Skeptics Win EU Elections

This weekend, voters in the European Union made it more difficult to spin their sentiment into an Iraq War protest. Parties skeptical of the proposed constitution won seats in the European Parliament over the parties that support it, reducing the number of MPs from established parties. If Iraq was the major question, the punishment dealt to Gerhard Shroeder's and Jacques Chirac's parties signaled European support for George Bush.

In England, where Tony Blair's Labor Party lost ground and the BBC has constantly interpreted everything as a protest against Iraq policy, the big winner was the UK Independent Party (UKIP) whose primary concern is defeat of the proposed EU constitution; this despite Tony Blair's last minute acquiescence to allow a public referendum on the constitution. New UKIP MP Robert Kilroy-Silk commented that the results showed that people "wanted their country back." The opposition conservative party's shadow foreign minister Michael Ancram said voters sent a clear message they do not want Tony Blair to sign the constitution. In Ireland, anti-EU party Sinn Fein advanced despite its other issues.

In the Czech Republic, a right wing opposition party of EU skeptics took about 30 percent of Czech votes, more than any other party. In Latvia, a small nationalist party, Fosterland, won with about the same percent. In Austria, EU's "enemy number one" Jörg Haider's right wing party saw significant gains. In Poland, voters made space for a diversity of nationalists, liberals, and social democrats with interest in helping to build better local government infrastructure. Exceptions to the victory of EU skeptics were noted in Spain and Greece, which each receive huge subsidies from the EU.

Even in Sweden, where individual candidates from a number of parties declared themselves EU skeptics against their official party lines, a new party, Junilistan, whose candidates want to stop the proposed constitution captured three times the portion of votes projected. Junilistan's co-founder and top candidate Nils Lundgren said his party represents the future of Europe. <i>Aftonbladet</i>, a national newspaper supportive of the ruling Social Democratic Labor Party, saw the result as a catastrophe due to "the [Social Democratic] party's hopeless EU strategy."

The debates in Sweden leading up to the election were not particularly helpful, which may explain a relatively low voter turnout; 37 percent compared to 44.6 percent in Europe overall. Typical of the character of debate, Social Democrats argued that the election was a classic battle between left and right. It was difficult not to be reminded that the Social Democratic Party has been the largest party in Sweden. In a typical left-right battle, such as characterizes local elections, the Social Democrats would expect to be equally successful. But the issues are not typical. Even more obvious spin came from the Environmental Party, whose representative symbolically threw a copy of the proposed constitution into a trash can during the debate. When it came to environmental issues however, he was helped by an opposing candidate to express his belief that the EU needed the power to force every one of its member states to follow their proposed common environmental policy.

Several countries have already promised to submit the proposed constitution to public referendum, and other countries are considering a referendum due to strong public pressure. The message voters are sending is not merely that they expect the right to participate in such a momentous political decision, but that the proposed constitution, designed of, by, and for European bureaucrats, is not for them.

In commentary following the election, losing parties complained that voters do not understand the work of the European Union and its importance, indicating that there needs to be a continued pro-EU propaganda campaign to educate them. But voters have been sending the same message again and again and it doesn't look like they'll mind if the door hits the backsides of a few stubborn politicians on their way out.

Roger F. Gay