European Parliament Election: May 23-26, 2019

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I didn't realise this was a thread about the 2016 US presidential election?

BSBob must be new to you.

Also perhaps people who prioritize elderly care and are often in contact with older people, either privately (ill family members) or professionally (in nursing).

^^ I'm 26 and could see myself voting for 50PLUS for this reason if I were pissed at the left-wing parties.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I notice that the current EFDD group only has MEPs from 3 countries (Brexit Party, 5 Stars and AfD) They need 7 countries to form a group. Not certain they will be able to do it.

AfD will go to EAPN. EFDD's fate is very uncertain. Farage hates Le Pen but can't join ECR either (Tories).

TIL Farage and Le Pen don’t like each other.

Farage currently seems very concerned with staying above the fray of overt racism, although I don't know enough about him to discount the possibility that that's a new thing for him after UKIP's far-right turn.

I could see a rational case for the Tories going to EPP and the Brexit Party going to ECR, but I couldn't see it happening in actual political reality.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Any reason for that particular political geography that isn't "Former German Empire+Warsaw"? (You can also see the usual rural vs urban divide of course)

Isn't most of the present-day population of those parts of Poland descended from colonists who settled the areas annexed from Germany after World War II after they themselves were forced out of areas annexed to the USSR? Could that have something to do with it?

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

And then it's also interesting looking at Vendée (the Southernmost department in the Pays de la Loire), which was traditionally the most conservative area in France and was De Villiers' fief, but now only the Fontenay-le-Comte (the historic capital of Vendée) area voted RN, the rest voted LREM. I guess Vendée is still conservative but it is wealthier and has less immigration than other regions and thus explains its current voting patterns.

Moreover the bougie-right parts of Paris and the Petite Couronne seem to have been LREM's strongest area in the whole country. Antonio's been talking to me a lot off-forum about Macronism's seduction of much of the traditional right's support base.

It's also interesting (and depressing) to see the concatenation of the post-industrial North and the right-rightist Riviera as RN's two strongest areas.