The Hindenburg collapse of England's PM Theresa May rivals Hillary's terrible, horrible, no good, very day in 2016, except it hasn't been a surprise.
The surprise has been the success of Nigel Farage's Brexit Party, formed only earlier this year:
In UK, Farage's Brexit party storms to EU election victory
Farage, because of that Brexit conundrum, is the most prominent upstart success of the just-concluded EU elections, but he was part of a general trend across many countries:
4 Takeaways From The European Parliament Election Results
The "Takeaways" by heading are:
Andrew Sullivan (!) I feel has a good overview of the election, and a particularly good read on the collapse of the centrists. He also brings in the recent Australian election:
Good-bye, Theresa. Hello, Boris?
Sullivan is not neutral on the subject:
So when he gets around to pointing at the causes of failure, his lance is sharp:
If the dithering and wistful denial that followed the Brexit vote three years ago is a clue, we can expect nothing dramatic to happen quickly in the wake of this EU election. But that doesn't mean the political tectonic plates have stopped moving.
The surprise has been the success of Nigel Farage's Brexit Party, formed only earlier this year:
In UK, Farage's Brexit party storms to EU election victory
Nigel Farage's Brexit Party stormed to victory in the EU elections with 31.6% of the vote, final results showed Monday, giving it 29 seats in the European Parliament.
The country's two main parties hemorrhaged support with May's Conservatives finishing on 9.1% -- their worst result in a national vote in nearly 200 years -- and the opposition Labour Party reaching 14.1%. Smaller pro-EU parties did well: the Liberal Democrats fetching second place with 20.3%.
Nearly three years after the United Kingdom voted by 52% to 48% to leave the EU, it remains a member and its politicians are still arguing over how, when or even whether the country will leave the club it joined in 1973.
The country's two main parties hemorrhaged support with May's Conservatives finishing on 9.1% -- their worst result in a national vote in nearly 200 years -- and the opposition Labour Party reaching 14.1%. Smaller pro-EU parties did well: the Liberal Democrats fetching second place with 20.3%.
Nearly three years after the United Kingdom voted by 52% to 48% to leave the EU, it remains a member and its politicians are still arguing over how, when or even whether the country will leave the club it joined in 1973.
4 Takeaways From The European Parliament Election Results
Europe's traditional centrist coalition lost its majority in the European Union's parliamentary elections Sunday, with far-right populist parties and liberal, pro-European Union parties both gaining ground. The results suggest a complicated future for the EU, as voters look for new ways forward.
More than 50% of European voters turned out last week to vote in the parliamentary elections, the highest turnout in two decades and a sharp increase from the last election in 2014.
More than 50% of European voters turned out last week to vote in the parliamentary elections, the highest turnout in two decades and a sharp increase from the last election in 2014.
- The center-left, center-right coalition lost its majority.
- The far-right gained ground — but not as much as expected.
- Europeans are concerned about the environment.
- The U.K. doubles down on Brexit
Andrew Sullivan (!) I feel has a good overview of the election, and a particularly good read on the collapse of the centrists. He also brings in the recent Australian election:
Good-bye, Theresa. Hello, Boris?
If you were hoping that the recent wave of global right-wing populism might be declining, it has not been a very good couple of weeks. In India, the Hindu nationalist, Narendra Modi, was just reelected handily — with a hefty majority in the Parliament, despite expectations that he’d do far worse. Buoyed by resurgent nationalism and his standing up to China and Pakistan, as well as appealing to the left-behinds, he achieved something historic: the first full second term for a prime minister in nearly 50 years. But it’s impossible to understand Modi’s success without seeing his exploitation of Hindu anti-Muslim religious bigotry at the heart of it. This was a victory for illiberal democracy — one in which Muslims are used as a classic minority threat.
In Australia, in what some have called the biggest upset in recent political history, the Liberal Party coalition government (the center-right option) swept back into power against all predictions, while the expected Labor Party victory evaporated somewhere between the polls and the election. Some have argued that this was just another case of Australians’ discomfort with radical change, as pledged by Labor. But a key factor is that the Labor Party’s traditional working-class base — guess what? — lurched right.
In Australia, in what some have called the biggest upset in recent political history, the Liberal Party coalition government (the center-right option) swept back into power against all predictions, while the expected Labor Party victory evaporated somewhere between the polls and the election. Some have argued that this was just another case of Australians’ discomfort with radical change, as pledged by Labor. But a key factor is that the Labor Party’s traditional working-class base — guess what? — lurched right.
Sounds depressingly familiar does it not? The same rural-urban, somewhere-nowhere divide opening up all over the West — with the right doing far better than anyone expected. And for those of us committed to action against climate change, the Australian election, where climate legislation was very much part of the debate, and the recent retreat of Macron in the face of anti-gas-tax protests, are not exactly encouraging signs.
In Europe, it’s clearly getting worse. The elections for the European Parliament — taking place yesterday through Sunday — are now expected to end with a surge for the far right across the continent. Some of this was long baked in the cake: These largely meaningless elections to a powerless Parliament are often low-turnout affairs, where protest votes are common. They often help fringe anti-E.U. parties.
Nowhere is this truer, of course, than in the U.K., where politics has been transformed first by the Brexit vote and then by the center-right Tories’ failure to deliver it on time.
In Europe, it’s clearly getting worse. The elections for the European Parliament — taking place yesterday through Sunday — are now expected to end with a surge for the far right across the continent. Some of this was long baked in the cake: These largely meaningless elections to a powerless Parliament are often low-turnout affairs, where protest votes are common. They often help fringe anti-E.U. parties.
Nowhere is this truer, of course, than in the U.K., where politics has been transformed first by the Brexit vote and then by the center-right Tories’ failure to deliver it on time.
France too has seen its center-right outflanked in the current polls by Marine Le Pen’s outfit, which is now in first place, a notch above Macron’s En Marche. Two years ago, Macron beat Le Pen 66–34. Now, her party is beating his 25–23. Italy is now run by Bannon-loving, anti-immigrant populists. Matteo Salvini, the deputy prime minister, just convened 11 right-populist leaders from European countries in a rally before the European elections....
We’ll see the tea leaves better by Sunday night; it may be that the forecasts of a far-right surge are tempered. (Exit polls from the Netherlands show the center holding in that country, despite fears of a hard-right victory.) But there’s no sign yet that the center has been able to marshal arguments anywhere nearly as potent as the nationalist right’s. In fact, some of the Brussels plutocrats and Eurocrats seem intent on making things worse. Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, and hate-figure in Britain, declared to CNN this week: “These populist, nationalists, stupid nationalists, they are in love with their own countries. They don’t like those coming from far away, I like those coming from far away … we have to act in solidarity with those who are in a worse situation than we are in.†He somehow avoided calling them all deplorables.
But he’s right of course. People do tend to be in love with their own countries, just as they love the borders that allow their countries to exist. Those who turned the E.U. into a kind of megastate incapable of summoning real patriotism never quite grasped this, and still don’t.
If you want to know why neo-fascism is resurgent in Europe, this is why. The European project overreached, and has never recovered from the financial crisis a decade ago. Europeans have always been more attached to their own national identities than to some abstract edifice like the E.U. This has been compounded, as it has in the U.S., by elite contempt for the feelings of ordinary people, denial about elite failure over the last two decades, and an inability of those elites even to speak a language most people can understand. I’d vote against those elites too, if I were Italian or Greek. Their comeuppance cometh. What comes after is the metastasizing problem.
But he’s right of course. People do tend to be in love with their own countries, just as they love the borders that allow their countries to exist. Those who turned the E.U. into a kind of megastate incapable of summoning real patriotism never quite grasped this, and still don’t.
If you want to know why neo-fascism is resurgent in Europe, this is why. The European project overreached, and has never recovered from the financial crisis a decade ago. Europeans have always been more attached to their own national identities than to some abstract edifice like the E.U. This has been compounded, as it has in the U.S., by elite contempt for the feelings of ordinary people, denial about elite failure over the last two decades, and an inability of those elites even to speak a language most people can understand. I’d vote against those elites too, if I were Italian or Greek. Their comeuppance cometh. What comes after is the metastasizing problem.
Comment