The UK Sends Fascists to Brussels/Strasbourg; Sweden Responds With Pirates.

On June 8, 2009

At 2:24 pm

In Uncategorized

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This does not surprise me in the least. It’s been well known in the pol sci lit that the EU Parliament is best considered a “second order” election since the 90s (which is a fancy way of saying the EU Parliament is a largely powerless body devoid of meaning or purpose, so voters see fit to have all manner of fun with the process). As such we will see a general protest vote against sitting governments as well as a shift from larger established parties to smaller, more radical (left or right) parties (very good paper by Marsh here). What did surprise me is the general shift to the right across the entire EU, regardless of the ideological proclivities of the sitting government. The right of center parties held their own in Germany and France, both governed by such (to be fair, Germany is in the midst of a Grand Coalition, but the Social Democrats are the junior partner, and they did get hammered. Sarkozy’s party in France actually had the plurality of votes in the EUP election, which cuts against the grain).

So the UK sends two BNP MEPs to Brussels, and 13 UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party; they do what it says on the tin) MEPs. It doesn’t make Britain racist, does it? No more or less than it was in 2004. What was impressive is just how hard Labour were pounded. Labour finished third, behind the Tories and UKIP. They lost an election in Wales for the first time since 1918. In the Southwest England constituency, Labour finished fifth, behind not only the Tories and UKIP, but also the LibDems and the Greens. The Southwest lost its sole Labour MEP as a result of this election (the EUP elections in England, Scotland, and Wales use PR, so the SW constituency has six MEPs; just to keep things interesting, Northern Ireland uses STV to elect its MEPs).

I’d say something about the relative success of The Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, led by Geert Wilders, who is banned from entering the UK due to his extremism, but at least the two BNP MEPs will have some drinking buddies in Brussels (and I know a few good pubs they can all hang out in together) but I can’t be bothered. I do find the situation where a sitting MEP is barred from visiting one of the constituent states of the EU hilarious. It would be like if a sitting Senator from North Carolina once said . . . oh, hang on.

A few more random thoughts on this: you have to embrace a country (Sweden) that elects one or two (presumably they’re still counting) MEPs from The Pirate Party. A student, possibly one of mine, possibly in one of my classes, might have possibly once penned the following on a final exam: “equally important is that all country-members of the European Economic Community have the same currency, the Euro”. Said student is British, attending a British university, presumably paid in Sterling at his or her part time job. I wonder if this student voted on Thursday. Finally, this result, while anticipated, doesn’t much help the case for Gordo.

correct spelling of proper names, election, european union

Born in San Jose, grew up in Seattle, received a Ph.D. in poli sci from University of Washington in 2000. I worked for three years at Universiteit Twente in Enschede, Netherlands, and have worked at the University of Plymouth for 16 academic years now in Plymouth, United Kingdom. I also currently serve as joint campaign coordinator for the Plymouth Sutton & Devonport Constituency Labour Party.

By Dave Brockington