I'm probably alone here, but for some reason I find European politics fascinating. Fully autonomous states trying (and mainly failing) to work together for the "betterment" of Europe as a whole. Plus it's incredibly interesting to learn how other country's government operates.

Not to mention the internal politics of each individual country.

I figured if there was anyone else like me, I'd start this thread to post news and general conversation topics. If no one else is interested, I'm sure this thread will die a quick death.

EU Elections start tomorrow and last the weekend with conservative parties expecting to gain huge numbers of seats and lead the coalition government potentially.

For those that don't know, each country has their own internal governments set up and then each country elects their own representatives to send to Brussels, Belgium and Strasbourg, France to sit on the 705 member EU Parliament (which will rise to 720 this June). EU elections happen every 5 years and the next election starts tomorrow where Right and Far-Right parties are expected to gain a ton of seats and lead the coalition to form the government.

The EU government was initially set up where the European Commission is the one who drafts laws and it is voted on by the EU Parliament. Parliament can make suggestions or urge the Commission to draft certain laws but they themselves cannot draft any laws. Within the past 20 years they've somehow been able to amend the suggested laws to whatever they want which in essence diminishes the power of the Commission.

The European Commission is headed by the Commission President with 27 other members. The President is proposed by the heads of State of EU Member Countries and elected by the EU Parliament. The Heads of States then nominate the other members of the Commission in agreement with the President subject to approval by the Parliament.

In essence, the EU government proposes and passes either "Decisions", "Regulations", or "Directives". Decisions and Regulations can be amended at the National level of each member country to "fit" into their country but have to keep the spirit of the Decision or Regulation. "Directives" on the other hand have to be implemented as written by each national legislation.

If a member country does not implement a Directive or likewise in a timely manner, all the EU can do is implement economic sanctions or withhold funding for projects.

Here's an interesting article by BBC that details the backlash of the Green/Climate Change movement across all of Europe which is expected to result in a conservative wave of seats and the Greens losing close to 30% of their seats.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4nneg6252eo

93MarineHorn said:

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I know this is going to make me seem unworldly or ignorant, but Euros are the whiniest little *****es when it comes to politics.

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100%

Not this guy. He tells it like it is.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Orb%C3%A1n

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Following the politics over in Europe and seeing the Parliamentary style of legislation, it's amazing how things change at the drop of a hat. Piss poor laws are written and passed, then changed, then stalled. It's amazing that their governments operate at all.

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Parliamentary systems suck in my view. Inherently unstable as you point out.

Legal Custodian said:

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Here's an interesting article by BBC that details the backlash of the Green/Climate Change movement across all of Europe which is expected to result in a conservative wave of seats and the Greens losing close to 30% of their seats.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4nneg6252eo

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Do you ever try to rent a car or drive one in London?

They have so many green taxes and congestion, taxes, etc. that it would never be worth doing

Go Holland!!

BRUSSELS The European Union is shifting to the political right. The question this week is how far and what that will mean for Europe and the world.

From Thursday to Sunday, roughly 350 million E.U. citizens are eligible to vote in European Parliament elections.

Polls suggest that various far-right parties could win the largest share of seats they've ever held in the E.U.'s legislative body, potentially surpassing the traditional center-right group in numbers.

The outcome of these once-every-five-years elections will influence European policymaking in the years ahead. It will also be a measure of Europe's political temperature potentially previewing Western voter sentiment ahead of national elections, including in the United States in November.

Here's what to know.

What are the European Parliament elections, and why do they matter?

From Thursday through Sunday, the 27 countries of the E.U. will participate in the world's largest election outside India and choose the 720 members of the European Parliament the only E.U. institution directly elected by citizens.

The Parliament has less power than other E.U. branches. It cannot directly initiate laws, but it can veto and shape them and is responsible for approving the E.U. budget, giving it some agenda-setting authority. Members of the Parliament played a key role in negotiating the E.U.'s landmark artificial intelligence regulations this past year. The Parliament also has the last word on the selection of the European Commission president arguably the union's most powerful job.


A strong performance by the far right would probably consolidate the E.U.'s increasingly conservative position on migration and thwart efforts to push ahead on E.U. climate goals. A very strong showing could temper support for Ukraine. It could also embarrass mainstream parties and further weaken their chances in national and regional elections.

What remains to be seen is exactly how well hard-right parties will perform and whether the political stars of the far right can find ways to work together to shape policy or remain mired in division.

EU Parliament let's hope the right wing crushes in the elections

Politico (fake news warning) has a rolling update for the EU elections.

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What you need to know.

• Ireland and the Czech Republic are now voting.

• The election has officially started, with voters in the Netherlands going to the polls. The exit poll predicts 8 seats for the GreenLeft-Labor merger, with 7 for Geert Wilders' far-right Freedom Party.

• Europe is heading toward its Donald Trump moment. If the polls are correct, this election will reorder the Continent's political landscape.
• Meet the likely next crop of MEPs. We've drawn up a list of the people we think may (with various levels of likelihood and lots of caveats) be elected to the next European Parliament.

• The European Commission's top jobs will all soon be up for grabs again after the election. Who's in the frame?

• The EU is complicated, so we broke it down for our cousins across the Atlantic.

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LePen goals toward a 'far right super group.' I started following this site, not sure if it will be good/bad, there's a lot of censorship in Europe:

European Commission President @vonderleyen, one of the world's most powerful women, is struggling to retain the support she needs in Brussels to secure a second term in office.

Watch the full video 👉🏼 https://t.co/EEJBO1AbfM #EU #euelections2024 #UseYourVote pic.twitter.com/SihA0fvvmR

— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) June 7, 2024

Eva is always on point as well:

The European elections will be held tomorrow.

Here are my two cents on why you should go to vote and why you should vote for people who - just like I do - argue for national exits or the abolishment of the EU.

Let’s take the Tower of Babel down and reclaim our sovereignty. pic.twitter.com/JZluZnHJer

— Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) June 5, 2024

Legal Custodian said:

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I'm probably alone here, but for some reason I find European politics fascinating. Fully autonomous states trying (and mainly failing) to work together for the "betterment" of Europe as a whole. Plus it's incredibly interesting to learn how other country's government operates.

Not to mention the internal politics of each individual country.

I figured if there was anyone else like me, I'd start this thread to post news and general conversation topics. If no one else is interested, I'm sure this thread will die a quick death.

EU Elections start tomorrow and last the weekend with conservative parties expecting to gain huge numbers of seats and lead the coalition government potentially.

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This will be a good follow. I don't follow euro politics much, but one thing I'm wondering is do they play as dirty over there as our politicians do? I don't hear of PMs or presidents in Europe jailing and murdering opponents like the Dems do here, but maybe that happens.

There is a secessionist movement in Bavaria, to leave Germany and recreate their Kingdom. Thus would be awesome....lol

It is fascinating. Just be cognizant of what is permitted to be seen/read about their elections/parties. There is no freedom of speech in Europe today. And yes, they do play dirty.

Newsguard, Chatcontrol, the Europhile communists want to suppress all 'right wing' dissidents from political speech/participation;

🇪🇺🚨 #ChatControl: EU Commissioner @YlvaJohansson openly lies to EU ministers.

🏴‍☠️ Pirate Party MEP Patrick Breyer (@echo_pbreyer) debunks all her lies one by one in his video thread.

👇 Check it out below.pic.twitter.com/RUdj1eXs9E

— European Pirate Party (PPEU) (@EuropeanPirates) January 18, 2023

The EU's new Commissioner of "Truth" delivers a strong ultimatum to Elon Musk and X. "Censor Israel-Palestine war "disinformation", which we can't show you examples of, or face a 6% revenue fine and an EU ban." pic.twitter.com/xdPxM8Oqo5

— Conspiratorial Report (@CnsprtrlRprt) October 14, 2023

Mark my words: The EU's censorship probe of 𝕏 will ultimately angle to force 𝕏 to buy disinformation compliance services from an entity similar to NewsGuard in order to continue operating in the EU. https://t.co/DGjoKJL7uf pic.twitter.com/tvWZoQUjmM

— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) December 18, 2023

Their current efforts are to mainly stifle conservatives, Russians, and Israeli speech, but also anything not supportive of the key communist goals of open borders, wars, 'clean energy' and gender insanity.

The EU, like our Federal government, has far exceeded their charter. Bureaucrats have captured it and dug in. And now that England is gone, it's functionally a 5th Reich of German control over Europe, only in this case Western Europe is softly committing suicide and importing service workers so that they can die off in comfort. I see nothing salvageable.

Get Off My Lawn said:

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The EU, like our Federal government, has far exceeded their charter. Bureaucrats have captured it and dug in. And now that England is gone, it's functionally a 5th Reich of German control over Europe, only in this case Western Europe is softly committing suicide and importing service workers so that they can die off in comfort. I see nothing salvageable.

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Seems like it happened very quickly. My wife and I visited Germany and Italy about 15 years ago, and we got no sense of any of this.

93MarineHorn said:

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I know this is going to make me seem unworldly or ignorant, but Euros are the whiniest little *****es when it comes to politics. I can't listen to them without rolling my eyes every two seconds.

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I don't see them as any worse than leftists here in the USA

So results will not be released until Sunday night when all countries have completed voting. Early returns for exit polls in the Netherlands have a statistical dead heat between the Greens and the Freedom Party. Currently the Freedom Party only has 1 seat in the EU Parliament. This would put them at 7 or 8 if the exit polls hold. I expect however to see the Freedom Party take a lead.

BBC labels the Freedom Party as far right and anti-Islam and anti-Immigration. The Freedom Party won the minority-majority in the Dutch National elections back in November and have headed up creation of the government with three other parties but with the stipulation that the leader of the Freedom Party won't be PM.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3ggn4exnr0o

Tumble Weed said:

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I will admit that I follow British politics. Watching Brexit and the fallout is intriguing.

I read everything that you posted above, and the EU still makes zero sense.

One thing that I like about the euros is that they are still proud of who they are. Italians, Greeks, Germans, etc aren't afraid of their own history and celebrate it.

Meanwhile Americans are busy tearing down 100 year old statues for the crisis du jour.

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depends on the country, and on the period. germans aren't particularly proud of the nazi years, and younger spaniards aren't particularly proud of the franco years.

Old McDonald said:

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Tumble Weed said:

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I will admit that I follow British politics. Watching Brexit and the fallout is intriguing.

I read everything that you posted above, and the EU still makes zero sense.

One thing that I like about the euros is that they are still proud of who they are. Italians, Greeks, Germans, etc aren't afraid of their own history and celebrate it.

Meanwhile Americans are busy tearing down 100 year old statues for the crisis du jour.

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depends on the country, and on the period. germans aren't particularly proud of the nazi years, and younger spaniards aren't particularly proud of the franco years.

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Not sure if 'most' Spaniards appreciate Franco for who/what he was (I doubt it), but I know for sure most Americans don't.

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The American (and English) Right has always been very reticent about any endorsement of Franco. Part of this is the result of ignorance combined with the successful decades-long propaganda campaign of the Left. If you're ill-informed, it's easy to lump Franco in with Hitler, or if you're feeling charitable, Mussolini, and who wants to associate himself with them? Part of it is the inculcated taste for being a beautiful loser, on sharp display for some reason among modern English conservatives, not only Peter Hitchens in his book The Abolition of Britain but also Roger Scruton in How To Be A Conservative. But a bigger part, I think, is distaste for the savagery of civil wars, combined with the feeling that Christians should not kill their enemies, except perhaps in open battle in a just war. On the surface, this seeming pacifism appears to be a standard thread of Christian thought. But examined more closely, it is actually a new claim, since the contested dividing line has always been if and under what circumstances killing in self-defense is permitted. Whether the killing occurs in the heat of battle is a mere happenstance, now incorrectly elevated by some on the Right to the core matter, probably as a backdoor way of limiting killing by the state. The effect, though, is to repudiate killing in self-defense outside of battle, even by the authorities, ignoring the admonition of Saint Paul, that the ruler "beareth not the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."

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Much more at the link.

unsurprising, americans generally tend to look unfavorably upon authoritarian dictatorships. there has been an effort in recent years among certain right-wing circles in america to rehabilitate franco's image and dictatorship as a necessary evil to save spain from communism, on the basis that they want an american franco-type regime to save us from wokeism, DEI, degeneracy, communism, atheism, what have you. the author of the article you quoted just so happens to be the founder of an organization working toward just that.

Old McDonald said:

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unsurprising, americans generally tend to look unfavorably upon authoritarian dictatorships. there has been an effort in recent years among certain right-wing circles in america to rehabilitate franco's image and dictatorship as a necessary evil to save spain from communism, on the basis that they want an american franco-type regime to save us from wokeism, DEI, degeneracy, communism, atheism, what have you. the author of the article you quoted just so happens to be the founder of an organization working toward just that.

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So no substantive criticism of the many points made, just ad hom about the author. I expected no more.

nortex97 said:

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Old McDonald said:

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unsurprising, americans generally tend to look unfavorably upon authoritarian dictatorships. there has been an effort in recent years among certain right-wing circles in america to rehabilitate franco's image and dictatorship as a necessary evil to save spain from communism, on the basis that they want an american franco-type regime to save us from wokeism, DEI, degeneracy, communism, atheism, what have you. the author of the article you quoted just so happens to be the founder of an organization working toward just that.

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So no substantive criticism of the many points made, just ad hom about the author. I expected no more.

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And goaltending for communism to go with it.

were you expecting a point by point rebuttal of a 14,000 word essay you didn't write? why don't you offer up your own thoughts on franco or the article and we can discuss

the passage you quoted doesn't really make any substantive claim other than to muse about why modern conservatives are dovish when reflecting on franco's legacy. i am not a modern conservative so i'm not sure what argument you're trying to make.

European and American politicians and governments have one huge thing in common…. their countries and citizens would be much better off without 90% of them!

Old McDonald said:

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were you expecting a point by point rebuttal of a 14,000 word essay you didn't write? why don't you offer up your own thoughts on franco or the article and we can discuss

the passage you quoted doesn't really make any substantive claim other than to muse about why modern conservatives are dovish when reflecting on franco's legacy. i am not a modern conservative so i'm not sure what argument you're trying to make.

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Point by point? No. I expected the deflection from the historical analysis of the person (Franco) you brought up in the context of politics/Europe/American views.

A very strong showing could temper support for Ukraine. It could also embarrass mainstream parties and further weaken their chances in national and regional elections.

nortex97 said:

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Point by point? No. I expected the deflection from the historical analysis of the person (Franco) you brought up in the context of politics/Europe/American views.

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it's a piss-poor analysis based on this section from the passage you quoted alone:

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If you're ill-informed, it's easy to lump Franco in with Hitler

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it's easy to lump franco in with hitler because hitler directly and militarily backed franco during the spanish civil war.

Pretty lame rebuttal/deflection, yet again, to a lengthy and sophisticated historical analyses to a point/person you brought up.

In fact, as we can see, Franco/Hitler/Mussolini are being brought up widely as a purely panicked reference to terror at the populism/votes in Europe come in:

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Politico, as is their wont, will continue frantically clanging alarm bells (RADICAL RIGHT! POPULIST!) clean up to ballot box time.

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As Europe votes, a populist wave surges
Five months before the US election, radical right parties are expected to make major gains in the EU election

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Even as they basically throw in the proverbial towel, they acknowledge a seismic shift is in the making. The only question will be, what does it register on the Richter Scale?
"Stunning rebukes" is a good start.
And speaking of "spasms," watch as Politico hits the Nazi/fascist/Mussolini/Hitler and even Franco (!) high notes in their complete anti-populist denunciatory meltdown.

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And they sound positively bereft at the thought of what the outcome of these elections could mean for the direction of Europe.

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...What's likely to change are the EU's priorities, with the coming five years looking set to be less focused on environmental policies and much more on economic competitiveness amid increasing rivalry with China and the United States, with an emphasis on tough border controls.

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Yeah. That sounds...exactly why people will vote the way they've indicated they're going to.

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More at the link, as they say. Geert Wilders' PVV expected to win 7 seats at EP with new exit poll results (from zero).

The world is going more populist, just like Zeihan called in his last book.

The US is going more populist and stepping back from globalism (bipartisan) and with it goes some of the order set up by Bretton Woods. Europe follows suit. Everyone gets more protectionist. A lot of new rivalries will develop in Europe as challenging demographic issues meet economic realities. The EU probably won't be functional and more countries will leave.

Legal Custodian said:

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For those that don't know, each country has their own internal governments set up and then each country elects their own representatives to send to Brussels, Belgium and Strasbourg, France to sit on the 705 member EU Parliament (which will rise to 720 this June). EU elections happen every 5 years and the next election starts tomorrow where Right and Far-Right parties are expected to gain a ton of seats and lead the coalition to form the government.

The EU government was initially set up where the European Commission is the one who drafts laws and it is voted on by the EU Parliament. Parliament can make suggestions or urge the Commission to draft certain laws but they themselves cannot draft any laws. Within the past 20 years they've somehow been able to amend the suggested laws to whatever they want which in essence diminishes the power of the Commission.

The European Commission is headed by the Commission President with 27 other members. The President is proposed by the heads of State of EU Member Countries and elected by the EU Parliament. The Heads of States then nominate the other members of the Commission in agreement with the President subject to approval by the Parliament.

In essence, the EU government proposes and passes either "Decisions", "Regulations", or "Directives". Decisions and Regulations can be amended at the National level of each member country to "fit" into their country but have to keep the spirit of the Decision or Regulation. "Directives" on the other hand have to be implemented as written by each national legislation.

If a member country does not implement a Directive or likewise in a timely manner, all the EU can do is implement economic sanctions or withhold funding for projects.

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705 members and growing. That's got to be a cluster to get anything done.

Im in Budapest now and bumped into a huge rally for the Tisza Party. According to a guy working at the event, they are the 2nd largest opposition party. Seem to be middle-right. Several hundred folks family friendly. Huge stage with lots of speakers and bands over a few hours. We only stayed long enough to figure out what was going on and snap a few pics , but we could hear it all afternoon in the park just behind the stage.

Although the crowd was excited, others around the city seem to believe that Orbans party will win in a landslide. It's obvious however that they aren't too happy about it.

The urban (liberal) vs rural (conservative )divide isn't just an American thing.

WOW.

Massive Changes coming to the European Political Landscape, with this likely being spurred by the ongoing War in Ukraine as well as Migrant Issues across the Continent. https://t.co/ErKENnXCTH

— OSINTdefender (@sentdefender) June 9, 2024

BREAKING NEWS: French President Macron has announced he is dissolving parliament and will hold a snap election.

This comes after the right-wing National Rally led by Marine Le Pen got a MASSIVE victory in the EU elections projected to win 31.5% of the votes.

— PeterSweden (@PeterSweden7) June 9, 2024

The “parade of victories” of the opposition in the European elections continues:

France - the right-wing National Rally party wins the elections to the European Parliament;

Territory of Former GDR - first place in the elections to the European Union is occupied by the… pic.twitter.com/23e7VsRoav

— DD Geopolitics (@DD_Geopolitics) June 9, 2024

You hate to see it, but, more than that…