Bush fallout: Incumbent Parties Set Back in Europe-Wide Vote

[DaveSZ]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39028-2004Jun13.html


By Keith B. Richburg, Page A14

BARCELONA, June 13 -- Voters across Europe severely rebuked many incumbent governments in elections in 25 countries for seats in the European Parliament, early returns and exit polls showed Sunday evening.

The dominant trend emerging was that people favored opposition candidates for seats in the 732-seat body, a key lawmaking institution of the European Union. Parties that are skeptical of further European integration also did well.

The rebuke was spread out equally among governments that supported the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and those that opposed the war. In countries whose governments supported the war, such as Britain, political analysts said that public opposition to the invasion was an important factor in defeats of the ruling parties.

The elections, which took place Thursday through Sunday, have no direct effect on sitting national governments. But the results are viewed as a barometer for future domestic elections.

[slor]

1. The chimp has the...

anti-Midas touch. Everything he touches turns to crap.

[He loved Big Brother]

2. Good for them

I wish Americans would collectively get over their fear of not voting for the same ole same ole. Nobody is "unelectable" if the majority checks the box next to their name. But I'm starting to think we don't vote for change over here.

[Wright Patman]

5. 'Conservatism'

becomes very toxic when voters decide to "conserve" a radical regime which has usurped power. That is what we are witnessing now.

So-called "paleoconservatives" realize what the usurpers are doing, but there are very few of them left and they are derided by the media as "isolationists" (a term which may eventually come back in vogue with a few more disastrous interventions).

Most self-styled 'conservatives' can think of it only only a very superficial level. It is the team they are on. It's like a college football rivalry. All they know is that they are the Aggies (conservatives) and the dreaded Longhorns (liberals) in Austin must be defeated at all cost.

The saddest thing to witness is that all honesty and integrity goes out the window in this effort, which is pretty ironic considering most of the 'conservatives' claim to be Christian.

All is fair in love and war (and they consider all of life a "war" against "liberals"), they might say. But Christ told them they could not serve two masters.

[western mass]

3. B* is getting regime change all right!

Who'd a thought he'd be so successful at it?

[gristy]

4. The terrorists are winning then.

Or so they would say... :eyes:

[Wednesdays]

6. I'm not celebrating just yet...

According to the BBC, France's and Germany's ruling parties suffered big setbacks in this election, and they were the two big European countries most opposed to Shrub's war. And the record-low turnout is also troubling.

[pretzel4gore]

7. contentment...

maybe low turnout indicates contentment with status quo rather then despair or apathy.....low turnout does benefit the reactionaries (what in hell doesn't, now that one thinks of it) however, and newsmedia plays down that aspect while crying croc tears over it....

[Cocoa]

8. Chirac's and Schroeder's losses

prove prove that this wasn't about Bush.

[DaveSZ]

9. Low turnout in America benefits the reactionaries

There are more Dems than Repubs.

The problem is that the Dems are too busy trying to out Repub the Repubs.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. Exactly: attributing all the election effects to Bush is misleading

Note that the original Washington Post doesn't do this; it was just the originator of this thread who thought that. You can't really attribute 2 opposing results to the same cause.

It is a reaction against parties that have been in power for some time (the newly elected Spanish and Greek governing parties did OK); with some other trends overlaid (eg the anti-EU vote in the UK).

[Wednesdays]

11. Also, the BBC said...

They described the composition of the new European Parliament as "center-right," with many members actually opposed to the Euro. If anything, that strengthens Bush's position.

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. There's not that much change from before

'After' and 'before' diagrams here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/04/europe_enl_1087216386/html/1.stm

The changes in seat numbers makes it a little hard to work out differences, but basically the far left, and the socialists, lost a few seats, while 'others' gained. The greens and centre-right both kept about the same proportion of seats.

[bluestateguy]

12. Tentative good news

But remember that in Europe the people opposed the Iraq War. Public opinion in the US is only slowly catching up, and many people still endorse the point of view that says "we can't cut and run".

[lil-petunia]

14. but, look at Spain

After thumbing its nose at shrub, the voters supported the new government against those who would follow him back to Iraq.

Lithuania might have an American EPA chief at the helm again, although the run-off with someone with a LONG history might prove hard.

Greece seemed to support the anti-Bush group, but Cyprus is on the minds of all EU.

[Journeyman]

15. Falsely editorialized headline. . .

The article directly contradicts what the poster has concluded. The election was not a referendum on Shrub, but seems to be more a response against incumbency.

The third paragraph: "The rebuke was spread out equally among governments that supported the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and those that opposed the war."

[Moderator]

16. DaveSZ

When posting in LBN, please match the article title with the title of your post. Thanks.

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