Left-leaning parties fare poorly in EU elections.....

[a kennedy]

do we care about this???

BRUSSELS (AP) — Conservatives scored victories in some of Europe's largest economies Sunday as voters punished left-leaning parties in European parliament elections in France, Germany and other nations.

Some right-leaning parties said the results vindicated their reluctance to spend more on company bailouts and fiscal stimulus to combat the global economic crisis.

The European Union said center-right parties were expected to take the most seats — 267 — in the 736-member parliament. Center-left parties were headed for 159 seats. The remainder were expected to go to smaller groupings.

Right-leaning governments were ahead of the opposition in Germany, France, Italy and Belgium, while conservative opposition parties were leading in Britain and Spain.

Greece was a notable exception, where the governing conservatives were headed for defeat in the wake of corruption scandals and economic woes.
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Germans handed a lackluster victory to Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and a historic defeat to their center-left rivals in the European Parliament vote months before a national election.

The Social Democrats got an unexpectedly dismal 20.8% — the party's worst showing since World War II in any nationwide election.

full article here: http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-06-07-european-elections_N.htm

[BlooInBloo]

1. I thought it was largely because they hate the brown people in "their" countries so much.

[madrchsod]

2. the house and senate senate race in one year.

if obama does`t have this economy up and running look for the republicans to take the house and the democrats lose senate seats. the republicans will stall everything until the 2012 elections.

[moondust]

3. Just a guess.

The reason: Global economic meltdown.

Who was in charge? The Left.

Who caused it? The Right (in the U.S.). Unfortunately too many in EU followed Wall Street's lead and EU governements didn't stop them.

[jdp349]

4. I agree

there is a fair amount of academic literature on economic voting and left leaning parties, if they're the incumbency tend to get hit hard during the elections if there is high unemployment.

[madville]

5. it will happen again here also

The democrats are in charge and have big majorities. People have short attention spans and memories and will want results, not excuses.

In 2-4 years if the democrats are sitting their holding a big bag of fail, either due to failed policy or inaction, people will not show up to the polls for them or will vote for the other guy.

No party or ideal stays in power forever because government by it's very own nature is doomed to failure. It corrupts, is wasteful and inefficient, whoever is in charge has to be accountable at some point and the other side will step in.

[rusty charly]

6. The Right wins when people don't vote

"Voters across Europe are casting their ballots in European elections, expected to see a record low voter turnout and gains for far-right and far-left parties. In Italy, scandal hit Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is the only leader of a large EU member state to stand as head of an electoral list.

http://tinyurl.com/lehc7l

Voter apathy is expected to characterize the election to select new representatives for the European Union's parliament. Italy is representative of this situation. Voting resumed across the country Sunday following a slow first day. Just more than 17 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots on Saturday, but polling stations will remain open until 10 pm."