European Elections: Abstention and Shift to the Right
Due to political disaffection and distraction by the Kosovo conflict only 49 % of European voters found the way to the ballot box in the recent elections to the EU-Parliament held between June 10th and 13th. In most countries the voters used the occasion to chastise the Socialist parties in power. The biggest block in the Strasbourg parliament is now the European Popular Party which surpassed for the first time the Party of European Socialists. Good results obtained even the Liberals and especially the Green Parties, while the Communists suffered a major set-back. The next president of the EU-Commission, Romano Prodi, who is preparing to form the new European executive, must now consider the proposals of the Socialist national governments as well as the requests of the Popular majority block in the EU-Parliament. In September the new Commission must face a confidence vote in Strasbourg.
• eu
• strasbourg
• european union
• elections
• parliament
Cohabitation in France: Crisis of the Conservatives
Since the start of the "cohabitation" with the Socialist prime minister Lionel Jospin (PSF) in 1997, France's Conservatives led by state president Jacques Chirac (RPR) have been in continuous decline. A bottom line was reached now with the election of the EU-Parliament in June, when Chirac's Gaullist Party RPR reached only 12,7 %, its worst result ever. The biggest problem of Chirac's, who is still very popular among the French people, is now the growing party fragmentation in his conservative alliance, where Nationalist and Europhobic forces proved their strength. In the government coalition the Socialists, reaching 22,0 % of consensus, were at least able to consolidate their leadership, although even in the center-left-alliance some minor parties advanced. In view of the next presidential elections in 2002 both sides and both candidates, Chirac and Jospin, could find it now harder to reorganize their forces. All these difficulties seem to confirm the crisis of the French Presidential System, which has lately evidenced its growing tendency towards distributing the two major political offices to two opposing leaders.
• lionel
• jospin
• chirac
• de gaulle
• pasqua