European Parliament Elections
Ropi sent me a link to this Guardian article on the European elections. This was his first time voting and he offered some of his thoughts about voting the other day.
The article he sent certainly reminds me how little how I know about how European Parliamentary politics work. Each of these country overviews (the article is much longer) is just the makeup on the face of the politics of the countries. Anyone ready to write an equivalent paragraph describing the 2008 US election in 40 words or less? Well, at least we know about American Idol if we don't know who the Prime Minister of Spain is.
They cover Sweden, Austria, and Belgium as well. And there are a number of links to other stories on the election.
The article he sent certainly reminds me how little how I know about how European Parliamentary politics work. Each of these country overviews (the article is much longer) is just the makeup on the face of the politics of the countries. Anyone ready to write an equivalent paragraph describing the 2008 US election in 40 words or less? Well, at least we know about American Idol if we don't know who the Prime Minister of Spain is.
FranceTwo parties claimed victories in the French European elections last night: Nicolas Sarkozy's ruling centre-right UMP topped the poll, but the new green coalition, Europe Ecologie, won a surprisingly high tally, forcing climate change back onto the agenda for all French politicians.
Projections in Italy indicated Silvio Berlusconi had suffered a clear setback after a campaign dominated by the controversy surrounding him.
Spain's rightwing People's party won its first national victory for nine years, as Socialist prime minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero paid the price of recession. Zapatero saw his Socialists slide to a loss by 3.7 percentage points 15 months after winning a general election.
Ireland
Voters rejected both the ruling Fianna Fail-Green party coalition and the country's most famous Eurosceptic, Declan Ganley, in European, local and Dáil byelections over the weekend.
HungaryRopi, this doesn't sound good. Can you elaborate on the Hungarian neofascist party?
A fringe neofascist party, Jobbik, made a breakthrough by winning three out of 22 seats in Hungary where the main centre-right opposition party, Fidesz, has won 14 seats, the governing Socialist party four seats and the Hungarian Democratic Forum one.
They cover Sweden, Austria, and Belgium as well. And there are a number of links to other stories on the election.