European Parliament
Election results signal workers' dissatisfaction
By G.
Dunkel
From June 11 through June 13, voters in the 15 countries of
the European Union went to the polls to elect members of the EU
Parliament. This body has limited but growing power.
Less than half of eligible voters went to the polls, on
average. Turnout was light even in countries where voting is
obligatory.
Except in France, there was a shift from the
social-democratic left, which has had a majority in the
European Parliament since 1983, toward the center and the
right. The social-democratic bloc lost 30 deputies, while the
center and moderate right gained 30.
Except in Greece, none of the electoral parties appealing to
the left in countries that are NATO members took a strong or
clear position against the imperialist war in Kosovo.
In France, the Socialist Party and its close allies came in
first with 22 percent of the vote. The French Communist Party
spent the most of any party in France on this election--nearly
$8 million--but it got only six seats and 6.8 percent of the
vote.
These two parties have been part of the coalition government
that helped prosecute the war.
Lutte Ouvriere, in an electoral alliance with the League
Communiste Revolutionnaire, got five seats and 5.2 percent of
the vote. These two parties have been critical of the French
Communist Party from the left, but they too supported the
war.
Elections in a bourgeois democracy don't really affect power
relationships. They do, however, show trends in the attitudes
of the working class--which in Europe appears to be somewhat
disenchanted with the bourgeois social-democratic parties that
control the government in most EU countries.
This article is copyright under a Creative Commons License.
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