfare system, or are they just all about hatin' on Muslims?

Nobody knows what they really want, but judging by their words they want to irridicate a lot of international treaties, scratch the freedom of religion from the constitution, and do various other things that are impossible unless they get the absolute majority, and thus become able to abandon democracy as well.

Just this week one of their MPs joked he liked to see the noses chopped off of public broadcasters he regarded as being too left-wing for his taste. He could already see one nose -- of a female Jewish news anchor -- lying there, in his glee.
posted by ijsbrand at 3:07 PM on June 7

Just read on torrentfreak that the Pirate Party will have two seats in the European Parliament.

This would mean that roughly 200,000 Swedes have voted for the Pirate Party. This is a huge increase compared to the national elections of 2006 where the party got 34,918 votes.

This is somewhat the same number as in Germany, but here 230.000 only count for 0.9 percent.
posted by kolophon at 3:09 PM on June 7

East of England just declaring and Labour have held up better than I was spreading rumours about above. Three Tories, two UKIP, one Lib Dem and one Labour elected, if I heard right. Greens had a good showing up 3 percent, BNP trailed them up 2 percent.
posted by Abiezer at 3:10 PM on June 7

If I'm reading these numbers right, do I take the BNP has won exactly zero seats? That the Green Party polled better? And that the Lib Dems out-did Labour? If so, can I just say, SQUEEEEE!
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:24 PM on June 7

If I'm reading these numbers right, do I take the BNP has won exactly zero seats? That the Green Party polled better? And that the Lib Dems out-did Labour? If so, can I just say, SQUEEEEE!

10 out of 69 seats declared, and those that have declared are East and North East. Wait for North West and Yorkshire and Humber if you're wondering about BNP.
posted by Sova at 3:27 PM on June 7

BNP get a seat in Yorks and Humber.
posted by Abiezer at 3:29 PM on June 7

Yup, BNP just took one in Yorkshire and Humber. Wow, that's where I live. Crazy stuff.
posted by Sova at 3:29 PM on June 7

Well that was a nice moment while it lasted.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:30 PM on June 7

Their leader Griffin is standing in the NW region and was the better bet pre-polling, so they may end up with two MEPs.
posted by Abiezer at 3:30 PM on June 7

Andrew Brons who won for them really is an old-school national socialist too (was in the Hitler fan-boy NSM).
posted by Abiezer at 3:36 PM on June 7

Ugh. Andrew Brons.
posted by Cantdosleepy at 3:43 PM on June 7

Wait, I'm about to be represented in the European Parliament by a fascist? [sarcasm] Thanks very much, proportional representation! [/sarcasm]

[Watching television] Eek! Nick Griffin is in the Town Hall here in Manchester! Euw, he's in the banqueting hall where we had our wedding breakfast!

Good skinhead in shot, though. The BNP media people aren't awake.
posted by alasdair at 3:55 PM on June 7

Oh my word, I seriously just heard Nick Griffin on the BBC saying that voluntary repatriation schemes are racist, because they're only open to minorities! What? This guy has just entered a new dimension of craziness.
posted by Sova at 3:57 PM on June 7

Christ almighty. I'm so, so sorry, UK. Why the low turn-out? And how did the fascists ger so far?
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 3:58 PM on June 7

He also said, if I got this right:

"We in the BNP only allow white people in the party. This is so that we can use the anti-racial-discrimination laws when our members are discovered and sacked."

That's fascinating. Has anyone else heard of this?
posted by alasdair at 4:02 PM on June 7

Well, we changed from first-past-the-post to a system of proportional representation about ten years ago: as it is designed to do, this increases the chances of smaller parties getting seats. So now we have fascist MEPs. It's not exactly 1933 yet...
posted by alasdair at 4:05 PM on June 7

They've tried it but only unsuccessfully AFAIK.
Usual useless interviewing from the BBC when facing BNP - as Paxman did. They can bat questions about racism away all night and get their message out at the same time (plus what I reckon are lies like Sikhs voting for them); nail them on the policies they stand on where they look ridiculous enough.
posted by Abiezer at 4:08 PM on June 7

Funny might be if Griffin doesn't get in in the NW (BNP vs Greens who are doing well for the last seat it seems) and he has to take a bit of a back seat to a nut-bar like Brons. Griffin's ego would never stand for it.
posted by Abiezer at 4:11 PM on June 7

Ah, here's some more on it: BNP List - employers must act with caution.

If you employ, or provide services to one racially-discriminatory group then you must do the same to the racially-discriminatory BNP. So (my example, completely made up) if you rent out a room to a black-only poetry group then you can't refuse to rent the same room to the white-only BNP. You must be consistent.
posted by alasdair at 4:15 PM on June 7

Absolute hammering for Fianna Fail in Ireland - down 33 percent if I'm reading this right.
posted by Abiezer at 4:15 PM on June 7 [1 favorite]

That can't be right - it's a change in party titles confusing me I think.
posted by Abiezer at 4:17 PM on June 7

MStPT, the latter mainly, yeah. Drugs and prostitution aren't really very prominent in the public debate at the moment altogether, and they aren't really big talking points for the Freedom Party either, I believe -- if by "far right" you do indeed mean Wilders and his ilk who have done so well in this election.

You made me wonder whether they have any sort of concrete agenda on these issues however, so I did some digging and of course they do: here's an excerpt from an item off their website dated March of last year and although the translation here is mine and ad hoc I hope it will reveal something about the tone the PVV (Freedom Party) consistently strikes in its discourse.

Enough is enough, chair [of Parliament].

30 years of [marijuana] tolerance policy = [has been] 30 years of misery.

My parliamentary group needs no scientific research into the tolerance policy to draw this conclusion. This conclusion is evident.

Commonly known facts do not require evidence. Let us declare bankruptcy for the tolerance policy and not try and "improve" it. The tolerance policy has failed to prove itself in 30 years. There have been ample opportunites to "improve" it in these 30 years, as well. Now it is enough.

To those familiar with the tone of Wilders and the PVV that will be comparatively tame, so let me dig up some more: here's a much-discussed opinion piece in the De Volkskrant newspaper in which Wilders calls for banning the Koran. It is book-ended with the familiar mantra:

Enough is enough. Let's stop the political manoeuvring and intrige. It's a good thing that [Muslim apostate politician Ehsan] Jami now has protection and a shame that it has taken this long, but it does not solve the core problem. This core problem is this fascist Islam, the sick ideology of Allah and Muhammad as laid out in the Islamist Mein Kampf: the Koran.

[...]

How embarrassed I am for Dutch politicians. Their naivety and delusional aspiration for a utopian moderate Islam which bring this country nothing but hell and damnation. How embarrassed I am for those inside the Cabinet and out who refuse to halt the Islamic invasion of the Netherlands. How embarrassed I am for Dutch politics which day in, day out accepts the over-representation of those of foreign descent in crime and has no answer for it.

[...]

I've had enough of Islam in the Netherlands: not a single more Muslim immigrant. I've had enough of the worshipping of Allah and Muhammad in the Netherland: not a single more mosque. I've had enough of the Koran in the Netherlands: ban this fascist book.

Enough is enough.

One more gem:

End this climate nonsense and the free citizenship classes. End the mass immigration and the pay-per-mile road pricing plan. Stop the Afghanistan mission and the admission of hundreds of thousands of Poles, Bulgarians and Romanians. To hell with the Joint Strike Fighter, reverse the general amnesty for asylum seekers and slash funding for that liberal state broadcaster. End development aid and the flood of billions toward Brussels.

[...]

And try this for once. Just dial this number. Have you got a pen? 00-58 (212) 806 31.11. Once more: 00-58 (212) 806 31.11. Have you got that? That's the number for President Chavez's palace in Venezuela. He'd like to have the [Netherlands] Antilles and we'd like to get rid of them. I'd say: make him a nice deal. Tie a bow around them and off they go.

posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:46 PM on June 7 [1 favorite]

In reply to this
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 4:50 PM on June 7

I had seen either that statement of his or similar ones where Wilders likens the Koran to Mein Kampf. Thanks very much for doing the digging/translating. What I find really telling is him basically saying "I'm not interested in facts or research; I think the tolerance policy sucks, lalala I can't hear you!"
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 4:55 PM on June 7

Sky News: "how can you tell a person is indigenous?"
Nick Griffin: "By looking, you can just tell".

Christ, what an asshole.
posted by jaduncan at 4:59 PM on June 7 [1 favorite]

Berlusconi is one Teflon bastard.
posted by Abiezer at 5:15 PM on June 7

Berlusconi is one Teflon bastard.
posted by Abiezer at 5:15 PM on June 7

Well, he's two now it seems. Not sure how that happened...
posted by Abiezer at 5:15 PM on June 7 [1 favorite]

Berlusconi's recent news-making of blocking the release of photos of nude party-goers at his villa gave me nightmares, primarily because most of the headlines read something to the effect of "Berlusconi Nude Photos". Which is NOT the way to attract clicks, webmasters.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 5:21 PM on June 7

Fucking hell am I depressed by this all.
posted by Artw at 5:51 PM on June 7

Christ almighty. I'm so, so sorry, UK. Why the low turn-out? And how did the fascists ger so far?

Tony Blair. Iraq War. Grim Economy. Dodgy expenses claims.
posted by Artw at 5:54 PM on June 7

Must be it for Gordon Brown - 8 percent for Labour in the SW and someone said elsewhere fewer voters nationally than they used to have members in the days of the mass party.
posted by Abiezer at 5:55 PM on June 7

Exaggerating again on that last point now I check the figures, if not outrageously.
posted by Abiezer at 5:59 PM on June 7

Must be it for Gordon Brown

It is.
posted by Marisa Stole the Precious Thing at 5:59 PM on June 7 [2 favorites]

Griffin in for the BNP in the NW then.
posted by Abiezer at 6:07 PM on June 7

Ugh. Daniel Finkelstein just had a good line: "It's a doleful thing to be able to say to my children, 'I was up for Nick Griffin'".
posted by topynate at 6:11 PM on June 7

Ah, to look back on happier days, when enthusiastic Mefites thought that expenses revelations would lead to rainbows and kittens.
posted by Artw at 6:27 PM on June 7

What a shameful embarrassment tonight has been. But these results don't show that fascists and isolationists are on the rise -- they're polling the same or less as last time. They're getting in because of the appallingly low turnout.

Every country has its fringe and its nutters. Their presence shows that the system is working. But when only 35% of the electorate actually votes that system breaks down, and we end up with the fringe as our representatives.

You may hold our politicians in contempt, you may loathe Brown. But the way to show that is not to sit at fucking home while the polls are open. Now we have racists and fascists representing us – not to mention MEPs with nothing but contempt for the EU – simply because too few of us turned out to vote. Shameful.
posted by fightorflight at 6:34 PM on June 7 [3 favorites]

:(
posted by kldickson at 6:36 PM on June 7

In fact, here in Ireland, Fianna Fail have indeed been thumped very hard indeed, Abiezer. Though not quite as hard as the Green Party, their coalition partners, who lost two thirds of their local representatives yesterday and appear to have lost their deposits in all the Euro elections today.

Fortunately for both of them, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny has promised to call a vote of no confidence against the government on Tuesday which he is certain to lose, thus killing that story stone dead and shoring up the government for a while (whilst also preventing any similar vote for another six months). Not the sharpest tool in the box, that one.
posted by genghis at 6:36 PM on June 7

Hey non-voters, this is what happens when you don't vote.

FUCKING GO VOTE.
posted by kldickson at 6:37 PM on June 7

It's a bit more than that - this what happens when a major political party completely collapses.
posted by Artw at 6:48 PM on June 7

Thanks genghis - looked again and saw they had lost several seats, but that mad percentage I quoted came from some BBC thing that used the names of the European groupings rather than domestic party names which made it a bit screwy. I always liked what I read about Joe Higgins for the SP in Dublin so pleased to see he got in, though obv don't know that much about the man as a mere foreign observer.
posted by Abiezer at 6:50 PM on June 7

Turnout less that half in Greece despite voting being compulsory, I read.

It's also a long weekend, Monday is a holiday. And it's hot, boy, it's hot. Nothing is that compulsory! But mainly there are too few options unfortunately for the Greek voters. The two major political parties are corrupt to the bone and have managed to alienate all but their most blinded followers (read, profit seekers), the third party is an old style communist party (mostly Lenin with a little bit of Stalin hidden there), the fourth consists of extreme right/xenophobic kind-of-fascists, the fifth has yet to hit adulthood (one of their slogans was: "we kiss with the eyes shut, we vote with the eyes open", yeah, like that you will demonstrate your ideological superiority, bastards) and the Greens, well, they are green, that's all they let us know about them. We could pretend that along with the Danes and the Czechs, the Greeks voted for the socialists, although, I am not sure that Socialists are who won in Greece.

Very odd result overall in Europe today, given the crisis, the rising unemployment, the low wages, the shrinking social care and the general discontent. Are people becoming fatalistically conservative in the face of a crisis? Or is the Left less than ever convincing? Damn.
posted by carmina at 8:10 PM on June 7

In the case of the UK, the left kind of stopped being the left.
posted by Artw at 8:21 PM on June 7

In the case of the UK, the left kind of stopped being the left.

In opposition on the left, there are the Liberal Democrats, the Scottish Nationalists, and Plaid Cymru (the Welsh nationalists). If this was just a protest vote against Gordon Brown and the ruling Labour party, they would have benefited.

But they didn't: the right-wing Conservatives, UKIP and the BNP gained instead.

It looks like British politics is veering sharply to the right.

It could be 1979 all over again. And this time I don't even have enough hair to back-comb into an Eighties quiff.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 10:45 PM on June 7

In opposition on the left, there are the Liberal Democrats, the Scottish Nationalists, and Plaid Cymru (the Welsh nationalists). If this was just a protest vote against Gordon Brown and the ruling Labour party, they would have benefited.

Well, the SNP has done well.
posted by atrazine at 12:39 AM on June 8

Maybe Alan Sugar can save us all.

No, wait, he's a fucking loony.
posted by Artw at 1:09 AM on June 8

The BNP victories are awful. Most of the blame goes on the political class who constantly warned people not to vote BNP: if you're a "pox on all their houses" type of voter, what could make the BNP more attractive than the condemnation of the politicians that you really resent? It's the ultimate protest vote. In future, everyone should just shut up and ignore the BNP. If you want to stop them, try to address the fears people have that drive them to voting for them, don't simply fob people off.

Fortunately, 6.5% of the vote in that kind of turnout is really quite insignificant. Along with Nick Griffin, who sometimes tries to mask his racism, there has been an open National Socialist elected who is nearly certain to hurt Griffin's attempts to make the party seem mainstream. In the long-run, that could really hurt the BNP.
posted by SamuelBowman at 2:43 AM on June 8

Most of the blame goes on the political class who constantly warned people not to vote BNP: if you're a "pox on all their houses" type of voter, what could make the BNP more attractive than the condemnation of the politicians that you really resent?

No, the blame doesn't really go there. The BNP's vote didn't really change from its usual background-noise levels -- there weren't any extra protest votes. What happened was Labour's vote evaporated, and this let the BNP in under PR.

This happened because pissed-off people refused to vote for anybody, and since uncast votes count for something anyway, fuckwits, they ended up with fascists as their representatives. They're the ones to blame.
posted by fightorflight at 4:32 AM on June 8

I tend much more to SamuelBowman's view (and his analysis of the actual vote) - it's a bit rich to ask us to vote for the political class that played a major role in creating the conditions the BNP exploited merely on a "we may be bankrupt but they're really beyond the pale" approach - one of the failings of the Hope Not Hate approach IMO.
The worst aspects of the election of Griffin and Brons are for me that it advances further the normalisation of a BNP vote plus the large sums of cash their party will get from the European Parliament - I believe UKIP took getting on for a couple of million for research and staff etc.
posted by Abiezer at 5:36 AM on June 8

I see Romania elected Elena Basescu, also known as the Romanian Paris Hilton.
posted by kldickson at 2:03 PM on June 9