8 key takeaways from the European election 2019 results - CNN

Over four days last week voters across 28 countries delivered the highest turnout in a European election for 20 years as they selected new representatives to sit in the European Parliament.

Here are some of the key takeaways:

• Traditional centrist parties took a drubbing, with the so-called Grand Coalition -- which consists of the center-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) bloc and the center-right European People's Party (EPP) -- losing 77 seats and its majority in the EU parliament. One of the key figures in the S&D is Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, while German chancellor Angela Merkel is part of the EPP. In contrast, liberal-centrist grouping the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE&R), which includes French President Emmanuel Macron, picked up 32 seats and will now play an important role in nominating officials for key EU positions.

• In the UK, the Brexit Party, led by arch-Brexiteer Nigel Farage, took home 31.71% of the vote. This is almost equivalent to the vote share of the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats combined and reflects growing dissatisfaction with traditional UK parties. It's worth noting that the Brexit Party took most of its seats from the UK Independence Party, Farage's previous political vehicle.

• Spain's Socialist party recorded another strong performance following a general election win in late April, winning 32.84% of the vote. Center-right parties the People's Party (20.1%) and Ciudadanos (12.2%) came second and third as Spain bucked the general European trend towards political extremes. Far-right party Vox won just 6.2% of the vote.

• Results in France provided further evidence that a predicted surge in support for far-right populist parties did not materialize. Marine Le Pen's far-right National Rally won with 23.31% of the votes, according to the French Ministry of Interior, beating French president Emmanuel Macron's La République En Marche alliance on 22.41%. However Le Pen's vote share was a slight decrease compared to 2014, when her Front National party gained 24.86% of the vote.

• In Italy, the right-wing Lega Party, led by Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, took victory with 33.64% of the vote. Euroskeptic Salvini said that he will try to form an anti-EU bloc with Marine Le Pen and Hungary's Viktor Orban. It's unclear if that will materialize.

• Orban, Hungary's far-right nationalist prime minister, scored a huge win after his Fidesz party received 52.14% of the country's votes. That's more than three times the amount of the second most popular party, the left-wing Democratic Coalition, which received just 16.26%.

• The Green Party alliance posted its strongest ever performance in European elections, winning 70 seats and taking 9.32% of the vote -- a rise from 2014 when they took 50 seats. Much of the party's gains came from northern Europe, including the UK, Ireland, France and Germany, where young people have staged marches calling for political action over climate change.

• Greece's Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he would call a snap election after a poor performance for his party at European and local elections. The opposition conservative party "New Democracy" won 33.27% of the vote, with a lead over the governing Coalition of the Radical Left "Syriza", currently at 23.85%.

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2019-05-27 09:42:00Z
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Nationalists surge in EU Parliament vote, but pro-EU parties remain dominant - Reuters

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Pro-European parties retained a firm grip on the EU parliament, provisional results from the bloc’s elections showed on Monday, though eurosceptic opponents saw strong gains.

The far-right and nationalists in Italy, Britain, France and Poland came out on top in their national votes on Sunday, shaking up politics at home but failing to dramatically alter the balance of pro-European power in EU assembly.

At the EU level, provisional results published at 00:00 GMT on Monday showed the Socialists, Greens, liberals and conservatives with 506 of the 751 seats in the parliament that helps pass laws for more than 500 million Europeans.

While policy-making is likely to be difficult given the breakdown of a “grand coalition” of the center right and center left, the result shields the EU from anti-establishment forces seeking to break up the world’s largest trading bloc.

Spanish and Portuguese bond yields hovered around record lows as the retention of a strong majority in the EU Parliament by pro-EU parties bolstered investor sentiment.

“We are going to build a social Europe, a Europe that protects,” Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, whose revival among Spanish voters offset a fall in center-left support in Germany, told a news conference late on Sunday night.

President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance platform, built on the ruins of French center-left and center-right parties, added to gains for liberals at the EU level while support for the Greens surged, giving four groups the pro-EU middle ground and holding on to two-thirds of seats.

BREXIT SURGE

Cries of “Europe is back” among voters waving blue and gold EU flags outside European Parliament in Brussels on Sunday night also showed the ebullient mood among Europeans delighted with a sharply higher turnout across the bloc.

Turnout in the world’s second-biggest election rose to 51% from 43% in 2014, its highest in 20 years. It was the first reverse in a trend of falling participation since the first direct EU vote in 1979 and may muffle talk of a “democratic deficit” undermining EU legitimacy.

A stronger voice for the liberals and Greens could see the next EU executive seek a tougher line on regulating polluting industries, taxing multinational companies or demanding trading partners help contain climate change — as well as press its own members, notably in the east, not to damage civil rights.

But disenchantment with the European project, which has struggled through economic and migration crises over the past five years, was palpable across the bloc.

Riding a wave of anger at the British government’s failure to take the United Kingdom out of the European Union, Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party won a resounding victory.

The result showed Britain even more polarized over its Brexit divorce, nearly three years since a 2016 referendum in which it voted 52% to 48% to leave.

Socialist party (PSOE) candidate for European elections Josep Borrell and Spanish acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez address the media following election results at the party headquarters in Madrid, Spain, May 27, 2019. REUTERS/Susana Vera

In Italy, the far-right League became Italy’s largest party, giving greater authority to its leader Matteo Salvini who is pushing for swinging tax cuts in defiance of EU budget rules.

Poland’s eurosceptic ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) also came out ahead. In France, Marine Le Pen’s anti-immigration, anti-Brussels National Rally edged Macron’s pro-European centrist movement.

FIGHT FOR EU POSTS

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives lost votes from five years ago as the far-right Alternative for Germany gained. But the Greens grabbed the headlines, nearly doubling their vote to finish second, ahead of the governing Social Democrats.

Provisional results for the EU Parliament put the EPP on 179 seats, ahead of the S&D on 150, with the liberals on 107, up 39 seats, and Greens on 70, up 18. On the far-right, two groups in the parliament had well over a 100 seats, a 40% jump from 2014.

The European Parliament election will usher in weeks and possibly months of hard bargaining over who will run EU institutions. Officials for the four pro-EU center parties were quick to talk of plans for a broad coalition.

“We are facing a shrinking center,” said Manfred Weber, the German lead candidate of the EPP. “So what I would ask us to do to is to join our forces to work together from now.”

Parliament has insisted that one of its own winning members should succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the executive European Commission. But many national leaders, who will meet over dinner in Brussels on Tuesday, have said they will not be bound by that demand.

Slideshow (2 Images)

Weber in particular faces resistance, having never held government office - although he insists his long experience in the European Parliament makes him the democratic choice.

Frans Timmermans, Juncker’s Dutch deputy who led the Socialists’ campaign, cautioned against putting the “Game of Thrones” over top jobs ahead of efforts to forge a common program among parties that will push for a stronger Union.

Reporting by Alastair Macdonald, Gabriela Baczynska, Alissa de Carbonnel, Daphne Psaledakis, Foo Yun Chee, Robin Emmott and Francesco Guarascio, Jan Strupczewski; additional reporting by Elena Rodriguez in Madrid; Editing by Jon Boyle

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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2019-05-27 08:27:00Z
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Trump says he hopes to announce a trade deal with Japan soon - CNBC

U.S. President Donald Trump, left, speaks as Shinzo Abe, Japan's prime minister, during a dinner at the Inakaya restaurant in the Roppongi district on May 26, 2019 in Tokyo, Japan.

Kiyoshi Ota | Getty Images News

Speaking at a press conference with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, U.S. President Trump said he hoped to announce a trade deal with Japan very soon.

During his four-day state visit Trump' said his goal was to remove trade barriers so as to give U.S. exports a fair footing in Japan.

During his comments, the Nikkei stock market in Japan kept its gains as traders interpreted a largely positive atmosphere between the two men.

Trump described the US's trade imbalance with Japan as "unbelievably large" but he hoped to address that.

"They are brilliant business people, brilliant negotiatiors and have put us in a tough spot but I think we will have a deal with Japan," said Trump.

Abe, for his part, said the two leaders had agreed to accelerate two-way trade talks.

Trump earlier explicitly linked trade and security, a connection that disturbs Japan, which puts its U.S. alliance at the core of its defencepolicies.

"It's all a balance sheet thing," Trump said at the beginning of his talks with Abe.

"When I talk about a security threat, I talk about a balance sheet," he said, adding that Japan had bought "tremendous amounts" of U.S. military gear.

On Sunday, Trump tweeted that he expected big moves on trade would wait until after Japan's upper house election in July.

"Trade-wise, I think we'll be announcing some things, probably in August, that will be very good for both countries," Trump said on Monday. "We'll get the balance of trade, I think, straightened out rapidly." 

Abe, who has developed close ties with Trump since the U.S. leader came to office, stressed nthe closeness of ties.

"This visit of President Trump and Madame Trump is a golden opportunity to clearly show the unshakable bond to the whole world and inside Japan as well," Abe told the news conference.

Trump and Abe have put on a show of friendship but have policy disagreements over trade and North Korea.

Trump has threatened to target Japanese automakers with high tariffs. He has also spearheaded an expensive trade dispute with China. That trade war between the world's two largest economies has hurt markets worldwide and confounded U.S. allies, including Japan and the European Union.

Such allies share U.S. concerns about Chinese practices but object to nTrump's hardball tactics.

Abe and Trump also discussed North Korea.

"I personally think that lots of good things will come with North Korea. Ifeel that. I may be right, I may be wrong, but I feel that," Trump said on Monday.

On Sunday, Trump had said he was not worried about a recent missile launch by North Korea. That put him at odds with his own national security adviser, John Bolton, who said on Saturday Pyongyang's recent short-range missile tests violated U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Japan shares Bolton's view. They also discussed Iran. Abe is considering a trip there next month, domestic media said, to try to soothe rising tension between Iran and the United States.

"We'll see what happens," Trump said. "But I know for a fact that the prime minister is very close with the leadership of Iran, and we'll see what happens."

Also on Monday, Trump met families of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea decades.

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2019-05-27 06:34:17Z
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EU elections produce fragmented parliament amid high turnout - Al Jazeera English

Brussels, Belgium - People across the European Union have cast their ballots on the last day of voting for the European Parliament elections, with early indications suggesting that the bloc's only directly-elected body is shaping up to be more fragmented.

Provisional results on Sunday showed that the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) and the centre-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) together had the most seats, but not enough for a combined majority, while the Greens, Liberals and Eurosceptics - including far-right parties in countries such as France and Italy - made gains.

Turnout was at the highest in 20 years, at 50.5 percent, according to preliminary figures from across all 28 member states - bucking the trend of a steady decline since the elections were first held in 1979. The last time Europeans cast their vote, in 2014, turnout stood 42.6 percent.

Normally considered "second-tier" elections by voters who have often used them to vent their frustration with their national governments, this year's elections have generated an unusual level of debate amid the rise of nationalist and far-right parties that have made strides at the national level in several European countries.

'Monopoly of power broken'

As predicted by pollsters in the lead-up to the elections, the two largest political groups in the 751-seat legislature lost their combined majority.

Provisional results put the EPP in the first place with 178 seats, a drop from 216 seats won in the previous election but still being the largest of the parliament's eight groups. The centre-right bloc, which currently holds all three top jobs in the EU, was followed by the S&D with 147 seats, down from 185 seats in the 2014 vote.

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"There is no chance for any cooperation with extremists from the left and from the right," the EPP's lead candidate for the presidency of the European Commission, Manfred Weber, told journalists at a press conference on Sunday night.

He was, however, evasive about the fate of Hungary's Fidesz party in the EPP.

Led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the self-proclaimed poster boy of "illiberal democracy" in Europe, Fidesz has been suspended - but not expelled - from the EPP bloc due to concerns about democracy in Hungary.

On Sunday, Fidesz came first in Hungary with a whopping 52 percent of the vote. Orban has recently praised Italy's Interior Minister Matteo Salvini - who has launched a bid for a new far-right coalition - for "manning the front line" in the central Mediterranean.

A new centrist group including the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) and French President Emannuel Macron's Renaissance movement, which counts in its ranks his party, came third with a projected 101 seats, up from 69 seats.

"New coalitions can be built for those who want to embrace change," Margrethe Vestager, the group's lead candidate for the presidency of the European Commission, said at a press conference on Sunday.

"The monopoly of power is broken."

Frans Timmermans, the lead candidate for the S&D group, suggested he would look to "work with other progressive parties in this parliament to try and build a programme that addresses the aspirations, the dreams, and also sometimes the fears, of our fellow Europeans".

"If we deliver on these points then we can show that progressive, constructive, cooperative politics delivers results and that nationalism only delivers fear," Timmermans added. "On the basis of a programme and the coalition, then we can start playing the Game of Thrones on who gets which job," Timmermans added when prompted about his candidacy to head the European Commission.

The Greens, meanwhile, swept up a surprising 70 seats, according to estimates, mostly thanks to the performance of the German Greens.

"It shows that it's worth to have a positive vision for the European Union, and that has gained a lot of support," said one of the leaders of the group, 37-year-old Ska Keller.

Far right wins in Italy, France

Meanwhile, the group that includes Salvini and Marine Le Pen's National Rally in France has nearly doubled the number of seats to an estimated 57.

In Italy, provisional results put Salvini's far-right League party in the lead with 33.6 percent of the vote. The party is on course to win 28 seats in the new parliament.

On Sunday evening, Salvini turned up at a press conference with a rosary, which he also held just over a week ago on a stage in Milan - where he closed his election campaign in the company of far-right leaders and members of parliament from 11 European countries.

Leader of far-right League party Matteo Salvini kisses a crucifix as he speaks on European Parliament election night [Alessandro Garofalo/Reuters]

"We are the first party in Italy, now let's change Europe," Salvini said.

A year ago, when it entered a coalition with the now-beleagured Five Star Movement, the League had received just 17 percent of the vote in Italy's general election.

In France, Le Pen's party came first with an estimated 23.5 percent of the vote, edging one point ahead of Macron's party and gaining 22 seats.

In Britain, the result showed the effect of the country's stalled EU departure.

Nigel Farage's Brexit Party was in the lead, while the pro-Europe Liberal Democrats came in second. Both the ruling Conservatives and the main opposition Labour party suffered major losses.

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2019-05-27 07:02:00Z
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Europe Election polls: High turnout and a changed chamber - Aljazeera.com

Brussels, Belgium - As voting draws near a close across the European Union, the first exit polls suggest this year's European Parliament elections have seen a higher turnout than usual, and that the power balance is likely to change in the chamber.

Taking place against the backdrop of a rise in support for far-right and nationalist parties at the national level in recent years, the election has been largely portrayed as a battle between the pro-European establishment and its Eurosceptic challengers.

More than 400 million Europeans in 28 member states were called to the ballot box over four days to elect 751 members of the EU's only directly-elected body. Brexiting Britain and the Netherlands kicked off the elections, which take place every five years, on Thursday. On Sunday, 21 countries voted and results are expected through the night.

The European Parliament is responsible for choosing the next president of the European Commission, shares responsibility for deciding on the EU's annual budget with the Council of the EU, as well as oversees the work of EU institutions. While it can't initiate legislation, which is the purview of the European Commission, it can adopt and amend it.

High turnout

European Parliament elections are normally considered "second-tier" polls by citizens, who have traditionally used them to vent their frustrations with their own national governments with "protest votes". Turnout has been steadily declining since they were first held in 1979.

But turnout estimates suggest this year might buck that trend.

By noon, 14.4 percent of eligible voters had gone to the polls in Poland, almost twice as many as in 2014.

By early evening, an EU spokesman put the official turnout estimate at 51 percent for 27 countries except for the UK.

At the last European Parliament elections in 2014, 42.6 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots.

The European Parliament's two largest political groups, the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) and the centre-left Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) are both on course to lose nearly 40 seats each, unsettling their dominance and making this parliament the most fragmented so far.

The EPP, whose lead candidate is Manfred Weber of the German Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), is currently the largest group in the European Parliament and holds all three EU top jobs.

As alliances tend to form on an issue-by-issue basis, this means it might become harder to form majorities.

There are eight political groups national parties can currently join. The centrist, liberal Alliance for Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) and the Greens are likely to play a more central role in future decision-making. The leftist European United Left/Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL) is projected to retain roughly the same number of seats as in the current legislature - 52.

Far-right parties led by Italy's firebrand interior minister and codeputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini are projected to win 74 seats, 38 more than in the last legislature.

Alongside a number of other Eurosceptic and nationalist parties that are part of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group such as the Polish Law and Justice, they wish to take power back from Brussels and devolve it back to national governments.

However, these parties are highly divided on some issues such as the budget, the role of Russia and migration, raising questions about how coherent a front they can form in the parliament.

Preliminary results: watching the socialists

In the Netherlands, exit polls put the Labour Party slightly ahead of the ruling conservative VVD party led by Mark Rutte. The two poll at 18 and 15 percent respectively, a surprise result that will bolster first Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans, who heads the Labour party and is the S&D's lead candidate for the presidency of the European Commission.

The upstart far-right Forum for Democracy (FvD) and its flamboyant 36-year-old leader, Thierry Baudet, were seen as Rutte's main rival after the party came first in provincial elections earlier this year. It lags in fourth place.

In Germany, the CDU/CSU centre-right political alliance which includes Chancellor Angela Merkel's party remains the largest party with 28 percent of the share, but it's the Greens who appear to be on course to bring home the best results, polling at 22 percent.

Meanwhile, in Austria, the far-right Austrian Freedom Party (FPO) doesn't appear to have suffered massive electoral losses following the "Ibiza-gate" video - it polls third at 17.5 percent, behind the Austrian People's Party (34.5 percent) and the Social Democratic Party of Austria (23.5 percent).

The FPO, a key ally in Salvini's coalition for a "Europe of nations", was hit by a scandal after a secretly-filmed video emerged of its leader and Austria's vice chancellor, Heinz-Christian Strache, offering lucrative government contracts in exchange for campaign support to a woman posing as the niece of a Russian oligarch. The Austrian government witnessed a slew of resignations of far-right ministers and faces a no-confidence vote on Monday.

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2019-05-26 18:08:00Z
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Donald Trump pushes trade in friendly visit with Japan’s Abe Shinzo - Vox.com

President Donald Trump arrived in Japan Saturday for a state visit with the country’s leaders, including its new emperor, but launched his trip with a reassuring message to an adversary: North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

North Korea fired off some small weapons, which disturbed some of my people, and others, but not me. I have confidence that Chairman Kim will keep his promise to me, & also smiled when he called Swampman Joe Biden a low IQ individual, & worse. Perhaps that’s sending me a signal?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2019

In a tweet, Trump wrote he has “confidence that Chairman Kim will keep his promise to me;” that promise is that North Korea will not test long-range weapons or nuclear missiles. The country has not violated that promise at the moment, but as Vox’s Alex Ward has reported, it has conducted tests of what are believed to be short-range ballistic missiles in recent weeks.

Japanese prime minister Abe Shinzo does not share Trump’s confidence in Kim. While Abe responded to recent tests by saying they had “no immediate impact on Japan’s security,” he also called them “extremely regrettable” and a “breach of UN Security Council resolutions.” Abe wants UN resolutions governing North Korean behavior to be more strictly enforced; however, Trump has made it clear, as he did in his tweet, that he is not “disturbed” by the country’s recent weapons tests, suggesting Abe will have to look elsewhere for support.

Trade has been another sticking point in the US-Japan relationship, particularly with respect to cars. The countries have yet to agree on a bilateral trade agreement following the Trump administration’s exit from the Obama administration’s Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, and Trump placed Japanese auto makers on edge in May when he called imported vehicles a threat to national security. This declaration came as the Trump administration announced a six-month hold on new tariffs that would negatively affect the Japanese auto sector.

Shortly after landing in the country, the president met with Japanese business leaders at the US ambassador to Japan’s residence, and gave remarks suggesting trade would be a prominent topic of discussion during his trip.

“I would say that Japan has had a substantial edge for many, many years, but that’s okay,” Trump said. “Maybe that’s why you like me so much.”

The president went on to sound a note of optimism, though: “With this deal we hope to address the trade imbalance, remove barriers to United States exports and ensure fairness and reciprocity in our relationship. And we’re getting closer.”

After spending some time with Abe, Trump announced trade negotiations will actually be on hold for a few months, until a Japanese election in July.

Great progress being made in our Trade Negotiations with Japan. Agriculture and beef heavily in play. Much will wait until after their July elections where I anticipate big numbers!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2019

The trade progress that has been made was highlighted at a lunch following a round of golf between the two leaders, when cheeseburgers made with US beef were served. Until early May, US beef imports had been restricted in Japan, following a mad cow disease outbreak in the early 2000s.

As Vox’s Alex Ward has reported, Trump and Abe have a warm working relationship, and these ties were deepened during Trump’s trip.

令和初の国賓としてお迎えしたトランプ大統領と千葉でゴルフです。新しい令和の時代も日米同盟をさらに揺るぎないものとしていきたいと考えています。 pic.twitter.com/8ol8790xWY

— 安倍晋三 (@AbeShinzo) May 26, 2019

The two leaders took time away from their official duties to build bonds through sport, first with a round of golf. Later they took in a sumo wrestling match while sitting on special wooden chairs rather than on the traditional floor cushions. Trump also presented sumo star and the day’s champion Asanoyama with a “President’s Cup” trophy.

The president is set to meet with Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako on Monday.

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2019-05-26 14:40:20Z
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Anti-establishment forces poised for gains in European Parliament elections - The Washington Post

BRUSSELS — Europeans were voting Sunday in the final day of an election that was poised to unleash a wave of far-right politicians onto the European Union, in their first continentwide chance to weigh in after a tumultuous stretch that has threatened to upend a grand border-erasing experiment.

In the five years since Europeans last voted for the European Parliament, the continent has been rocked by repeated terrorist attacks, a refugee crisis, Britain’s decision to split from the bloc and the lingering pain of the global financial crisis. Now anti-establishment raiders are poised to post their best result ever, giving them a foothold to try transform the European Union from the inside out.

From the Italian leaders who want to erect new barriers against migrants to Hungarians and Poles who question core European tenets about the independence of the judiciary, the newly energized far-right is expected to expand its power within the European legislature, even though pro-E.U. forces are expected to remain a majority.

Environment-focused Greens and other alternative parties are also projected to do well, contributing to a broad fragmentation of the continent’s politics, as the traditional center-left and center-right parties that have ruled Europe since the end of World War II continue to shed voters.

Initial exit polls in several of the countries that have voted, including the Czech Republic and Slovakia, suggest the anti-establishment parties are doing well. In countries voting Sunday, including France, Germany, Italy and Poland, opinion polls suggest centrists are losing ground.

The vote is a chance for Europe’s more than 400 million voters to register their thoughts about the E.U., and it could also unleash tremors in national politics as well. In France, President Emmanuel Macron is battling for first place with far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s party. In Italy, Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s far-right League Party won second place in national elections last year, but Sunday’s vote is expected to formalize his newfound dominance of the country’s political scene. In Austria, voters will decide how much to punish a far-right party whose leader was caught on a newly released tape soliciting illicit support from Russia.

“For the first time in 60 years, with our European allies who also embody the awakening of the peoples of Europe, we have the chance to turn this crazy construction known as the European Union onto the paths of change,” Le Pen said at her final election rally on Friday.

The 28-nation European Union is a political and economic project born from the ashes of conflict that for decades has helped people and products move easily from Portugal right up to the border with Russia. But economic uncertainty has helped sweep away the old consensus about its utility. While strong majorities in places like Ireland and the Baltics continue to support it, more and more, countries are also souring on its values. They see less value in opening their doors to outsiders and feel their nations are served better by throwing up new barriers.

The churn started before President Trump stormed the White House in November 2016 as an outsider candidate, but it comes from some of the same root causes. Trump and his allies have reached out to ideological allies in Europe. This month, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban paid a visit to the Oval Office. Although Orban has swept away democratic protections at home, Trump offered nothing but praise.

The Kremlin is also watching the results with interest, since many of the far-right parties favor closer ties to Russia and want to sweep away sanctions imposed after the 2014 annexation of Crimea.

The end result is likely to be a European Parliament in which the centrist parties fail to reach a majority for the first time and have to draw support from lawmakers with less orthodox views of how to run Europe. Projections released before voting started Thursday showed the centrists falling from 53 percent of the vote, to only 42. 

The legislature has a voice in some of the biggest issues facing the European Union. It approves senior E.U. officials, signs off on Europe’s massive budget and delves into gritty lawmaking, such as the sweeping data privacy rules that went into effect last year whose reach extends far beyond E.U. borders.

But it has also long been a haven for far-right forces. In 2014, they captured about one-fifth of the seats. Now they are poised to control a quarter, according to polls released before the voting started. They can use their seats to project power that is outsize to their sheer numbers by slowing and obstructing the functioning of the legislature, even though they will not be able to control its agenda.

For years, voters paid the European Parliament little attention. Election day turnout has slipped steadily since the first election in 1979, to 42.6 percent in 2014 — a sluggish result by European standards, where a higher percentage of voters typically participate in national elections than in the United States. The low turnouts favored the extremes, who were better able to marshal their passionate supporters to the polls.

This year there are signs there may be a turnaround, with voters of all political breeds seeing it as a pivotal moment that could shape the European Union’s future. In France, for example, turnout as of midday Sunday was about a fifth higher than in 2014.

In Italy, the Western European country that has most clearly thrown its support behind populism and the far right, the results will help determine whether Salvini can continue his rise as a nationalist torchbearer inside the bloc. Salvini has tried to build a new Pan-European far-right coalition, but it is Salvini’s own party, the League, that figures to account for a disproportionate percentage of the far-right’s gains across the continent.

 The outcome will also have domestic implications in Italy, where for months the League has been sparring with its coalition partner, the Five Star Movement. A strong showing by Salvini could convince him to pull out of the coalition and use new elections as a bid to become prime minister.

Since forming the government one year ago, the League has risen to become Italy’s most popular party. Opponents have depicted Salvini as an absentee minister — perpetually holding rallies, rarely in the office — and recent polls suggest his party has lost some momentum. Still, projections indicate the League will win about one-third of Italy’s parliamentary seats, more than the Five Star Movement or other once-mainstream parties now relegated to the background.

Britain is also taking part in the election, despite its vow to pull from the European Union following a 2016 referendum. Prime Minister Theresa May failed to make Brexit arrangements that would have ended the membership before the election, so her country had to participate. Euroskeptic leader Nigel Farage is poised to repeat his 2014 poll-topping performance in the hard-fought campaign.

Chico Harlan in Rome and James McAuley in Paris contributed to this report.

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Opinion: Yes, Europe’s far right is gaining strength. But so is the resistance.

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/anti-establishment-forces-poised-for-gains-in-european-parliament-elections/2019/05/26/d2907ff0-7cc4-11e9-b1f3-b233fe5811ef_story.html

2019-05-26 13:44:09Z
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