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Shockwaves have followed elections throughout the European Union (EU), where centre-right parties have secured a clear majority in the European Parliament for the first time in over 30 years.

The politics of the European Parliament have always been complex, because people are elected in national polls by the usual political parties, but when they assemble in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, they vote in formal groups which only roughly coincide with national politics.

Elections for the European Parliament are based on proportional representation within each country.

There are seven groups within the European Parliament, the largest being the European People’s Party (EPP), whose foundation are the Christian Democratic parties of Western Europe. The EPP will have 180 members in the 720-seat Parlia­ment (25 per cent).

The next largest is the self-styled Socialists and Democrats, based on the Socialist parties around Europe. It will have 135 seats (19 per cent).

The number of votes needed to get to a majority is 360, so coalitions are vital for shaping the future of Europe.

Left Alliance

While the European Parliament has been historically pro-business, for the past 30 years an alliance of the Socialists, Greens and the Left (ex-communists and Marxists) have had a majority which has pushed an extreme environmentalist agenda on Europe, mandating “net zero” carbon-dioxide by 2050, and massive subsidies for wind and solar energy to replace coal-based power generation, which has been the mainstay of Europe’s economy and prosperity for the past 150 years.

They have been strengthened by the Renew Europe group, established by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the European left has had no interest in the fact that Russia, China and India have continued to expand their use of fossil fuels, while the prosperity of Western Europe has been strangled by green tape.

President Macron’s Renew Europe group, which previously had over 100 seats in the Parliament, was smashed, losing about 20 seats. It remains to be seen whether they hold together in the new Parliament.

The Greens also suffered their largest loss of seats in the election, losing 20 seats, and the Left’s vote also declined.

The largest groups secured few additional seats, because they were largely irrelevant to the major issues facing Europe, including soaring inflation driven by rising fuel and energy prices, uncontrolled immigration, and coercive anti-farming and anti-industry policies emerging from the European Parliament.

Centrist Outcome

The big winners were two groups which reject the left’s agenda, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and Identity and Democracy (ID), both of which are expected to end up with an additional 20 or 30 seats.

These changes will be reflected on the floor of the European Parliament, and are certain to lead to changes in EU policies on a whole range of issues, from immigration to agriculture and industry policy, and to the EU’s green agenda.

The left-liberal media went ballistic, portraying the election result as the rise of the “extreme right”, “hard right”, “far right”, “nationalist right” or other pejorative epithets. In fact, it is a swing back towards the centre of European politics.

One immediate consequence of the election was that French President Macron called an elec­tion for France’s lower house of parliament, the National Assembly. This election will take place before Paris hosts the Olympic Games late in July.

If, as expected, France votes against Macron in July, he will lose control of the National Assembly, which elects France’s Prime Minister. Macron will remain President and, as such, will control both France’s foreign policy and much of its domestic agenda.

A coalition of parties, including Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and The Republicans, may win a majority in the National Assembly.

There is no doubt that the recent election is a seismic shift in European politics and the end of the green-left ascendancy.

It is unclear what effect, if any, this will have on the upcoming British election, or November’s U.S. presidential election. Stay tuned.

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Republished with thanks to News Weekly. Image courtesy of Adobe.