EP elections 2014 - Results Thread

[Cassius]

True, but even so, that's a surprisingly bad result for them (unless I missed something).

[Cassius]

A trend of eurosceptic and/or hard-right parties underperforming? I mean, the PVV did quite badly in the Netherlands, whilst the FPO and AfD did okay but not exceptionally in Austria and Germany respectively. Not that they'll be any real 'Europe-wide' voting patterns, its just a general observation. Except France, of course.

[Cassius]

How badly is DLR (my favourite French party ) failing in this vote?

[Cassius]

How badly is DLR (my favourite French party ) failing in this vote?

According to the projections, 3.9%, no seat.

Merde! Another obstacle to UKip forming a group!

[Cassius]

Le Pen speaking...

She can't be. Speaking requires thought.

Isn't people saying that type of thing one of the (many) reasons why parties like FN have been able to gain such purchase in the last couple of decades?

[Cassius]

Le Pen speaking...

She can't be. Speaking requires thought.

Isn't people saying that type of thing one of the (many) reasons why parties like FN have been able to gain such purchase in the last couple of decades?

No, the fact that they have never been in power on any level helps them enormously when presenting themselves as the anti-establishment party.

FN in power and people would slowly realise why they weren't in the 1rst place.

Of course, but I was just saying that it was one of many reasons as to why FN-type parties have been able to do so well (or at least comparatively well).

[Cassius]

The differences between the national parliaments and the European Parliament delegations of France and the UK is a great argument for how Proportional Representation leads to vastly different seat outcomes with the same electorate compared to single member districts.  In France the largest party in the European election has practically no seats in the national parliament.

But it isn't (really) the same electorate, given that turnout is so much lower in the Euros than in more important national elections. All the Euros are is a chance for individual electorates to let off a bit of steam and be 'creative' with their votes.

[Cassius]

The differences between the national parliaments and the European Parliament delegations of France and the UK is a great argument for how Proportional Representation leads to vastly different seat outcomes with the same electorate compared to single member districts.  In France the largest party in the European election has practically no seats in the national parliament.

But it isn't (really) the same electorate, given that turnout is so much lower in the Euros than in more important national elections. All the Euros are is a chance for individual electorates to let off a bit of steam and be 'creative' with their votes.

True, but the criticism still holds. Front National got 13% of the first round vote but only won two seats. UKIP could conceivably win 15% of the popular vote and no seats in 2015.

Yes well, that's why I'm increasingly favourable to the idea of implementing some sort of MMP system in the UK (though I'd be sad to see fptp go, it is, after all, a fine British tradition) possibly similar to the system that they have in Japan (which isn't exactly proportional, but nonetheless enables smaller parties to get some sort of foothold in parliament without producing endless minority governments).

[Cassius]

East Midlans
UKIP: 36
Conservative: 31
Labour: 19
Green: 5
Lib Dem: 4

[Cassius]

Where are the UKIP votes coming from?  The Conservatives don't appear to be losing more than 2-3%, Labour gaining a few points (probably from LD), Lib Dems tanking - but those votes aren't going to UKIP.  BNP appears to be down and clearly those votes are going to UKIP, but where else are they coming from?

Well, I'd imagine the Tories have won a few tactical anti-UKIP votes, so the percentage defecting to UKIP is probably more than 2-3 percent.

[Cassius]

Nice results. UKIP topping the poll, the Tories not doing too badly, the Lib Dems getting kicked in (though that expected by now) and the Greens actually going backwards (vote wise). Of course, these results don't really mean much, but nevermind that. First time a party other than the Conservatives or Labour has topped the poll in a nationwide election since 1910! If you'll pardon my use of cliche, that's got to be one for the history books.

Now, off to see if Dan Hodges has tried to claim that this is actually a disaster for UKIP and Labour, with the real winners of this election being the Lib Dems.

[Cassius]

There's now been pressure for Nick Clegg to resign as leader of the Lib-Dems. Doubt it will come to much, but if you watch a couple of recent interviews, he almost looks like he's close to a breakdown. I feel sorry for him .

[Cassius]

Why would anyone feel sorry for Nick Clegg?

Well, as much as I loathe the man, I do feel sorry for the predicament he's in. In the space of four short years, he's gone from being the leader of the wave of the future to being at the helm of a bedraggled and bickering crew of survivors, helpless as their ship, battered by endless storms, disintegrates around them. Of course there are reasons for that, and one can argue as to whether or not it's a good thing, but I can't help but feel a twinge of pity for him, as his troops abandon him and the hyaenas begin to circle. If (and they probably will) the Liberal-Democrats receive a bad beating in 2015, all he'll be remembered for is as a failure. That's not much of a future for him.

[Cassius]

That's not much of a future for him.

Seriously? He'll be knocking around for decades as 'Former Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg - Elder Statesman', will sit on this quango and that quango and as many corporate boards as he feels like. He will quite probably get a seat in the House of Lords. He might well end up returning to Brussels and becoming a Eurocrat. He deserves absolutely no sympathy whatsoever.

True, but if was thinking more in terms of his 'legacy' and how he'll be viewed in the future.

[Cassius]

True, but if was thinking more in terms of his 'legacy' and how he'll be viewed in the future.

Why should anyone care about that?

Oh trust me, I don't care about it. But it must be gutting for him. At the risk of sounding a little sentimental, I think that, too often, a lot of people simply take the view that politicians are a bunch of soulless automatons who don't believe a word of what they say and are only in politics for their own self-aggrandisement. To be fair, that's probably true in a lot of cases. But I think that we should remember that politicians do have dreams (rather like Mr. Banks in 'Mary Poppins'), and crushing for them to see them fade and die. To take the Mary Poppins analogy further, Nick Clegg has, by and large (at least in positive terms) failed to carve his niche in the edifice of time, instead he's been brought to quite literal wrack and ruin. I for one don't see why one shouldn't be able to feel pity for anybody who ends up in a situation like that, even if one doesn't particularly like them.

[Cassius]

PASOK did surprisingly well, all things considering.

You know what would be cool? Direct Presidential elections for the EU president. None of this stupid horse-trading and uncertainty.

Who knows, maybe we can bring in a European electoral collage. That's always fun to watch in the US.

I know some disagree here but I think interest in the elections would be a lot higher if people could vote for European parties.  Juncker for example says that he won the election which is funny because if you ask the average Fidesz voter in Hungary, they probably don't even know who Juncker is.
It would also be interesting if the top parties had more credible candidates.  Merkel vs Renzi would draw a lot more interest than Juncker vs Schulz.

Yeah, but that would only ever happen if the position was actually, you know, worth running for. It will only become worth running for with the creation of a federal Europe, and such a development is neither popular nor feasible.

[Cassius]

The EAF has managed to form a group and will hold a press conference next week according to the general secretary of the EAF. I guess the most likely last two members are TT(Order and Justice) from Lithuania and Mikke's KNP(Congress of the New Right) from Poland. It also seems that Wilders will take up his seat in the EP, but he has complained against the ban on dual mandates to the European Court of Justice, so I guess it's only until the ban is upheld. I guess he would prefer a seat in the Dutch parliament then.
Of course, all of this also means that there is almost zero chance left for UKIP to keep the EFD group alive.

Let's see how long it holds ...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/10889323/Europes-far-Right-in-crisis-as-Geert-Wilder-expresses-disgust-at-Jean-Marie-Le-Pen-comments.html

Strache (FPÖ) today has strongly criticized the senile LePen's comments as well ...

Perhaps its time for MLP to take out a contract on her father