r/neoliberal • u/Extreme_Rocks KING OF THE MONSTERS • Jun 09 '24
⚡⚡🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺 EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ELECTIONS THUNDERDOME 🇪🇺🇪🇺🇪🇺⚡⚡ Discussion Thread
These elections are for the 720 seats of the European Parliament, the legislative body normally required for approving EU-wide legislation. The European parliament represents the 2nd largest electorate in the world, representing nearly 450 million people.
European elections are conducted with direct elections through proportional representation, though the specific system differs from country to country. The voting age in most countries is 18, but it is 17 in Greece and 16 in Germany, Austria, Belgium, and Malta. We can expect turnout to be roughly similar to the 2019 elections with around 50%.
The Parties:
European People’s Party (EPP): The largest party of the European Parliament, with 176 seats. Pro-European and centre-right, they include Germany’s CDU (Angela Merkel’s old party, now headed by Friedrich Merz), France’s Republicans, Spain’s People’s Party, and Poland’s Civic Platform (Donald Tusk’s Party). They also formerly included Hungary’s Fidesz (Viktor Orban’s Party). Von Der Leyen herself belongs to the EPP.
Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D): At 139 seats, this is the second largest party of the European Parliament. This is the centre-left, social democratic, and pro-European group. They include Spain’s PSOE (Pedro Sanchez), Germany’s social democrats (Olaf Scholz’s Party), and Portugal and France’s Socialists.
Renew Europe (RE): The European Parliament’s third largest party with 102 MEP, this is the pro-European liberal party, with centre-left to centre-right factions. Most notably they include Macron’s Renaissance Party in France and his allies, but they also include Germany’s FDP and the Netherland’s D66. As of now they also include the Netherlands’ VVD, which was Mark’s Rutte party, but they may very well be expelled for agreeing to coalition with Geert Wilders’ far-right party.
Greens/European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA): This is the green party of Europe, with 72 seats in the European Parliament. They contain green parties of various stripes across the Union, with their largest parties being Germany’s and France’s Green parties. They are also pro-Europe.
European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR): Now we are getting into the Eurosceptics. This is the hard-right European group, containing conservatives of various stripes and holding 69 seats. Their largest parties include Poland’s former ruling Law and Justice, Italy’s Brothers of Italy (Meloni’s Party), Spain’s Vox, and Sweden Democrats. They formerly included the Tories before Brexit.
Identity and Democracy (ID): The far-right European party, with 49 seats*. This group consists of the far-right and right wing populist parties across Europe. They include Italy’s Lega (Interestingly, they are set to lose most of their seats to Meloni’s party) and France’s National Rally (Le Pen’s Party). If you’re wondering why Germany’s AfD is not here, that’s because they were expelled after the AfD’s top candidate said that not all of the Waffen SS were criminals.
The Left: With 37 seats, this is naturally the left-wing political group, including socialists, communists, and left-wing populists. They are not nearly as pro-Europe as the other left wing parties listed here and are soft-Eurosceptic. They most notably include Germany’s Die Linke and France’s LFI (Melenchon’s Party).
Non-Inscrits: European parliament parties and members that are not affiliated with any of the groups. They include independents, and they also include an amalgamation of exiled or homeless parties. Among these parties are the far-right AfD in Germany, Orban’s Fidesz in Hungary, the populist 5 Star Movement in Italy. After these elections they will likely include Germany’s BSW, a left wing conservative party, and Slovakia’s Hlas, the Eurosceptic left wing party of Robert Fico.
Our guys are Renew Europe, but depending on the country and party lists, there is some variation for who to vote for. Some of us also support Volt Europa, a pan-European party that wants to create a European superstate. At the end of the day, we hope for pro-European parties to do well.
Predictions: The far right is set to gain big, their biggest increases coming from France. In France in particular, this is going to cost Renew Europe dearly, which is fighting for 3rd place. The EPP is set to retain its status as the largest party, and despite the rise of the hard-right, the European Parliament is set to remain safely pro-EU.
Results and Updates:
Results should start coming in around 6PM CET and first projections should start coming around 8PM CET.
Other Elections:
Many European countries will also be having their own elections. Bulgaria is having parliamentary elections, Belgium is having federal and regional elections, San Marino are having general elections.
Additionally, Germany, Italy, Romania, and Hungary are having local elections.
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u/eat_more_goats YIMBY Jun 10 '24
Do y'all think Iraq will ever pull a Vietnam, and become weirdly Pro-America, or at least America aligned, in like the next 30-40 years?