European Parliament Election: May 23-26, 2019

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Of interest for GUE - melenchon is gunning hard for Syriza to be kicked from the group.

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ALDE should have quite a decent time - they will probably be returned to the Italian delegation, they'll return a decent slate in Spain (UpyD will obviously lose their four seats, but the surge of C's will make up for that), the resurgence of the FDP will boost their German numbers (although the FDP's spft Euroscepticism could create friction with Macron, En Marche, they can get some Polish representation with .Nowoczesna, Most in Croatia will probably make an impact etc

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depends - do he and Verhofstadt get on?

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Couldn't VVD join EPP?

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It'll be interesting to see if these elections can reverse the constant decline in turnout that has plagued them since the begining.

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Oh the Red Greens are running? Is this the end for the People's Movement Again the EU, or whatever it's called?

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Does anybody know what party the Croatian Human Blockade will affiliate with?

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Doubt it, Varafoukis' schtick is that he is eurofederalist leftist, and the starmen are neither of those things.

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In real life, what party will Kukiz and Razem join?.

Surely Razem would go in GUE and Kukiz in with whatever the FN group is calling itself? (There is also the matter of Korwin's new party...)

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Maybe more Eurosceptic organisations could be pinched from EPP and even ALDE to form a new replacement ECR: Fidesz being the obvious one.

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One of the things that isn't discussed enough is that Euroscepticism has fundamentally changed character in recent years, to the extent the name is sort of an artifact. Most all of the big parties, as they have prepared for governance, have shed ideas of leaving the EU or even the eurozone. Indeed, a lot of the rhetoric of European values needing to be saved could easily be appropriated into the demands of Eurofederalism (which would be a pretty surreal sight).

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People in the know, how united will the French centre be? Obviously you have En Marche, but you also have Bayrou's MoDem, the newly integrated Radical Movement (did anybody notice earlier this year that the PS annexe PRG has dissolved itself to rejoin the radicals? I sure didn't...), the UDI and I'm sure I'm missing a few. Will they all be on the same list?

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Apparently Macron, Rivera and Renzi are planning on running under a common platform in 2019.

If they aren't going to join ALDE, they need 4 more countries to join them. Who else would?

With or without the rest of PD?

I guess they could probably grab the Eurofederalist parts of ALDE - D66, Verhofstadt and pals, Radikale Venstre (?), NEOS etc or perhaps extremely liberal members of S&D like Irish Labour could defect. Maybe an independent "En Marche" list could get some healthy votes  in Germany, what with turbulence in the CDU probably precipitating a shift rightwards?

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The Fianna Fail MEP reps for ECR, iirc; not ALDE (although apparently he's always absent so probably won't return).

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Isn't there supposed to be a new Finnish Liberal Party that is trying to get off the ground?

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The Italian electorate are volatile enough that I wouldn't bother saying anything at this stage more than "PD will fall from their ridiculously inflated Renzimania numbers".

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ALDE has always been a bit of a nonsensical grouping - essentially it's just a catch all for parties that don't really have a left-wing heritage but also are a distinct from the primary centre-right faction. The new Macronista movement would most honestly do well to remove the likes of D66, the Swedish Liberal and Centre parties, Radikale Venstre, NEOS etc. from the National Liberals (FDP, VVD, UDI etc).

Honestly, the best thing to do for the soft-Eurosceptic-liberals to do would be to fold into EPP, which in turn could give up its more pro-EU parties into the Macronista league.

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Lol at the Lithuanian Farmers Party

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This isn't a joke: if the UK have EU elections after all, UKIP plans to put the YouTuber Sargon of Akkad on its list.

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Hilarious expectations management from the Conservatives, who have decided to not bother even attempting a campaign or provide funding for their candidates because it would be embarrassing to lose after trying: they are musing they might come behind the Greens. This might be an interesting experiment though: how important are cadre really? Because you can bet no Tory activist is bothering with this one.

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Hilarious expectations management from the Conservatives, who have decided to not bother even attempting a campaign or provide funding for their candidates because it would be embarrassing to lose after trying: they are musing they might come behind the Greens. This might be an interesting experiment though: how important are cadre really? Because you can bet no Tory activist is bothering with this one.

RIP Conservative and Unionist Party (1834-2019).

Nah, unless they suffer actual real parliamentary defections to Brexit they're safe as the leading force of the British right.

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Patriarchate of Lisbon enters in the EP election campaign by sharing on social media a publication that calls for voting in CDS, Basta! and NC:


The table shared by the Church. Picture from Observador newspaper.

The Patriarchate of Lisbon, the highest ranking Catholic Church institution in Portugal, entered in the EP election campaign, today, by sharing a table on the parties positions on abortion, euthanasia, prostitution, etc. By the info in the table, the Church advised the vote in CDS, Basta! or NC, while they refuse any support to PS, CDU and PAN. The post created huge backlash on social media, and two hours later, the Patriarchate deleted the post, saying it was a mistake.

Party leaders and candidates accept the excuse of the Patriarchate, and the majority are downplaying the issue, while Basta! candidate André Ventura said it was "was God who put me in this fight", and CDS says they cannot respond by the actions of the Patriarchate.

The Church seems surprisngly open to the CDU. I'm guessing irt prostitution they're aligned on the Swedish/EndDemand model, but why are they so ambivalent on other issues?

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just voted for a non-Labour Party for the first time ever (the Greens, even though I don't like them very much, given their blatant hypocrisy in reinventing themselves as Eurofederaliats after calling for the EU referendum in 2015). I just want the leadership to have a bit of a kick in the nads (although the Corbynistas will probably still claim he isn't our biggest millstone  at present)

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Dutch turnout is 40%, the highest EU election turnout since 1989. Might explain the muted Right?

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tbh the most frightening development of the populist right will be when they figure out that their Eurosceptic agenda is much less appealing for the general European public (outside of odd Greek bailout style situations) than their anti-immigration schtick. I would not be surprised if the next generation of the populist right synthesizes cuts on migration/repatriation with pro-EU sentiment or even Eurofederalism (i.e. "the forces of Europe and Judeo-Christian values need to come together to fight against the horde etc).