Biggest takeaways of European Parliament elections
- 5 years ago
The results of the European elections gave us some unexpected outcomes... as the full picture from the world's biggest multi-country vote has been revealed... and shows the overall sentiment of the European people.
For more on this and other news around the world, let's turn to our Hong Yoo…
It seems European politics have become even more fragmented. Walk us through some of the takeaways from this historic vote...
Like you said Connyoung, the most prominent takeaway from the election are fragmentation and polarization.
Fragmentation because the two centrist groups, the European People's Party and the Progressive Alliance of Socialist and Democrats lost a bunch of seats to smaller, more passionate parties like the Greens and a variety of populist groups.
Now that these groups have lost their majority, they will have to work more closely with liberal members of Parliament to form a working majority.
The surge in the Greens vote was pronounced in Germany where climate has been a big theme to reduce the country's heavy reliance on coal and other polluting energy sources.
And polarization, because populists and euroskeptic parties increased their share of seats to 25 percent, up from about 20 percent five years ago.
Populists did well in major countries where they are in power like Italy, Hungary and Poland.
Asked to comment on the results, the EU Commission's spokesman told a press briefing that populists did not win the election and instead it was pro-EU forces that 'won the day'.
"If you are asking me whether the populists won the day, which is what I think you have in mind, I would say: no, the populists didn't win this election. Contrary to doomsayers' prophecies, it is the pro-EU political forces across the political spectrum that won the day. Those who won the elections are the ones who want to work in and for Europe - not those who want to destroy Europe."
The EU had feared that fewer voters would show up as turnout has constantly dropped since the first direct elections in 1979.
But this year's election was different polls showing the turnout rate at 50-point-9 percent, the highest in two decades.
The biggest domestic issue was observed in the UK, where the British government's inability to deliver on Brexit, caused the Conservatives of Prime Minister Theresa May and the main opposition Labour Party to have their worst European election results in decades.
With Nigel Farage's Brexit Party winning the most seats in the UK and the biggest share of the vote, watchers say the next prime minister is likely to be a hardline Brexiteer who supports a British exit from the EU without a deal.
For more on this and other news around the world, let's turn to our Hong Yoo…
It seems European politics have become even more fragmented. Walk us through some of the takeaways from this historic vote...
Like you said Connyoung, the most prominent takeaway from the election are fragmentation and polarization.
Fragmentation because the two centrist groups, the European People's Party and the Progressive Alliance of Socialist and Democrats lost a bunch of seats to smaller, more passionate parties like the Greens and a variety of populist groups.
Now that these groups have lost their majority, they will have to work more closely with liberal members of Parliament to form a working majority.
The surge in the Greens vote was pronounced in Germany where climate has been a big theme to reduce the country's heavy reliance on coal and other polluting energy sources.
And polarization, because populists and euroskeptic parties increased their share of seats to 25 percent, up from about 20 percent five years ago.
Populists did well in major countries where they are in power like Italy, Hungary and Poland.
Asked to comment on the results, the EU Commission's spokesman told a press briefing that populists did not win the election and instead it was pro-EU forces that 'won the day'.
"If you are asking me whether the populists won the day, which is what I think you have in mind, I would say: no, the populists didn't win this election. Contrary to doomsayers' prophecies, it is the pro-EU political forces across the political spectrum that won the day. Those who won the elections are the ones who want to work in and for Europe - not those who want to destroy Europe."
The EU had feared that fewer voters would show up as turnout has constantly dropped since the first direct elections in 1979.
But this year's election was different polls showing the turnout rate at 50-point-9 percent, the highest in two decades.
The biggest domestic issue was observed in the UK, where the British government's inability to deliver on Brexit, caused the Conservatives of Prime Minister Theresa May and the main opposition Labour Party to have their worst European election results in decades.
With Nigel Farage's Brexit Party winning the most seats in the UK and the biggest share of the vote, watchers say the next prime minister is likely to be a hardline Brexiteer who supports a British exit from the EU without a deal.