Europe's Voters Turn Backs on EU, Governments

[Dover]

Europe's Voters Turn Backs on EU, Governments
Mon Jun 14, 2004 07:56 AM ET

By Paul Taylor
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Europe's voters turned their backs on most serving governments and EU institutions in European Parliament elections marked by mass abstentions and protest votes on domestic issues, results showed Monday.

As counting in the biggest transnational election in history neared a finish, the scale of public alienation highlighted challenges facing EU leaders when they meet later this week to try to finalize a first constitution for the bloc.

"Across Europe we have seen sitting governments receive significant protest votes against them," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said before starting a final round of pre-summit constitution negotiations in Luxembourg.

"One clear message is that voters across Europe, including in the United Kingdom, want a European Union that works better in their interests. That's the purpose of the draft constitutional treaty," he said. But the huge protest vote against British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labor Party, and gains for Euroskeptics in Poland, the Czech Republic and Sweden, raised doubts about whether the new charter will ever be ratified. Britain is fighting to preserve national vetoes in core areas while Poland, the biggest of 10 new members, is resisting a change in the EU voting system that would diminish its power....Cont'd


http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=5414158

[Cicero]

1. I cannot help but wonder...

...if this could be the ultimate fate of all multinational governmental organizations. Let's face it, the UN is, at best, a joke, and at worst ... well, look at the Oil for Food scandal. Now we have an organization made up of 25(?) countries, with who knows how many languages, cultures, and backgrounds, all trying to agree on a new Constitution.

Is it all doomed to failure?

:shrug:

Later,

[silverpatronus]

2. look at it this way...

the west indian federation fell apart (i wasn't even alive yet and i weep for that...united, we could have been so much stronger), but caricom mostly works :shrug: i think it depends on what the organisation is trying to accomplish, and how they go about it really.

[Dover]

I think most Europeans are informed about the specifics of this proposed

union and simply don't like the way it is put together. It needs a lot of work to better represent them. This is a vote of no confidence in the current arrangement, not the end of all hope for a union. It will take several tries and a lot of re-writing if it's to be acceptable.

[aneerkoinos]

9. Huh?

Most Europeans are not well informed on the specifics of the possible Constitutional Treaty - how could they, it does not even exist yet.

This was vote of no confidence to national governements and most traditional national parties, who with their corporate media pals still continue to pretend that national politics are more important for most aspects of EU-citizens life than the political activity at the European parliament, where over 50% of all national legislation originates.

Most Europeans do, according to Eurobarometer, support the need for EU-constitution and consider EU-institutions more trustworthy than national governements.

I agree there's no big haste for the Constitution, one or two at most couple more we can live with the abysmal Nice-treaty. But I'm not sure it can be made much better under the political realities. The single most important democratic issue would be to require it's acceptance by single European wide referendum instead of national referenda.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. The draft constitution was completed a year ago

There's a Meeting Room thread (a slow forum, so it doesn't get archived if no-one posts for a few days) discussing the draft constitution . It points to the draft constitution here.

It's huge, and that's why we say most people are uninformed (including, so far, me - I can't see me reading the whole thing).

But they say they're close to agreeing the final form of it for the end of this week - http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/story.jsp?story=531688 .

[Dover]

4. .

.

[MasonJar]

5. That assessment completely ignores the monumental human-

itarian aid, the complexity of its contributions to the world's medical, environmental,social,etc. programs, the organization the UN brings to projects everywhere, and many such necessities. Just because American media never compliments the UN and just because we never abide by our monetary committments doesn't mean that the UN is not providing a very worthwhile service. It was the UN which had a good handle on Iraq's weapons; the US was the black sheep in that fiasco.

[BiggJawn]

3. Here's another way to spin it....

Something like what, 45% of registered voters turned out to vote? and of those who did vote, they voted pretty much against EU expansion. In fact, judging by the names of some of these groups, I'd say they may have voted the "Xenophobe ticket" in some places.

So one could also surmise that the Majority thinks everything is Just Jake, so they'll stay home and watch the Telly, while the RW nut-cases like Haider, et. al. go to the polls and take little bites until one day Mr. and Mrs. Average European wakes up and goes "WTF??? Didn't we see this shit back in the 1930's?"

Hey, it's happening over here, why not over there?

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. That;s one point of view

but it's worth pointing out that Haider's party lost 4 out of 5 of their Euro parliament seats in this election. Once they got into power, they turned out to be even more unpopular than the sane parties.

[BiggJawn]

7. Just using Haider as a "F'instance"

And thanks for the info about his party's losses. Guess they turned up the heat on the frog pot too fast....

[aneerkoinos]

10. Not pretty much

The xenophobic parties got perhaps about 30-40 seats from 734, and most of those "parliamentarians" are not even in the habit of showing up for work, so they are anything but significant. The new parliament looks very much like the old one, with very minor shifts.

Haider's party dropped to 6% from over 20, so they're finito.

Some of the "euro-sceptic" parties like the Dutch one, do in fact have positive pro EU-agenda, to improve the EU-institutions and working of the Union, istead of opposing it.

[reticulatus]

8. 155 Million voters

For all the doom and gloom about the "low turn-out", 155 million people casting a vote is not a failure of democracy.