Smaranda Dobrescu

May 26, 2014

Changing Continent: European Parliament Elections 2014

See which parties are leading the polls in the European Parliament elections.

GRAPHICS.WSJ.COM|BY WSJ.COM NEWS GRAPHICS

• 

  Un Prospectiv .
  
  June Charleston, SC 4 hours ago
  The fact that "mainstream political leaders were stunned" says it all. They, like their US legislators, are completely out of touch with the effects their brutal austerity policies have had on their citizens. Kudos to their citizens for throwing the bums out. If only US citizens would do the same.
  
  Joe Urla New York 3 hours ago
  This is what you get when you allow banks to create a bubble, extract billions along the way, leading to an inevitable global economic crisis, and then surrender when those same banks put their hands around the throats of political leaders who pass bank losses onto the public. Corruption leads to failure and revolt.
  
  G P Wiggins Hopewell NJ 4 hours ago
  Having spent a lot of time in France during the past decade, I can say that I am not at all surprised. The problems of unemployment, a stagnant economy, no jobs for young people, no jobs for so many immigrants, etc. is an accident waiting to happen. It is also worth noting that in this case "immigration" largely means "Africans and Arabs who seem not to wish to assimilate" (at least that's the man on the street view) so that it is not unlike our situation in the cities in the 60s. Making matters worse, it is not merely an issue of race but of religion and culture - French identity. In short, not a pretty picture socially.
  
  http://www.nytimes.com/.../established-parties-rocked-by...

  
  
• 

  Un Prospectiv .
  Glenn Ribotsky, Chair, New York Road Race OmbudsAssociation Queens, NY 4 hours ago
  Certainly, some of these results can be seen as misplaced anger against the free flow of Europeans in the union which allows nationals from less developed nations in Eastern and Southern Europe to grab jobs at lower wages than the citizens of "developed" Europe would work for, but that anger likely stems just as much from a hard to articulate feeling of dissatisfaction with the economic policies of non-responsive elites.
  
  It's much harder to express coherent anger at a bureaucrat than at a Greek or Bulgarian immigrant worker. So parties with a strong anti-immigrant message get a hearing.
  
  And don't underestimate the contribution of rancor towards Muslims from the Middle East and North Africa, either--the feeling that governments have been far too lenient allowing in so many who are perceived to make little effort to assimilate, and that those many want to carry on such customs as Shariah, even in their new European homes, probably underlies much of the vote.
  
  Ecce Homo Jackson Heights, NY 4 hours ago
  So the European Parliament will be run by people who don't believe the European government should exist. Sort of like Republicans running the U.S. federal government.
  
  Arno Lyon, FR 4 hours ago
  France can't afford anymore his so generous immigrant policy. It cost a lot of money and security, the burden is, now, to heavy for tax payers.
  
  People are upset, too much lies, too lack of acts, today it's enough.
  
  Carolyn Saint Augustine, Fl 3 hours ago
  I've really never embraced the idea of a European Union. Essentially it forces foreign concessions and foreign policies down people's throats. France is France; Great Britain is Great Britain. It's not that "never the twain shall meet," but the cultural differences are significant, and nationalism in European countries is predicated on long centuries of tradition, language and history, hence it's fierce. Germany is an entirely different entity than Greece, so it really has no business trying to determine Greece's future. It's only natural that people want their own country back, particularly in stressful economic times, so there should be no surprise as the election results, unless the respective governments are so out of touch with their citizens that they shouldn't be there to begin with.
  
  Like Dr. Krugman, I don't think a common European currency is advantageous overall to European citizens, but that's a different subject. For now, I'm optimistic about the European vote. The racist component aside, people are electing people that hear them and care about their concerns. I hope the same happens here, again, barring a racist motivation.
  
  Josh Hill is a trusted commenter 
  4 hours ago
  When the establishment becomes so conservative that it stops heeding the needs of the people, the people turn to radicals. And when the radicals win, the results are rarely good for anybody.
  
  Conservatives seem to think that it's OK to apply long-discredited fiscally conservative economic policies that favor the rich at the expensive of the 99%, while liberals seem to think that it's OK to allow immigration from low-wage countries that drives down the wages of workers and cost them jobs at a time of high unemployment. And then where does the public turn?
  
  Judyw cumberland, MD 4 hours ago
  We in the US spend more time on National Elections and forget the EU and how much it is disliked in various countries. The elections finally are showing what the EU is doing wrong. The image of that pompous Jose Barroso does not help it either.
  
  The voters are right to select anti-immigrant parties, because the EU has never developed an immigration policy. It is confronted with boatloads of people from the Middle East and Africa arriving on its shores. 
  
  The EU policy insists they all get asylum hearing, and benefits which is bankrupting countries. It is almost impossible to deport them even when they are terrorists - look at the time Britian had with terrorist all do to EU policies ( and yes EU does influence Stassbourg court).
  
  The Schengen zone applies not just to EU members but to anyone who get in legally or not to an EU Country. These parties are saying they want control of their borders again. Between being overrun by illegal immigrants, and members from newly admitted, but impoverished EU countries, these people want their national sovereignty back again and I don't blame them.
  
  They want to decided who can come to their country, and kick people out they don't want. They don't want the EU telling them how to manage the internal policies of immigration in their own country. They want to make the rules, not have Strassbourg make them.
  
  If the EU fails to return more control back to member states, I don't see how the EU can survive.

  
  
• 

  Un Prospectiv .
  SW is a trusted commenter San Francisco 4 hours ago
  With continued high unemployment, stagnating wages, and economies that are predicted to grow at less than 1% this year, Europe's voters have spoken loudly and clearly that the want their own country's tax dollars to spent on their fellow countrymen, and that immigrants, whether from the rest of the EU or illegal immigrants, should not be given equal priority. So much for the US self-appointed intelligentsia who constantly crow about how European socialism is the panacea for the US!
  
  Bob Burns Oregon's Willamette Valley 2 hours ago
  There are probably more factors (than can be written in this comment) at play in the EU election results. Unemployment, economic austerity imposed by a distant government; a generous helping of hubris on the part of the EP bureaucracy; massive displacement of people (mostly from countries once colonized by European nations) from outside Europe caused by grinding poverty and resulting hopelessness; and possibly above all attempting to forge a single nation out of 28 different entities, each with their own history, culture, language, and political circumstances. 
  
  Binding such disparate nations together - as well intentioned as it may be - into some sort of super-Europe is proving, once again, the futility of it all. The EP may have finally gone too far for the guy on the street. The results of this election were entirely predictable and not a surprise at all.
  
  Paul Long island 2 hours ago
  I just returned from a two-week trip to Sicily and our tour guide was concerned that the vote would go against the E.U. In Palermo I was told by our local guide that unemployment was approaching 40% and we saw many stores that had closed with signs saying it was "due to too much theft." The austerity program embraced by the big three of Europe--Britain, France, and Germany--is causing social chaos and the vote by those most adversely affected represents a rejection of the policy, but not necessarily a rejection of the Euro as a common currency. It will be interesting to see if the leaders get the message that this modern form of pillage from the poor to the rich is unworkable and unsustainable for a viable goobal and economic bloc economy.

  
  
• 

  Un Prospectiv .
  
  Critical Rationalist Columbus, Ohio 4 hours ago
  I don't think it makes sense to project American political craziness and polarization onto European politics. The European vote is first and foremost a reaction to the awful economic conditions brought on by idiotic austerity policies imposed by the Euro-elites (most notably the Germans who control European economic policies). People who are being made to suffer needlessly due to elitist tight-money ideology are voting out of frustration and anger. As Einstein once said, an empty stomach is not a good political adviser. 
  
  And yes, when people are in desperate straits most of them don't write letters to the editor critiquing monetary policy. Instead they look for simple excuses -- for example venting their anger at anyone who is "different." Europe, which unlike the U.S. is composed of ethnic nation-states, has been down that road before.
  
  Phil Brentwood, TN 4 hours ago
  Dream on. National, ethnic, religious and trial identities have existed as long as humankind, and there is no indication that it's fading.
  
  Prometheus NJ 4 hours ago
  "Tomorrow, after my death, certain people may decide to establish fascism, and the others may be cowardly or miserable enough to let them get away with it. At that moment, fascism will be the truth of man, and so much the worse for us. In reality, things will be as much as man has decided they are."
  
  J. P. Sartre
  
  mahoneyct Paris, France 2 hours ago
  Europe was fractured in the 1930s by deflation, and it is being fractured again by deflation. No political party of any ideology can survive four years of zero growth and high unemployment. Europeans don't know it, but their problem is not the EU, it is the ECB.

  
  
• 

  Smaranda Dobrescu Si comentatorii nu sunt cum s-ar spune direct interesati.. Uite ca discuta serios, fiecare cu cate o parere valabila care denota o gandire si cunostiinte personale. Iar presa noastra s-a blocat in procente, nu in trenduri si explicatii. In acest moment, personajul Basescu cred eu nu ar trebui sa mai fie punctul central de interes/blamat,cel mult sistemul pe care l-a instalat si in sfarsit ar trebui dezbatute si amintite problemele europene, statutul nostru in Europa, chiar daca in campanie nu prea le-am auzit.

  
  
• 

  Adrian H. Todea Multumin d-lui "Un prospectiv" pentru efortul de a ne pune pe masa comentarii care ar fi trebuit sa abunde in presa noastra libera, cum bine amintea Smaranda.