A four-day election has shaken the foundations of the EU, with the far right rocking ruling parties in France and Germany, the bloc’s traditional driving forces. For the next five years it would be harder for the European Parliament to make decisions.
French President Emmanuel Macron called snap national elections after Marine Le Pen’s National Rally humbled his pro-European centrists in the polls. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats also suffered as the extreme-right Alternative for Germany shrugged off scandals to make massive gains.
Germany will not hold a snap election despite calls for Scholz to step aside after his ruling coalition’s dismal performance in the EU election, a spokesman for the chancellor said yesterday.
Photo: EPA-EFE
In Italy, the party of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, which has neo-fascist roots, won more than 28 percent of the national vote for the EU assembly, which would make it a key player in forming alliances.
“It is a resounding result,” Meloni said yesterday of the gains made by her Brothers of Italy party, despite a historically low turnout of 49.69 percent.
“It is very important politically and also moving personally,” she told Rtl radio, noting that elsewhere in Europe governing parties had suffered in the polls.
Photo: AP
The center-right European People’s Party (EPP) is projected to win 191 seats in the EU assembly and remains by far the biggest group. The EPP garnered a few more seats, but the parliament is also expanding from 705 seats in 2019 to 720 seats this year, so the increase was marginal. The second-biggest bloc, the center-left Socialists and Democrats, lost some ground, but with 135 seats comfortably retains its place.
EPP lead candidate, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, had flirted with parties to the right during election campaigning, but after early results were announced she called on the socialists and pro-business liberals to work together in a pro-European alliance.
The environmentalist Greens were perhaps the biggest losers overall. They are likely to lose about 20 seats in the European Parliament, almost one-third of their tally from 2019. A series of protests across Europe by farmers angered at the burden imposed by new climate laws helped to damage their chances.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s centrist party clinched its first electoral victory over a right-wing populist party in a decade by taking the most votes in the European Parliament election.
Many viewed Tusk’s return to power last year as a rare case of a democratic party prevailing over populist and authoritarian forces. However, while the win solidified his position, the results also showed that his lead is small, and that support for the far right is rising.
In Spain, centrist parties contained a far-right surge in the European Parliament elections, helping to bolster Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez standing as one of Europe center-left’s leading figures.
The center-right People’s Party and Sanchez’s Socialists gained two-thirds of the vote, up from about half of the share in 2019, winning a combined 42 of the available 61 seats. While the anti-immigration Vox party’s vote share rose to 9.6 percent from 6.2 percent in 2019, it fell back from last year’s national election, when it won 12.4 percent.
In Hungary, upstart politician Peter Magyar smashed the nation’s image as one with no alternative to Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s rule by surging to second place in the European Parliament elections.
Magyar’s center-right Tisza came in at just under 30 percent in Sunday’s ballot, more than triple the support of a more established opposition alliance. The result makes him a natural challenger to Orban in the 2026 parliamentary elections.
While Orban’s nationalist Fidesz won the overall vote with almost 45 percent support, it was the worst result for the five-term leader in an EU election since Hungary joined the bloc in 2004.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
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One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
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