EP elections 2014 - Results Thread

[Middle-aged Europe]

Le Pen speaking...

She can't be. Speaking requires thought.

Isn't people saying that type of thing one of the (many) reasons why parties like FN have been able to gain such purchase in the last couple of decades?

No, it isn't.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Results for the borough of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg in Berlin, where I live:

Greens 33.9%
Left 22.0%
SPD 18.4%
CDU 7.7%
Pirates 5.1%
Die PARTEI 3.8%
AfD 3.4%
FDP 1.6%
Animal Protection 1.5%
DKP (German Communist Party) 0.4%

All other parties below 0.4%, including NPD, ÖDP, Family Party, and Free Voters.

Turnout: 54.5%

[Middle-aged Europe]

Die PARTEI won a seat!

....what?

Voting for a joke party is the most stupid thing anyone can do.

Voting for Die PARTEI effectively reduced the chance of the NPD winning a second seat.

In any case, PARTEI leader Martin Sonneborn has announced that the'yre going to keep their campaign promise of resigning their seat every 30 days, so that any of the 60 PARTEI candidates on their list gets a chance to serve for a month in the European Parliament. Sonneborn said he's gonna use his 30 days to prepare himself for his impending resignation.

[Middle-aged Europe]

One man, two votes: Giovanni di Lorenzo, editor-in-chief of the German newspaper DIE ZEIT announced yesterday that he voted twice. As a dual citizen of Germany and Italy he cast his ballots for both countries.

[Middle-aged Europe]

One man, two votes: Giovanni di Lorenzo, editor-in-chief of the German newspaper DIE ZEIT announced yesterday that he voted twice. As a dual citizen of Germany and Italy he cast his ballots for both countries.

That's cheating! I didn't vote in France...

He's being investigated for it.

Yeah, apparently on the suspicion of voter fraud.

He also claims that he didn't know that he was forbidden from voting twice.

Ooooops...

[Middle-aged Europe]

I don't think it's hard to check, but rather hard to enforce the penalty (because what's the EU law about this "crime" ?).

If there are election protocolls in both his German and Italian precincts, that would be a matter of 10 minutes to find out if he voted twice.

German authorities are investigating him for breaking German law. Article 107a of the German Criminal Code: Voter fraud.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Marine Le Pen should try to get maybe one of Germans, like ÖDP or FAMILIE.

Realistically, the only German party which would be willing to join with Le Pen is the NPD and that's it. Even the AfD wouldn't do it. And certainly not ÖDP or Family. The ÖDP is currently headed by a guy who originally was a member of the youth wing of the CSU, but ultimately left this party because he considered them too conservative.

[Middle-aged Europe]

German Green party MP Jürgen Trittin has accused Angela Merkel of practically committing electoral fraud if she prevents Juncker from becoming Commission president.

This morning I also read a joke that it was Merkel's plan all along to become President of the European Comission herself, at least this would finally explain why her face was on all the CDU election posters in Germany instead of Juncker or the CDU lead candidate David McAllister.

[Middle-aged Europe]

The Family Party joining ECR and the ÖDP joining Greens-EFA is kind of interesting because both parties used to cooperate in elections (having a no-competition agreement and running with joint candidate lists) and at one point even considered a merger.

Then again, the ÖDP once ran with the Animal Protection Party on a joint ticket in the 2006 Saxony-Anhalt state election and Animal Protection now belongs to GUE-NGL.

[Middle-aged Europe]

The AfD has now officially joined the ECR group which puts them at 62 seats.

Merkel's gonna be pissed!

[Middle-aged Europe]

The total number of MEPs by party as of now:

Others 13

Who are these others? The Greek Golden Dawn?

From Germany the NPD and Die Partei.

[Middle-aged Europe]

NPD, the neo-nazi party? What's Die Partei exactly?

The NPD are Nazis who are considered too extreme by Front National and FPÖ, and as such they are not invited into a potential EAF group.

Die Partei was basically founded and is run by the staff of the German satirical magazine "Titanic". Their most well-known platform plank is that they want to re-erect the Wall between West Germany and East Germany in order to make the division of Germany permanent. In the European election, they mostly campaigned on the promise of resigning their seats on monthly basis so that everbody on the party's candidate list gets a chance to serve in the European Parliament for a period of 30 days. In practice, the party's actions result in a kind of an anarchist obstructionism.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Oops, there's indication that Die Partei may partially drop the pretense and get semi-serious.

They published a decidedly non-satirical post on their Facebook profile asking their fans which group in the EP they should join: ALDE, Greens-EFA or GUE-NGL while hinting a own preference for the Greens. Their main argument is that joining a group would weaken the right-wing populists.

[Middle-aged Europe]

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Non-satirical? Not exactly...

Why not exactly? At best it's only mildly satirical.

The parts of this FB post which could be interpreted as satirical are the very first sentence and restating their goal of "Inhalte überwinden".

As for the first sentence which claims that they have received offers from those three groups to join them, I wouldn't rule out the possibility Sonneborn had some unofficial chats with people from these parties regarding a possible group membership. To my knowledge, it has at the very least been semi-seriously discussed within the Green ranks whether Sonneborn could eventually join their group. So, while the first sentence is probably an exaggeration, it's not entirely untrue either.

As for restating their goal of "Inhalte überwinden"... they put a smiley behind it, implying that they're not fully serious about that goal either anymore.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Re PARTEI

http://www.taz.de/Martin-Sonneborn-ueber-seinen-neuen-Job/!141709/

So, he's breaking his campaign promise of resigning his seat after 30 days in parliament? Just like any party, DIE PARTEI is just after the power and the money!!!