Centre-right and far-right parties appear to have done very well indeed as the European Union parliamentary results are slowly released tonight.
The UK results are a further embarrassment to Labour, which is slated to finish third behind the Conservatives and right-wing Euro-skeptic loons UKIP. Or possibly even fourth...
More beneath the fold (including some snippets of GOOD news as well).
First, the results so far. Not all areas are reporting so the following incomplete list, in no particular order, does not represent absolute fact. Could all readers following MEP elections upload any new info they might hear? And excuse my spelling mistakes in advance--it's after midnight and I'm bushed!
UK:
Let's start with the most sickening news of all: the fascist British National Party will be sending an MEP to the European Parliament, Andrew Brons from Yorkshire/Humberside. I can only hope he gets the same reception BNP leader Nick Griffin got in Manchester tonight (motorcade attacked by anti-fascists, car windows broken, poor diddums had to sneak into city hall through the back door.) Brons is a former leader of the National Front. The NF would have been describable as jack-booted thugs, but they tended towards Doc Martens instead. They were still thugs; they still are under any other name. WTF is in the water up in Yorkshire and Hull?
In Scotland, the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) look to have taken about 30 percent, at least 10 percent ahead of Labour, who are down by several points from their last elections here.
In the rest of the country, it differs by region but it looks like in almost all areas the results go like this: Conservatives, UKIP, Labour, Liberal Democrats. Even in Wales (where Labour has won every election since 1918). Even in the North East, where it was once said you could pin a red Labour rosette on a monkey and get a new Labour MP with a tail (although the only monkey who has actually won in recent memory was an Independent from Hartlepool).
Except--in a few regions Labour has done even worse. In Cornwall, Labour looks to be coming in SIXTH, even lower than the Cornish Nationalists.
Gordon Brown will be meeting with the Parliamentary Labour Party (inner circle) tomorrow. I don't know what the result will be, but right-wing blogger Guido Fawkes reported earlier today that one of his opponents hired a bar today for a drinks reception after the meeting. I don't think he's planning a party for Gordon, if you get my drift...
IRELAND:
Sinn Fein has apparently done rather better than either Fianna Fail or Fine Gael. In case you haven't heard, the Irish economy is in wretched shape so it would be no surprise if FF in particular has been given a kicking, as it's currently the main party in the leading coalition. As FF are big boosters of the Lisbon Treaty and its opponents generally are not, this could make a big difference in whether a second referendum is forced through in Ireland, which rejected it (thereby blocking its passage so far--no one else in the EU even got a chance for a popular vote).
SPAIN:
The Socialists were beaten, slightly, by the right-wing Popular Party. That said, the really extreme far right parties did very poorly in Spain. Looks like the Socialists are being blamed for high unemployment. Spain's economy is also in the pits, especially its construction industry.
FRANCE:
Sarkozy's UMP has grabbed about a third of the vote, and the Socialists did rather badly, possibly as low as 17 percent. The Modem Party (a sort of centrist group) did appallingly, perhaps 8 percent. According to the Telegraph, that's because its head called Danny Cohn-Bendit a paedophile-sympathiser on live TV right before the election. That was certainly very rude and turned off a lot of voters. Cohn-Bendit (yes,the erstwhile Situationist) and his Europe Ecologie party, a Green-Red coalition, did surprisingly well, perhaps 15 percent. Old man LePen will still be an MEP, but hopefully will croak in office this term--I'm convinced he's only made it this long because the Devil doesn't want his company. Based on its lousy election results, his divided ultra-right party seems to be heading down that road already.
NETHERLANDS:
The ruling Christian Democrats won, but nasty Geert Wilders'xenophobic Party for Freedom (sic) managed 17 percent, showing that there is a depth of anti-immigrant and racist feeling in "liberal" Holland.
GERMANY:
There really wasn't a huge change in Germany. The left-wing parties did slightly worse, the right-wing ones slightly better, nevertheless leaving the centre of gravity in a centrist coalition that might turn out to be slightly more right-wing in the near future--but only slightly.
GREECE:
I did promise some happy news, didn't I? Besides the strong showing for Europe Ecologie in France, there's some from Greece, where the Socialists decimated the ruling right-wingers. Unemployment and serious civic unrest have marked the past year and the governing party is deservedly reaping the consequences. While the Greek Socialists are a bunch of lily-livered academic types IMHO, they're still a sight better than their opponents. I have a lot of Greek students and friends, and am happy to see these guys' arses handed to them.
LATVIA:
A Russian Communist will be going to Brussels as a Latvian MEP. How very strange!
SLOVAKIA:
Fewer than 15 percent bothered to vote, and one result is that since only the rabid turned out, one ultra-nationalist/fascist will be among Slovakia's MEPs.
POLAND:
The Bros. Kaczynski's Law and Freedom (again, sic) Party got about 30 percent of the vote, against the ruling Civic Platform party's 45 percent. L&F's homophobic, anti-German, chauvinistically Catholic bruisers are the UK Conservative Party's new allies in the European Parliament. The only good thing about this is that they are likely to do or say dozens of things to embarrass Cameron's rebranded "Compassionate" Conservatives.
BULGARIA:
Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, a centre-right party, has won about a quarter of the vote. The governing Bulgarian Socialist Party came second with about 18 percent. The far-right, anti-Muslim Attack Party came in fourth place with 11 percent.
HUNGARY:
The right-wingers have won here as well but bigger, with the Fidesz party on 56 percent or more and the far-right Jobbik party on nearly 15 percent. Jobbik is anti-Gypsy, antisemitic, and closely linked with the neo-fascist Hungarian Guard.
And finally, a little analysis. The European Parliament is a huge institution, and since most parties are national rather than pan-European in scope, the way governance works is through coalitions. Wikipedia has a nice colour chart here that shows which parties from which countries are members of these groupings. I find it all a bit baffling, and I live here.
In truth, the parliament, like the EU itself, is not a particularly democratic institution. Most EU business appears to go on behind closed doors, via bureaucrats and their business allies. It's hard to say how this year's elections will affect this, if at all. Some right-leaning and right-wing parties oppose the Treaty of Lisbon, but more as a populist or nationalist position than for the reasons may left-wingers oppose this business-friendly compact.
More worrying is the rise of far-right parties to greater prominence. I don't like the Tories, but they're unlikely to send out bootboys to kick my neighbours' heads in any time soon. The likes of the BNP, Jobbik and the Attack Party, however, are a different story. I realise that many who cast these votes are not themselves fascists, but through a not very well thought out protest vote they have just funded extremist parties via MEP salaries and EU funds, some of which field armed groups. This is indeed worrying.
Somewhat more heartening is the good showing for some of the newer left parties in Europe, particularly the Greens and Green-Red coalitions. These groups have more democratic internal politics than the older Socialist parties are in better tune with how the younger generation does politics.
As for Labour--tomorrow will tell whether these atrocious results are the last nail in Brown's coffin.