The European election results are in. Last night saw the EU Parliament continue its slow Rightward and populist trajectory. But despite some drama, this was largely confined to a few countries’ ballots, not the continent-wide rejection of the ‘globalist’ mainstream that some had predicted. The clues from this election about the future direction of European climate politics are similarly mixed, with the hard green vote falling sharply but centrist parties committed to the green agenda gaining ground.
The big dramas of the night were caused at the national, not European, level. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo resigned following the country’s coincident federal election which saw large gains for conservative and anti-immigration parties. Similarly, following a huge gain by the National Rally party of Marine Le Pen, which, according to provisional results, increased its seats from 18 to 30, President Macron called a snap general (parliamentary) election in an attempt to restore his weakening authority. In Germany, the ascendent Alternative für Deutschland saw a modest gain from nine to 15 seats. The much-feared rise of the radical Right, in the form of the Identity and Democracy (ID) group, was somewhat muted. The group gained nine seats, increasing its total to 58. The European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group gained four seats.
Both of these continent-wide political groups are circumspect about green policies, arguing for ‘affordable’ solutions to environmental problems rather than the radical targets-based ideological policies that seek bans before economic alternatives can be found. “Ambition has turned into wishful thinking and pragmatism has been replaced by an ideology that has produced unattainable rules and goals,” explains the ID group’s website.
Without doubt, however, the election has been terrible for the parties of the Greens and European Free Alliance (EFA) group in the European Parliament. According to preliminary results, it was the worst election for the EFA group since 1994, with the group’s vote share halving in some member states. Overall, the greens won 18 fewer seats than in the 2019 election.
The EFA fared worst in the countries that had seen the biggest boost for the radical greens in the 2019 election. Whereas in the 2019 election the German Greens had gained nine seats, six of these were lost in this year’s vote, leaving them with 16, signalling trouble for the German governing coalition, of which the Greens are a minority member. In France, the EFA doubled its seats in 2019, but of those 12, seven were lost this year, leaving it with just five.
These losses were slightly ameliorated by modest gains in Italy (three seats), Slovenia (one), Croatia (one) and Czechia (one), in each case up from zero in the last Parliamentary term. Single seats were also gained in Spain (bringing the total to four), the Netherlands (four), Denmark (three) and Sweden (three).
The 2019 elections were (falsely) hailed by many as a ‘green wave’. But as I pointed out at the time, these gains were confined to Europe’s wealthiest parts – the north and northwest – not signifying a continent-wide appetite for radical environmentalism. It seems that the last five years, which have seen lockdowns, the consequences of war in Europe and economic hardship, have shown that deep green politics is a luxury belief predicated on a surfeit of First World levels of abundance. Overall, the EFA’s results this year show a more diffuse and weaker level of support across the EU members.
Despite green parties now having been around for half a century, the group’s vote has historically only hovered around the level required to keep deposits, with the occasional instances of support above or below this level being akin to statistical noise. This speaks to one of the most enduring mysteries of European politics: with so little evidence of public support for radical environmentalism, why does the climate agenda dominate political decision-making both at the EU and national level? Now, with the EFA polling so poorly, will the political centre of gravity shift in Brussels, or will EU elites cling on to the Green Deal championed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen over the last few years?
The European People’s Party (EPP) is the centre-Right group which has long dominated in the European Parliament. In this election, the EPP increased its seats from 176 to 186. This is not a majority of the 705 seats, so in previous sessions the EPP has formed a Grand Coalition with the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group. After the 2019 election, the EPP joined instead with broadly liberal and centrist Renew Europe to give EPP’s nominee von der Leyen the majority she required to become President. However, Renew has lost 22 of its 80 seats.
According to the Telegraph in an article published before the election results, the EPP has already been attempting to soften its environmentalism to face off the emerging threat from the growing nationalist and more conservative parties. This includes vowing to “reverse the EU ban on combustion-engine cars as soon as possible”. But this politicking should not be seen as signifying intent. Much like Rishi Sunak’s minimal adjustment to U.K. Net Zero policies – the delay on the ban on gas boilers and combustion-engine car sales – the softening of policies doesn’t amount to a U-turn and is better seen as an attempt to save Net Zero. We’ve a long way to go before these managerialist technocrats realise the green policy agenda is ill-conceived and doomed.
But how the new presidency – which von der Leyen is hoping to retain – will build a majority coalition remains to be seen. It may be that Net Zero and the bloc’s Green Deal can be saved by von der Leyen seeking a broad or grand coalition, the members of which require a continuation of Europe’s green suicide pact. This may be a better option for the green champion, who would have to perform something of a U-turn if she is to rely on those to her and the EPP’s Right.
The former option would of course risk supplying more grist to the Right’s mill. Will the centrists risk keeping the Right on the margins, with the danger of greater blowback as public anger about mass immigration and the cost of aggressive environmental policies boils over? Or will they try to neutralise Right-wing parties by acceding to the minimum of their demands and bringing them in closer?
Whichever way von der Leyen and her cronies (or her successor and theirs) jumps, one thing is certain. This election was not exactly the earthquake some had predicted, but it does signal that there is nothing ahead but crises for the EPP and wider European political class. Either the corrupt, anti-democratic EU political elites continue to ignore the material interests of half a billion people, or they take steps towards shattering the consensus that has brought them to this point. With public discontent growing, threatening their cosy politics, neither option will be comfortable. Don’t expect an end to Net Zero just yet.
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Parts of my home town still think it’s 1984. It appears parts of the wider Labour movement think the same. Nasty people.
Same here, but boy, we could do with the coal now!
At least we know what Labour’s real purpose is – destroy family farms with inheritance tax so everyone will vote Labour in the Shires and end up working for min wage for Bill Gates’ Factory Farming Inc. conglomerate.
How much has Gates’ Foundation been paying Labour?
Probably was cheap 411 pairs of prescription glasses for cheap Labour MPs from the company advertising for £6 per pair.
Of course Starmer has his £6 pair because he is too worried he might lose the £4k pair Lord Ali bought him.
I’m wondering why he didn’t call them Kulaks.
Bring it on, be just like my home mining town in the 80s.. And I’ll be there..
In fact covid reminded me of those days, we didn’t quite have the police (military dressed as police) road blocks but it wasn’t far off….
Both sides were at it as I’m sure you remember. Scabs were the names of those who chose to breach the picket lines and go to work. Seen old footage of Busses with armour plating and the drivers & passengers in helmets because of the attacks on them and the vehicles they were traveling in. Not a great fan of Channel Four but they did a good three part documentary on it last year.
It was a pretty crazy time indeed…
Is John McTernan aware of the Holodomor and does he think Stalin a roll model?
The Holodomor was a natural event and nothing to do with Stalin.
“The idea of “holodomor” as an intentional or man-made genocide which specifically targeted Ukrainians and was used to crush Ukrainian nationalists fails on multiple fronts.”
In summary, here are the established facts regarding the situation 1932–1933:
Natural drought played a role in creating the situation.
Ex-landowning kulaks and Ukrainian nationalists did in fact refuse to work, murder collective workers, slaughter their own cattle, and otherwise actively sabotage the sowing and harvesting campaigns.
Importing industrial machinery was the reason for exporting amounts of food in order to increase production as fast as possible.
The cycle of famines which had existed for centuries prior and inherited by the Soviet authorities ended after the industrialization and collectivization policies had been fully implemented and the nazi invasion had ended.
Under Stalin, the Ukrainization policy went into effect for over a decade before being changed due to rabid bourgeois Ukrainian nationalist elements exploiting it for treasonous activities.
Stalin did not harbor any unique hostility to the Ukrainian nationalists any more than he did the Russian nationalists who he fought in the civil war or even the Georgian nationalists who he fought in the August uprising.
The Ukrainian nationalist movement in question was heavily tied to anti-semitism & fascistic beliefs before the 1930’s and exposed themselves in their true goals by aligning with nazi Germany in their hopes to create an ethno-state.
Central Soviet Authorities sent hundreds of thousands of tonnes of food to the Ukrainians from other regions and Stalin himself personally intervened to scold a regional Russian official objecting to sending aid and made him send food.
The situation of hunger encompassed the entire union to varying degrees, including impacting ethnic Russians.
The situation in Ukraine during 1932–1933 was not intentional or man-made by Joseph Stalin or the Central Soviet Authorities.
The overwhelming and vast majority of countries on this planet do not recognize this situation as being a “genocide”.
https://discomfiting.medium.com/holodomor-fact-or-fiction-17324ffe1d46
Who exactly has compiled that???
Some guy called Anton.
It is all referenced.
If you want further details that the Holodomor was a natural event try here …..
“Revisiting the perspective brought forth by Douglas Tottle, we are reminded of the importance of a nuanced understanding of the famine. Tottle’s painstaking exposure of fraud, manipulation, and the selective use of evidence in the genocide claim uncovers a troubling alignment with the interests of extremist Ukrainian groups such as the OUN. By revealing these connections and the ways in which the fraudulent narrative served their purposes, he brings to light the deeply problematic reduction of the Holodomor to a Ukrainian-centric tragedy or a simplistic genocide. Such an approach obscures the broader socioeconomic context, denies the interconnected suffering that affected various ethnicities, and undermines the multifaceted nature of the crisis. Engaging with this more complex view is not only an intellectual endeavor but an ethical obligation to honor the memory and experiences of all who endured that difficult period.”
https://ddgeopolitics.substack.com/p/f23f5fff-430a-4eb5-b80e-676dfb1d5440
And here ……
Counterpunch has 27 articles on the lies about the Holodomor.
https://www.counterpunch.org/search-results/?cx=000357264939014560440%3Aicshsy4bfu0&ie=UTF-8&q=holodomor#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=holodomor&gsc.page=1
Some fellow Stalinist.
I think you’re wrong about that.
What are your views on Solzhenitsyn?
I have no views on him.
All I know is that he wrote “The Gulag Archipelago” which I used to give people as a charade to act out as it was so difficult.
If I wanted to know more about him I would use my “trusted” sources to form a well read and educated opinion.
Ah yes, the infamous Stalin roll, cast after his very own image!
Sorry for the silly joke but I simply love this typo.
Oh dear, yes. I can’t change it so I’ll have to own it. Wonder if Greggs would sell it and what would be in it.
First they wanted to import all the gas, now they want to import all our food. How does this help us meet CO2 targets exactly?
I also noticed that Kier and pals flew to COP, couldn’t they get the train or use an electric car?
A skeptical person might think this is all BS…
..
After thatcher sold off all the family silver!
Well said Ozone
Because once we are net importers of food and energy all anyone of the global elites has to do is switch it all off.
Nailed it !!!
Labour revealed in all their brazen psychopathy.
.
https://youtu.be/Phoqxoolol0?si=n6VqTzEB3IpBLxhF
Time to bin those seed oils
Seed oil! You mean tractor lubricant?
Sunflower,rapeseed and all the rest is the most processed human food on earth and should never be ingested
I stopped roasting potatoes in Sunflower oil when I saw the shellac-like coating left by it on the roasting tray.
Whatever that is you are eating it.
I turned to Olive oil and no residue of any kind was noticeable.
Interesting video, thanks.
It’s best not to give any credence to what mentally ill people say.
10 minutes in an empty room with a farmer would sort this c-nt out !
A political adviser telling us what we do not need!
“Whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.”
If we are looking at things we do not need I would put political advisers a huge step above small farmers.
Having spent my career in agriculture and horticulture I recall how years ago we derided the ineffective and incompetent Soviet collective farms and yet here were are pushing down that route. They want everything to be big, corporate and under their thumb, ostensibly free market but in reality pretty close to a Soviet State collective operation. It is a dismal, grey and uninspiring vision for the future and not a world in which I feel at home.
Wonderful quote! Who said that?
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels
Thank you!
Politicians, lawyers,solicitors,accountants and criminals stand nessasary only in a frivolous world!
My father was a smal farmer and always resented the attention and high wages paid to miners. he pointed out most of them were, or descended from rural workers on other parts of the country who went into the mines for bigger money. He resented the way they used monomopy and political power to get higher wages and better benefits that farm workers or farmers themselves.
The media used to be full of the high injury and death rate among miners. They never discussed the higher rate among farmers and farm workers. The latter did not get sickness benefit or high pensions. NB I see this government has given the surplus in the miners pension scheme to the miners even though the cash came from tax payers.
The tone of the Blairite commentator sugests they view small farmers as Kulaks. Thereby to be monstered by the socialists in power.
They all seem to think food comes from supermarkets. How wrong they are. What a disastrous five years we are in for – thanks Tories for so screwing up they got in.
Vote Reform!
Farmers produce food. In the grand scheme of things, what do former Tony Blair aides produce which is useful to anyone but themselves?
Hot air? Could be used to heat up a small village. There would need to be filters to remove the sound of his voice though.
If only the manure they spout could be put on the fields and do some good…
As pointed out elsewhere; that appears to be Len McCluskey’s slow witted brother.
Much of the essence of all that is best of Britishness resides in the countryside and small towns and that is why they need to be destroyed.
The miners too were destroyed not for economic reasons but because they were seen as a threat to the state. Scargill made it easy for the govt but they were doomed any which way.
The great universities, public schools, the church, the Army – all destroyed.
See the pattern yet?
Exactly.
His words are truly shocking. He fails to mention that it was his & Scargill’s Communist masters in Russia and Poland who benefitted most from “shutting down the industry”, as he so blandly puts it.
The British miners were destroyed, but the British Taxpayers were forced to keep subsidising the EU coal mining industry in Poland and Romania, and probably still are, while we are forced to import coal from them and Russia.
And Australia! Importing coal from 12000 miles away when it’s only 1 mile beneath our feet! Oh the lexicon of common sense seems to have abandoned us!
I didn’t know that— thanks. More proof that our own elected politicians hate us.
Speechless at how completely topsy-turvy this man’s understanding of history is. Struggling to know where to start explaining how completely befuddled and confused he his. Goodness me.
I hope shops refuse to sell him food.
And all eateries – restaraunts, cafes, market stalls and no biscuits at Trade Union meetings
Can only assume that this idiot doesn’t eat then, where does he think food comes from, “tesco’s” etc
We don’t need small farmers, we have bug factories in the pipeline…..
My God do these people hate us.
What an evil thing to say. Difficult to take on board what’s come our way in this Labour government, though I’ve been telling my husband for ages that once the Labour government were in they would start ramping things up, no holds barred. And it’s happening!
This man will regret his words.the farmers have had enough. No farmers, no food. Perhaps this man has a plan for,that?
Yes, same plan as the Holodomor.
Famine is the plan.
Depopulation Agenda.
Target: White Countries Only.