2009 European elections

[Aontan 0]

Preliminary results:

Centre-right  retains  control  in  Europe

Monday, 8 June 2009 08:09

Centre-right parties retained control of the European Parliament in an election that ended with a record low turnout but could have brought much worse upsets for national governments.

For more, including election results, visit RTÉ.ie/Elections

Partial results showed the European People's Party would remain the main group in parliament, ahead of the Socialists, strengthening its ability to set the agenda in an assembly that passes many of the EU's laws and its budget.

The governing centre-right groups won in Germany, France, Poland and Italy, and Green parties did well on a bad night for the Socialists, who failed to cash in on widespread discontent with Europe's handling of the global economic crisis.

Libertas stood or backed more than 500 candidates across most of the states, and said it was in with a realistic chance for 100 seats.

But the pan-European movement has flopped at the polls, winning just one seat so far, in France, which was held by a sitting MEP who had backed Libertas.

Turnout was a record low of 43% and governing parties suffered defeat in Ireland, Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria and Spain, according to exit polls and partial results.

Britain's ruling Labour Party was also expected to be defeated.

Disgust at the establishment parties has benefitted the far-right British National Party, which gained its first MEP in the North West, while in Hungary the far-right Jobbik party, which has its own uniformed militia, also won a seat.

Parliament remains stable

But EU leaders are likely to breathe a sigh of relief that far-right parties did not fare better, despite making gains in some countries, and the 736-seat parliament remains stable.

'I don't expect any major difficulties in decision-making. The composition of this parliament will not be significantly different from the previous one,' EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said.

The victory of centre-right forces is likely to help Jose Manuel Barroso, a conservative, win a new term as president of the EU's executive European Commission - a post that requires the parliament's approval.

19 EU member states voted yesterday on the fourth and final day of the election to the parliament, which has the final say in the appointment of top EU leaders and the Union's budget. The eight others had already voted.

Many voters are worried by rising unemployment and say the EU has done too little to tackle the economic crisis, although it eventually poured in money to try to revive Europe's economy. Others regard it as having little impact on their daily lives.

President Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP won in France with about 28% of votes. The biggest surprise was provided by a coalition of Green politicians, led by 1968 student leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit, which took some 16% of the vote.

Greek voters handed the opposition Socialists victory over the ruling New Democracy party, but Bulgaria's ruling Socialists were punished for failing to tame corruption and organised crime, four weeks before a national parliamentary election.

The main Russian-speakers' party and other opposition groups made gains in Latvia, where the government faces a deep economic crisis and talk of currency devaluation.

Story from RTÉ News:

http://www.rte.ie/news/elections/stories/2009/0608/eupolitics.html

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[JanYpe 17]

Do you really believe that the needs of industry over-ride the will of the people.

The general belief here is to have the MINIMUM of legislation, not lots of overbearing rules for every subject.quote>

Setting basic standards is not overbearing. Replacing impenetrable forests of national rules with a single standard is not overbearing. This IS the minimum of legislation you need to have an honest common market, you can't have nations just buggering about on their own because it will lead to needless barriers. They are not just the needs of the industry, and itt is not the will of the bloody people to be supplied with goods that are more expensive and of a lesser quality!

[miguelkuk 111]

Originally posted by: toxicpiano

Originally posted by: Aontan

Britain and Germany aren't the biggest contributors to the EU per capita.

This graph shows the net benefit per capita (in euro) each country receives out of the EU:

 

Those seista-takin' Spaniards aren't huge drains on the EU, either. 

Even in total, the biggest contributors to the union are Germany, France, Italy and then the U.K.
quote>

Worse thing is, only about 12 people live in Luxembourg, so think of all the money they get each >:-(

quote>

I lived in Luxembourg many years.

This result is very easily explained. There aren't many people living in Luxembourg, and a high percentage of them work for the EU. Many EU buildings are located there: European Parliament, Comission, Court of Justice, etc. etc.

At the time I lived there (late 80's-mid 90's), there were still 15 countries in the EU and even then about 25% of the capital city's population worked on something directly or indirectly related to the EU. There are now 27 countries in the EU. New buildings have been built in the city to accomodate the new workers, new buildings for the European School for the new language sections, etc. If you look in a map of the city the percentage of land area the EU related buildings take it's pretty incredible. For this the country receives money from the EU, for these workers' salaries, etc.

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It's probably a bit late for this, but if you're wondering where you really stand on the EU political sphere this link is very useful and interesting.

[BurroDiablo 222]

Originally posted by: Boggy1

Blergh..the BNP got their first seat.

That party needs to be destroyed.quote>

*Molotovs at the ready*

I think I speak for the majority when I say Nick Griffin can go fornicate a hungry Tiger

[Aontan 0]

 Final results from Ireland (the final seats weren't filled until late last night due to our complex voting system):

Irish Party	European Group	Seats	First Preference Vote	% Swing
Fine Gael	Christian Democrats	4	29.1%	+1.4%
Fianna Fáil	Liberals	3	24.1%	-5.4%
Other		2	19.7%	+2.9%
Labour	Social Democrats	3	13.9%	+3.4%
Sinn Féin	Eco-socialists	0	11.2%	+0.1%
Green Party	Greens	0	1.9%	-2.4%

The "other" includes one independent (non-party) MEP and one Socialist Party MEP, who currently aren't part of any European group.

Notably, Libertas' leader (Declan Ganley) failed to get elected in the North West constituency and has said he will now "bow out" of political life, including during the next Lisbon Treaty Referendum in Ireland.

[Merlin of Flyote 8]

Originally posted by: JanYpe

Do you really believe that the needs of industry over-ride the will of the people.

The general belief here is to have the MINIMUM of legislation, not lots of overbearing rules for every subject.quote>

Setting basic standards is not overbearing. Replacing impenetrable forests of national rules with a single standard is not overbearing. This IS the minimum of legislation you need to have an honest common market, you can't have nations just buggering about on their own because it will lead to needless barriers.

 

Why not! Don't you believe in Freedom. It's not considered minimum over here.

They are not just the needs of the industry,

 

You said in a previous post that restrictions on Bananas and Cucumbers (as example) were for industry.

and itt is not the will of the bloody people to be supplied with goods that are more expensive and of a lesser quality!

quote>

Please moderate language, if you can't discuss in a civil manner the it's best that you don't at all. Clearly we have different views if you can't accept that then you will have problems. However the groungswell of opinion in the UK, certainly in England is quite anti-EU. If there hadn't been so many anti-EU parties in the euro elections the UKIP would have done better. I had the choice of about 15 different candidates most of which were anti-EU.