Euro 2004

[Cyrus]

The percentage of eligible European voters that participate in the European Parliament elections is approximately the same as in the U.S. presidential elections. Which means, low! Just above 50% are actually voting.

The only major issue on the minds of voters was

Iraq

The people of Europe were polling for months at 50-90% against the war and last Sunday they finally had the chance to formally express themselves. Every government that supported the war suffered terribly. Blair's Labor sunk in the UK. Britons did not want to reward the more pro-American Conservatives so they opted for the Independents and the Liberals instead. Blair had to publicly apologize to his Party for causing it this catastrophe and tried to put the best face forward by noting the Labor candidate for London won. Only thing is, the Labor candidate was a vocal opponent to the Iraqi war!

In Italy, Berlusconi took a blow and his anti-war opponents carried the day. In Spain, the anti-war Socialists saw their lead increasing even more, a surprising anomaly for European elections, which tend to weaken, in general, the governing parties. In France, Chirac's party lost because the opposition Socialists are even more anti-war than Chirac's Centre-Right ! In Germany, the Social-Democrats' defeat is not ascribed by anyone, not even the Christian Democrats, to the issue of Iraq, but rather to the performance of the German economy under Schroeder who is seen by the people as having betrayed the Social-Democratic promises. (Germans are polling about equally anti-American across the political spectrum.)

All in all, in practically all the European countries, the parties that were most opposed to the American policy in Iraq gained significantly. (Both in "old" and in "new" Europe, Rummie...)

So, the George W Bush foreign policy has at least one positive effect, so far. It provided the European cause with a theme at a time when Europe lacked major uniting themes.