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.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
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