Category Archives: European elections

Resurgent Greens find they can set agenda in German politics

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Party is developing a taste for their opponents’ blood and shaking up fiscal policy

Emboldened by unprecedented highs in the European elections in Germany, a surging Green party is discovering that it can set the political agenda in Europe’s largest economy without having to be in power.

The party that was once derided for its plans for a meat-free “veggie day” at nationwide canteens is developing a taste for their opponents’ blood: pushing other parties to adopt their policies, laying down red lines for coalition talks and even hatching plans to slay the country’s holy cows on fiscal policy.

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Record number of women become MEPs – but men still dominate

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Ratio of females in European parliament up to 39% from 36%, analysis of results shows

More women have been elected to the European parliament than ever before but men still account for 60% of MEPs, according to an early analysis of the European election results.

The proportion of female MEPs has increased slightly from 36% five years ago to about 39%, or 286 out of 751 seats, with nearly all of the official results confirmed.

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‘When Franco was alive, it was safer’: inside Spain’s far-right battleground – video

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Vox became the first far-right party to enter Spain's parliament since the Franco era when it won 24 seats in the general election. Last week, the party fought its first mayoral campaign in El Ejido, a town in Andalucia with a population of 90,000 people, 30% of whom are migrants, often working in the 150 sq miles of fruit and vegetable greenhouses that surround the town. We follow the campaign and talk to Spaniards and migrants to find out why this socialist stronghold of 40 years is turning to the right

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Merkel seeks to scotch rumours of a rift with her party’s new leader

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German chancellor dismisses as ‘rubbish’ claims she thinks CDU successor is not up to job

Angela Merkel has sought to scotch rumours of a rift with her party’s new leader, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, dismissing reports that she thinks her successor is not up to the job.

The German chancellor defended Kramp-Karrenbauer after the new leader was criticised for calling for a clampdown on opinionated YouTube clips ahead of elections.

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European elections: triumphant Greens demand more radical climate action

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Green politicians to push agenda urging climate action, social justice and civil liberties

Europe’s Greens, big winners in Sunday’s European elections, will use their newfound leverage in a fractured parliament to push an agenda of urgent climate action, social justice and civil liberties, the movement’s leaders say.

“This was a great outcome for us – but we now also have a great responsibility, because voters have given us their trust,” Bas Eickhout, a Dutch MEP and the Greens’ co-lead candidate for commission president, told the Guardian.

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Northern Ireland’s Alliance leader gets push in EU elections from anti-Brexit stance

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Naomi Long wins seat after trebling party’s vote, saying supporters want to remain in EU

Opposition to Brexit has propelled the leader of Northern Ireland’s Alliance party to a dramatic victory in the European elections.

Naomi Long, an outspoken advocate of a second referendum on the UK’s European Union membership, won a seat on Monday with 105,958 first preference votes after almost trebling support for her party compared with the 2014 election.

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Austrian far-right party likely to back motion to oust chancellor

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Sebastian Kurz faces no-confidence vote after his party tops EU election polls despite video-sting scandal

Austrian politicians are likely to sack the chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, in a no-confidence vote after the leader of the far-right Freedom party (FPO) indicated it would probably vote against him.

Kurz’s conservatives came out on top in Sunday’s European parliament elections despite a video-sting scandal a week ago involving the FPO leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, which brought down their coalition government. Strache then resigned from all his political posts.

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‘Immigrants make Britain great’: Magid Magid’s unlikely journey to Green MEP – video

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Magid Magid shot to fame as the lord mayor of Sheffield on a platform of hope and anti-racism in his city. A year later he has been elected as the first Green MEP for Yorkshire and the Humber. We followed him on the campaign trail and find out how he got his message out and what he will do in Brussels


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Four takeaways from the European elections – video explainer

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In the UK, the Conservatives and Labour have been decimated over their stance on Brexit, with Nigel Farage's Brexit party and pro-remain parties emerging as the big winners.  With votes still being counted across Europe, voters have boosted Greens and far-right groups, leaving centrists diminished

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Greens surge as parties make strongest ever showing across Europe

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Party could hold balance of power in EU parliament with projected 71 MEPs

Green parties have swept to their strongest ever showing in European elections, boosting their tally of MEPs to a projected 71 compared with 52 last time and giving themselves every chance of becoming kingmakers in a newly fragmented parliament.

“Thank you so much for your trust in us Greens,” a delighted Ska Keller, one of the European Greens’ two lead candidates for the post of European commission president, told a press conference in Brussels.

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Final votes cast as EU awaits parliamentary election results

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France, Germany, Italy and others go to polls on Sunday, with gains expected for nationalist parties

The western world’s largest democratic exercise is nearing its finale as tens of millions of EU citizens in 21 countries go to the polls on Sunday, the last of four days of voting in European parliament elections that will shape the bloc’s future.

Polls suggest the vote will produce a more fragmented parliament than ever before, with the two centre-right and centre-left groups that have dominated Europe’s politics forecast to lose their joint majority for the first time, and nationalist and populist forces to make gains.

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EU citizens denied vote in European elections to sue UK government

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Exclusive: Campaign groups prepare legal challenge following ‘systemic denial’ of suffrage

The government is facing the prospect of being sued by campaigners for EU citizens in the UK and British nationals abroad who were denied a vote in the European parliament elections.

John Halford, a public law specialist at Bindmans, said this week’s electoral fiasco was something a democracy should not tolerate.

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European elections: UK regulator urged to count late postal votes

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Group of MEPs writes to Electoral Commission over reports of ballot paper delays

The Electoral Commission has been asked to permit late postal votes for the European parliament elections to be counted as reports continue of many British nationals living abroad receiving their ballot papers too late to return on time.

A group of 10 MEPs has written to the regulator to say that it should consider any postal vote that arrives by Sunday when the polls close across Europe. “We cannot permit lousy disenfranchisement like this,” said the Liberal Democrat MEP Catherine Bearder, who wrote the letter to the commission.

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May close to abandoning Brexit bill amid growing cabinet backlash – live news

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political events as they happen as the UK votes in the European elections 2019 and pressure continues on Theresa May to resign

This is what Valerie Vaz, the shadow leader of the Commons, said in the chamber earlier about the government’s decision not to publish the EU withdrawal agreement bill tomorrow. (See 11.22am.) She said:

Yesterday the prime minister told the house that the second reading of the withdrawal agreement bill would be in the week commencing June 3rd, now we hear it’s not, so in less than 24 hours the prime minister has broken her word. This is yet another broken promise by the prime minister on Brexit.

The prime minister’s official spokesman told journalists at the morning lobby briefing that Theresa May would be meeting cabinet colleagues to discuss the EU withdrawal agreement bill today, the Press Association reports.

“The prime minister is listening to her colleagues about the bill and will be having further discussions,” he said.

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It’s hard to imagine. But could this really be the end for the Tories? | Polly Toynbee

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In its Brexit delirium, the party is tearing itself apart on an election day, its voters rampaging off into the Farage wildwoods

Welcome to an extraordinarily bizarre election day. Pause on the way to the polling station to wonder at the astounding mayhem within our “ruling” party, soliciting votes even while wrenching its leader from Downing Street. We may be so used to the Tory party in meltdown that we forget to be amazed at what is unfolding before our eyes – on election day.

Even allowing for all Andrea Leadsom’s fantastical ambitious absurdities, ponder how astonishing it is to see the leader of the house, no less, resigning on election eve just to steal a march on all her improbable leadership competitors. Jeremy Hunt is marching in to see the prime minister in publicly threatening mode – on election day. Forget any sense of decorum towards their party or their country, or the electoral process.

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Andrea Leadsom resigns from the government as May refuses to quit – live news

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Tory ministers and backbenchers conspicuously absent as Theresa May makes statement about her proposed Brexit bill

Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson criticised Andrea Leadsom’s decision to step down on the eve of the European elections, calling it a “slap in the face” for her colleagues.

He tweeted: “I accept that she may want to go but to do it the night before an election looks odd.

Commentators are pointing out the irony that it may be a resignation by Andrea Leadsom, who stood aside to let Theresa May take the Tory leadership in summer 2016, which may eventually lead to the prime minister’s downfall.

.@andrealeadsom will be seen by history to have delivered the coup de grace to @theresa_may - which is appropriate some would say because it was her withdrawal from leadership race that handed 10 Downing St to May on a plate. Revenge dish best served steaming hot perhaps

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Nigel Farage discussed fronting far-right group led by Steve Bannon

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Footage shows Brexit party leader calling Bannon’s plan a ‘fightback against globalists’

Nigel Farage discussed the idea of fronting a global alliance of populist and far-right politicians being put together by the controversial former White House strategist Steve Bannon, it has emerged.

Farage said he would be keen to take the role after Bannon discussed the idea of forming a group based around populism and “economic nationalism”, with potential members including Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Rodrigo Duterte, the Philippines leader who is accused of presiding over mass rights abuses and who has admitted authorising extrajudicial killings.

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Far-right Facebook groups ‘spreading hate to millions in Europe’

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Avaaz uncovers 500 accounts using fake news to spread white supremacy message

A web of far-right Facebook accounts spreading fake news and hate speech to millions of people across Europe has been uncovered by the campaign group Avaaz.

Facebook, which is struggling to clean up the platform and salvage its reputation, has already taken down accounts with about 6 million followers before voting in the European elections begins on Thursday. It was still investigating hundreds of other accounts with an additional 26 million followers, Avaaz said.

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Brexit: May to give speech at 4pm with details of ‘new’ deal for MPs – live news

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Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, as Theresa May’s cabinet met to consider the contents of the Brexit EU withdrawal agreement bill

PM’s speech is called ‘A new Brexit deal - seeking common ground in Parliament’

In the urgent question in the Commons earlier on British Steel, which is on the brink of collapse putting 5,000 jobs at risk, Andrew Stephenson, the business minister, said the government “leave no stone unturned” in supporting the UK steel industry. He said:

I can reassure the house that, subject to strict legal bounds, the government will leave no stone unturned in its support for the steel industry ...

We can only act within the strict bounds of what is legally possible under domestic and European law.

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