European election results show centrist parties holding their ground, but leaders of key EU member states are blushing at the rise of the far-right in their countries.
Some 375 million voters took part in the 27-nation EU elections, the second-largest electoral exercise in the world after India. The European Parliament has 720 seats and members are elected on a proportional representation basis.
The main political parties from European countries have joined forces to form political groups in the European Parliament. The centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), which includes Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is again the largest group with 190 seats. The second largest group, the Social Democrats, lost a few seats with 136 seats. These two centrist groups will still make up around 45% of the European Parliament, as they did in the last parliament elected in 2019.
The liberal parties grouped under Renew and the green Greens both suffered heavy defeats, losing around 20 seats each, while eurosceptics and independents, who take a far-right and nationalist stance, won equal numbers of seats.
At the European level, the damage caused by the far right has been somewhat contained, but domestically, their rise has embarrassed governments in both France and Germany, the two main drivers of the EU. In France, Marie Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally won 31% of the vote, more than double the support of President Emmanuel Macron’s party, forcing him to dissolve the National Assembly and call general elections. Of course, this is also a ploy for Macron to maintain his lead in France. But it does not hide the utter humiliation of the European elections.
In Germany, the far-right and anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany (AfD) won 16% of the vote, compared with 14% for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SDP). The opposition party in the German parliament, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), won 30% of the vote. Similar gains for the far-right were seen in Austria and Belgium, where the Belgian prime minister tendered his resignation to the Belgian king.
Italy’s ruling Brothers of Italy party saw a huge increase in its vote share from 6% in 2019 to 28% this time. Its Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is nationalist and slightly right-wing at home, but at the European level he is quite moderate, not taking the pro-Russian positions seen in many other right-wing parties in Europe. This result should help to consolidate Meloni’s position as a respected leader in the EU. In fact, she is particularly seen as a constructive leader by Ursula von der Leyen, who is seeking to retain the powerful post of President of the European Commission and has publicly declared herself the European People’s Party’s (EPP) leading candidate for this post.
The nomination of key leadership roles in the EU, especially the President of the European Commission, is the subject of complex negotiations among the 27 member states and usually involves a certain distribution of powers between countries and political groupings, since the nominee also needs approval from the European Parliament. In 2019, Germany’s Ursula von der Leyen was supported by two centrist parties and the Liberal Party. As part of the distribution of powers, Spain’s Socialist Josep Borrell became High Representative for Foreign Affairs.
Again, these three groups together have more than a majority, making von der Leyen a strong candidate for reelection. However, some advocate replacing von der Leyen or forming a political arrangement in which the center-right cooperates with the more right-wing parties, such as the conservatives, rather than the center-left or the Greens. They argue that the right needs to unite, and that on immigration the far-right’s arguments resonate with voters and should not be ignored. They also recognize that to ensure the right’s dominance, the center-right needs to cooperate with the far-right. This could be a response in case a Trump administration comes to power across the Atlantic.
Although the European Parliament does not have the power to initiate legislative measures, it is an important institution as it must approve important EU actions and agreements with other countries. In the current situation, relations with Russia are a top priority both at the EU level and among EU countries. The policy of the EU and EU countries, with the exception of some countries such as Hungary, is an agreed policy to work with NATO and the United States to counter Russia. This policy was reaffirmed at the recent G7 summit, where even stronger measures were agreed to counter Russia and support Ukraine.
On another major issue, relations with China, EU leaders joined the United States in applying more pressure. The EU as a whole, and Germany, as the EU’s largest economy, are serious about maintaining trade and investment relations with China, and are well aware that any tightening of relations could lead to China’s retaliatory measures to the detriment of Germany. And the EU and its countries can only hope to maintain their interest in the Indo-Pacific.
What is important for the Indian side is to conclude the long-pending trade and investment agreement, while recognising that the rise of the far right has added some resistance to people movement and migration issues. While much of the migration anxiety in Europe has an Islamophobic dimension, what India offers fills the skills gap and while Europe is well aware of it, its overall impact cannot be underestimated. As seen at the recent G7 summit in Italy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and European leaders have good relations. These must be harnessed for economic gains that benefit both sides.
The author is a former diplomat and Indian Ambassador to Nepal and the EU.
© Indian Express Ltd.
First uploaded: 19 Jun 2024 13:24 IST
