Countries to watch as divided Europe chooses its parliament

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Countries to watch as divided Europe chooses its parliament

2019-05-26 14:35 Last Updated At：14:40

As voters in all 28 European Union countries elect a new shared parliament , here are some key races to watch in the battle to fill the 751 seats in the European Parliament:

ITALY

Italy's anti-migrant, anti-Islam interior minister, Matteo Salvini, has been campaigning hard to boost his right-wing League party to become the No. 1 party in Italy and possibly Europe.

Salvini has been using his hard-line credentials to expand a parliamentary group of European populists that already includes far-right politicians in France, Germany and Austria. Salvini is promising to restore sovereignty over key issues like immigration to national capitals, thwarting the EU's drive toward closer integration of its members.

In Europe, the populists will find it difficult to deliver on their transformation promises. But Salvini is also looking to capitalize on the outcome of the European elections to boost his power at home in the League's uneasy populist ruling coalition with the left-wing 5-Star Movement.

Salvini could use European electoral gains to leverage his position in the government and pass policies important to his base of northern Italian entrepreneurs, like a flat tax or the high-speed train connecting Lyon, France, with Turin.

Most analysts believe that Salvini is unlikely to seek an early election in Italy even with a big victory on the European stage. The 5-Star Movement, on the other hand, could decide to pull the plug on the coalition government.

FRANCE

France is looking at an epic battle between pro-EU centrist President Emmanuel Macron and anti-immigration, far-right flagbearer Marine Le Pen in the European Parliament vote, a duel over Europe's basic values.

A loss for Macron's Republic on the Move party would cripple the French leader's grand ambitions for a more united Europe. Macron wants EU countries to share budgets and soldiers and work even more closely together to keep Europe globally relevant and prevent conflict.

For Macron, Le Pen represents the "leprosy" of nationalism that is eating the EU from within. For Le Pen, the race is a battle to preserve European civilization from the threat of "massive immigration" and uncontrolled globalization.

As far-right parties court the youth vote , Le Pen is counting on 23-year-old Jordan Bardella to lead her National Rally party to victory, then revamp the EU from within.

Le Pen's party, then called the National Front, won France's European parliamentary elections in 2014, but today she is looking beyond home territory. She has traveled to numerous European capitals recently to lend support to populist candidates, with the goal of enlarging their parliamentary group.

France has 34 lists of candidates in the European election, but Macron crushed France's traditional right and left parties in 2017 when he won the presidency, and they're still struggling.

GERMANY

Germany's governing parties look likely to lose some ground in the European Union's most populous country, while the environmentalist Greens and the far-right Alternative for Germany parties are eyeing gains.

The vote is shaping up to be a particularly tough test for the center-left Social Democrats , the junior partners in Chancellor Angela Merkel's governing coalition. They have been struggling badly in polls and there is widespread speculation that a poor performance could hasten the end of Merkel's coalition government.

For Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union, it is the first test for new leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer since Germany's longtime chancellor gave up her party's leadership last year.

The Greens have been soaring in polls , partly at the Social Democrats' expense, and hope to convert that support into votes. And Alternative for Germany hopes to strengthen its presence in the European Parliament, adding to its strong contingent in Germany's national legislature.

Many of Germany's 96 seats in the European Parliament are also likely to go to a variety of fringe parties.

HUNGARY

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban describes the European Parliament vote as "decisive" for Hungary and Europe, an opportunity for populist and anti-migration forces to have a larger say in setting the agenda in Brussels.

While his party's victory in Hungary is unquestioned, where the allegiances of Orban and his right-wing Fidesz party will lie after the election on the European scene is far less certain.

Fidesz's membership in the center-right European People's Party, currently the largest group in the EU legislature, was suspended in March because of concerns about the state of Hungary's democracy. So Orban has spent the past few weeks hosting far-right, nationalist and populist politicians at his new office in Buda Castle.

Orban says he wants to stay in the center-right bloc while getting the EPP to cooperate more closely with nationalist and populist parties like Salvini's League. That notion has been emphatically rejected by leading politicians from the EPP, including German Chancelor Angela Merkel.

If Salvini's populists do well on Sunday, Orban could leave the EPP and try to get some of the party's more right-wing members to join Salvini in a new, more radical alliance.

While Hungary has largely stemmed migration, Orban's opposition to migrants still bears fruit, and pollsters expect Fidesz to win as many as 14 of Hungary's 21 seats in the EU parliament.

BRITAIN

Britain wasn't supposed to take part in the European Parliament elections at all, but had to organize a last-minute campaign when its planned March exit from the EU was postponed.

The British voting Thursday came amid intense political turmoil sparked by its 2016 referendum to quit the EU. Embattled Prime Minister Theresa May will now step down as Conservative Party leader on June 7 after failing to deliver Brexit.

Both Britain's Conservatives and the Labour Party are predicted to be heading for an electoral pasting in the European vote due to the chaos over Brexit.

Britain's Brexit party, led by Nigel Farage, has appeared to gain strength in recent voter surveys. Farage says he hopes to have the shortest possible tenure as a European Parliament lawmaker because he wants Britain to leave the EU as quickly as possible.

The U.K. has 73 seats at the European Parliament, and its lawmakers would lose their jobs when their country leaves the EU.

AUSTRIA

Sunday's European Parliament vote in Austria has been upended by the sudden collapse of Austria's governing coalition in a scandal that has tarnished the far-right Freedom Party. It will serve as a first test of support ahead of an early national election expected in September.

Heinz-Christian Strache quit last weekend as vice chancellor and Freedom Party leader after a leaked video showed him appearing to offer favors to a purported Russian investor during a boozy meeting on the Spanish island of Ibiza two years ago. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz then called for a new election and is now running an interim government with experts replacing the Freedom Party's ministers.

The European Parliament election should offer clues as to whether the popular Kurz's conservative People's Party will benefit from the scandal. But regardless of the result, Kurz is expected to face a small opposition party's no-confidence motion in parliament on Monday, and it's unclear whether he will keep his job.

Colleen Barry in Milan, Italy, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Pablo Gorondi in Budapest, and Elaine Ganley and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.

Macron outlines his vision for Europe to become an assertive global power as war in Ukraine rages on

2024-04-26 00:49 Last Updated At：00:52

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron warned Thursday that Europe could “die” if it fails to build its own robust defense as Russia’s war in Ukraine rages on, or if it fails to undertake major trade and economic reforms to compete with China and the U.S.

Macron urged Europeans to become more ambitious in a fast-changing world to face the challenges of war, fierce trade competition, energy scarcity, climate change and increasing authoritarianism.

In a nearly two-hour speech at Sorbonne University in Paris, Macron said that the continent is divided and “too slow and lacks ambition” at a time when the 27-member European Union needs to become a superpower, defend its own borders and speak with one voice if it wants to survive and thrive.

“Our Europe today is mortal,” Macron said. “It can die and that depends solely on our choices,” he added. He called on people to make those choices now because, “it’s today that Europe is between war and peace.”

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its third year, is an existential threat and Europe isn't armed enough to defend itself when “confronted by a power like Russia that has no inhibitions, no limits,” Macron said.

‘Our ability to ensure our security is at stake," Macron said. “Russia mustn’t be allowed to win.”

Europe now has the “good fortune” of having the Biden administration’s commitment to supporting Ukraine, Macron said. But, in a year of key elections around Europe, in the U.S. and elsewhere, support may fragment or disappear entirely, he added.

“Europe must become capable of defending its interests, with its allies by our side whenever they are willing, and alone if necessary,” Macron said.

Strong armies, a European rapid intervention program and force, tanks, a missile shield and other weapons, produced in Europe, will need the support of “a joint diplomatic force that will speak with one voice and build bridges with Africa and Latin America,” the French leader said.

“Only then will Europe show that it's not a United States’ lap dog, and that it also knows how to talk to other regions of the world,” he said.

France has been a firm supporter of Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression, and Macron has often clashed with other Western leaders as he has insisted that Europe must stand by the country at any cost. The French president alarmed European leaders by saying recently that sending Western troops into Ukraine to shore up its defenses shouldn’t be ruled out.

Referring to trade practices of China and the U.S., Macron said “the two world powers have decided not to respect the rules of global trade” by shoring up protections and subsides while Europe’s industry remains open and is stuck in overregulation.

“Let’s do the same, we are in competition,” Macron said.

“We must buy faster, we must produce more and we must buy more that is made in Europe. That is key,” Macron said.

Thursday's speech came less than two months before a pivotal European Parliament election.

Macron, an avid advocate of a united and assertive Europe, also rallied support for his centrist Renaissance party before the June 6-9 vote as far-right parties lead the moderate coalitions in the polls. He called for safeguarding democratic values as the “authoritarian model” was becoming “more popular” across the continent.

The war in Ukraine and immigration are top priorities for European Union voters, according to polls. Far-right parties have gained support by criticizing Macron’s government policies on both issues. Macron acknowledged divisions on immigration policies, including on asylum and deportation rules for those who have arrived to Europe illegally.

He emphasized the need for an effective response and Europe-wide coordination for curbing illegal immigration, closer cooperation with immigrants' countries of origin and a unified, relentless fight against human traffickers.

Macron criticized the idea of striking an agreement, as Britain as done, with countries in Africa and elsewhere to transfer immigrants there.

“This is a betrayal of our values that ultimately leads us to dependency on other counties,” Macron said.

The British government earlier this week approved a law allowing the deportation of some migrants who enter the country illegally to Rwanda.

Macron lost his majority in France’s most influential house of parliament, the National Assembly, after the 2022 election to the far-left coalition and the far-right National Rally party.

The social situation in France remains tense as Paris prepares to host the Olympic Games this summer, amid protests from teachers and police officers, and farmer demonstrations in recent weeks. The protests follow huge rallies last year against Macron’s ultimately successful proposal to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64.

Barbara Surk reported from Nice, France. Lorne Cook contributed to this report from Brussels.

Countries to watch as divided Europe chooses its parliament

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Countries to watch as divided Europe chooses its parliament

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