EU vote in closing stretch as far right eyes gains

  • June 10, 2024
  • Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
  • Category: DPN Topics
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EU vote in closing stretch as far right eyes gains

Sub: IR

Sec: Int groupings

Context:

  • The final stretch of voting for the EU’s next parliament occurred on June 9, with early exit polls indicating gains for far-right parties, particularly in Austria and Germany, where it was a significant setback for Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Details:

  • The election involved over 360 million eligible voters across 27 EU nations, occurring amidst various global challenges including Russia’s war in Ukraine, US-China trade tensions, climate change, and the potential return of Donald Trump to the US presidency.
  • There is a noticeable rise in anti-immigrant sentiment and populist support across the bloc.
  • This election will influence the selection of the next European Commission leader, with German conservative Ursula von der Leyen seeking a second term.
  • The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban framed the election as a choice between “pro-peace or pro-war,” amidst concerns of Russia’s threat, particularly in eastern EU countries.

European Parliament:

  • The European Parliament is an important forum for political debate and decision-making at the EU level.
  • The Members of the European Parliament are directly elected by voters in all Member States to represent people’s interests with regard to EU law-making and to make sure other EU institutions are working democratically.
  • The European Parliament is made up of 705 Members elected in the 27 Member States of the European Union.
  • President of EP:
    • The President is elected for a renewable term of two and a half years, i.e. half the lifetime of a Parliament.
    • The President represents the European Parliament vis-à-vis the outside world and in its relations with the other EU institutions.
  • Beside legislative work, MEPs (Members of European Parliament):
    • oversee the work of the Commission and other EU institutions
    • scrutinise the implementation of EU policies
    • decide on the annual budget together with the Council, and monitor the use of EU funds
    • vote to elect the president of the Commission, and approve the whole line-up of commissioners.
    • have the right to dismiss the Commission.

Elections to European Parliament:

  • Elections to the European Parliament take place every five years by universal adult suffrage; with more than 400 million people eligible to vote, they are the second largest democratic elections in the world after India’s.

Emergence of far-right wing across Europe:

  • In France, Marine Le Pen‘s National Rally was predicted to secure around 30% of the vote, significantly outperforming President Emmanuel Macron‘s liberals.
  • Germany saw its highest voter turnout since 1979 at 64%, but Scholz’s Social Democrats lagged behind both the far-right Alternative for Germany and the conservative CDU-CSU bloc.
  • In Austria, the far-right Freedom Party led the vote count.
  • In the Netherlands, the Green-Labour coalition outpaced the far-right Freedom Party of Geert Wilders.
  • In Italy, the ruling far-right Brothers of Italy party was expected to come out on top.
  • The far-right’s rise is attributed to increasing dissatisfaction with high living costs and immigration. 

Terms:

  1. Far-right politics:
    • Far-right politics include “persons or groups who hold extreme nationalist, xenophobic, racist, religious fundamentalist, or other reactionary views.” While the term far right is typically applied to fascists and neo-Nazis, it has also been used to refer to those to the right of mainstream right-wing politics.
  2. Right-wing politics:
    • It is the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position based on natural law, economics, authority, property, religion, biology or tradition.
    • Hierarchy and inequality may be seen as natural results of traditional social differences or competition in market economies.
  3. Left-wing politics:
    • It describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy as a whole or certain social hierarchies.
    • It involves a concern for those in society whom its adherents perceive as disadvantaged relative to others as well as a belief that there are unjustified inequalities that need to be reduced or abolished through radical means that change the nature of the society they are implemented in.
    • Supporters of left-wing politics “claim that human development flourishes when individuals engage in cooperative, mutually respectful relations that can thrive only when excessive differences in status, power, and wealth are eliminated.

Origin of these terms:

  • Left and Right were coined during the French Revolution, referring to the seating arrangement in the French National Assembly.
  • Those who sat on the left generally opposed the Ancien Régime and the Bourbon monarchy and supported the Revolution, the creation of a democratic republic and the secularisation of society while those on the right were supportive of the traditional institutions of the Ancien Régime.

Source: TH

EU vote in closing stretch as far right eyes gains IR