European Parliament Election: May 23-26, 2019

[Middle-aged Europe]

"Most social democrats" are reported to back von der Leyen now, which probably means she'll win the vote IMO.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

The election is beginning in some minutes.

[Zinneke]

"Most social democrats" are reported to back von der Leyen now, which probably means she'll win the vote IMO.

+ Lega, M5S and PiS because Mama Merkel called them with a carrot and stick in each hand. So the S&D will be voting with the crazies to vote in a bland ordo-liberal German centrist. woot.

[Diouf]

Among the Danish MEPs, DPP (1), SPP (2), Red-Greens Alliance (1) vote against her. Conservatives (1), Social Liberals (2), Social Democrats(3) vote for her. Liberals split with Morten Løkkegaard and Asger Christensen voting in favour, while the more Eurosceptic Søren Gade votes blank.

[Zinneke]

by 9 votes. Junker had near 100 majority IIRC

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

YES: 383   ✓
NO: 327
abstentions: 23 (blank votes: 22 | void: 1)

votes cast: 733

374 votes needed

[Zinneke]

"The confidence you place in me is the confidence you place in Europe"

Split virtually 50-50 down the middle?!
5 more years of these useless Eurospeak platitudes when at least Timmermans could have been a much better communicator of the status quo and tackled the Putin wannabes in the East.

[Middle-aged Europe]

At least she's not Orban.

[Yeahsayyeah]

Oh, Zensursula-Flintenuschi is bad enough on this post...

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Although I don't like Uschi, I don't begrudge her her election victory.
I still remember how disparagingly she was dumped by her own party when she so badly wanted to become President Köhler's successor in 2010. And what loser did we eventually get??? 😒

[President Johnson]

How disgusting she got confirmed. The voters have been conned by a bunch of national leaders including Macron, of whom I'm pretty disappointed. Manfred Weber in all fairness deserved the first attempt to win confirmation and Merkel should have voted against any other nominee than him or Timmermans in the first place. It's sad to see how this small club is playing games with an institution, that is so badly needed as the European Union.

[Anzeigenhauptmeister]

Oh, Zensursula-Flintenuschi is bad enough on this post...

You forgot "Raketen-Ursel". That's what my friends from the Bundeswehr call her. And yes, she wasn't respected whatsoever by the soldiers in general...

[Former President tack50]

You may now press F for Europe 

[Grand Wizard Lizard of the Klan]

Well, at least PiS is happy because as Polish FM said they stopped "federalist spitzenkandidaten system" and went back to elections of EC by "leaders and parliaments elected democratically". 

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

I'm no fan of Weber, but it's unfortunate somebody who didn't run as the Spitzenkandidat got the presidency in the end. It's a setback for Europe.

[President Johnson]

I'm no fan of Weber, but it's unfortunate somebody who didn't run as the Spitzenkandidat got the presidency in the end. It's a setback for Europe.

I'm afraid there will be no Siptzenkandidat in the future, just as Juncker predicted. Not unless the nominating power is stripped from the national heads of government.

[Ethelberth]

Hanoverian patrician, they have had Brexit once before.

[parochial boy]

This kind of sh!t almost makes me eurosceptic.

And it's not even about the spitzenkandidat thing. It's about the EPP and Germany and cloth eared out of touch elitists who lack even the slightest ability or willingness for critical reflection about what it is about the EU that people don't like

[DavidB.]

Happy the Spitzenkandidat process was killed off and especially happy Timmermans didn't become Commissioner.

VDL is awful and her plans are frightening, especially the climate voodoo package, the EU-wide social security system, and the scrapping of the EUMS' vetoes. But I doubt anything overly radical will pass in the Council. Hopefully she will be as weak and incompetent as she is supposed to be.

For the sake of gender equality I also think it is important that the Netherlands now propose a female Commissioner for VDL to pick from, not just Timmermans #EuropeIsAWoman

[CumbrianLefty]

This kind of sh!t almost makes me eurosceptic.

And it's not even about the spitzenkandidat thing. It's about the EPP and Germany and cloth eared out of touch elitists who lack even the slightest ability or willingness for critical reflection about what it is about the EU that people don't like

This, an awful decision and its frankly embarrassing that most "social democrat" MEPs backed her.

[xelas81]

As ignorant American^TM, all of this sounds bit over the top or am I missing something?
It seems to me that these kind of decisions in EU always involves backdoor dealing.

[Former President tack50]

As ignorant American^TM, all of this sounds bit over the top or am I missing something?
It seems to me that these kind of decisions in EU always involves backdoor dealing.

Yeah, EU decisions generally involve backdoor dealing. And it is indeed a bit over the top, I imagine a majority of Europeans won't know who this people are or what they do.

[Velasco]

For the sake of gender equality I also think it is important that the Netherlands now propose a female Commissioner for VDL to pick from, not just Timmermans #EuropeIsAWoman

Glad to see you are becoming a feminist. Mrs VdL is scoring her first points in this forum, apparently

"The confidence you place in me is the confidence you place in Europe"

Split virtually 50-50 down the middle?!
5 more years of these useless Eurospeak platitudes when at least Timmermans could have been a much better communicator of the status quo and tackled the Putin wannabes in the East.

Going against the Eastern Governments would have caused the EU to split break up. The EU is a wishy-washy compromise of peoples and Governments who have completely distinct cultures, values and attitudes, especially when it comes to liberalism, climate change and immigration. Nobody gets a candidate who entirely incorporates their values. Wishy Washy, empty platitudes and bad compromises is the only way forward in Europe without splitting, even if that is often hard to swallow when from western europe.

You see, sometimes it's necessary a firm stand just because you can't go anywhere with wishy washy compromises made of platitudes. At the end trying to appease the Visegrad reactionaries will reveal useless, as immobilism only fosters disappointment and Euro-scepticism. Shaking things a bit and taking some risks is always preferable to die in slow agony. On the other hand, I think it's obvious that the EU expansion to the East was too premature. This cannot be reversed, but maybe we should begin to consider a two-speed Europe is better than the perpetuation of the status quo.

All hail the new empress VdL

[Zinneke]

"The confidence you place in me is the confidence you place in Europe"

Split virtually 50-50 down the middle?!
5 more years of these useless Eurospeak platitudes when at least Timmermans could have been a much better communicator of the status quo and tackled the Putin wannabes in the East.

Going against the Eastern Governments would have caused the EU to split break up. The EU is a wishy-washy compromise of peoples and Governments who have completely distinct cultures, values and attitudes, especially when it comes to liberalism, climate change and immigration. Nobody gets a candidate who entirely incorporates their values. Wishy Washy, empty platitudes and bad compromises is the only way forward in Europe without splitting, even if that is often hard to swallow when from western europe.

I don't want to share this Union with de facto dictators.

[Swedish Rainbow Capitalist Cheese]

As ignorant American^TM, all of this sounds bit over the top or am I missing something?
It seems to me that these kind of decisions in EU always involves backdoor dealing.

No you are entirely correct. This is not a big deal to anyone who isn't a combination of a European federalist and a political nerd. As a matter of fact, its just business as usual for the EU.

Everyone knew before the election that the member states would ignore the spitzenkandidat system. If anything it should have been obvious from the fact that the largest group in parliament choose a complete nobody as their leading candidate, considering that Weber hasn't held a single ministerial job in national government or another job in the commission. The only reason the council went along with the EPP's spitzenkandidat last time was that Juncker had been the PM for one of the member states for 18 years.

Despite what  some people like to act like, the European Union is not a federal state but a collection of several sovereign countries with their own independent governments and their own national interests and an overwhelming majority of voters in the EU want it to remain that way. They view their national governments as their legitimate democratic representatives (which should be obvious from the fact that voter turn-out for national elections are so much higher than turn-out for EP elections) and as such its also natural that they choose a Commission President that is broadly acceptable to most member states.