The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative
Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other
shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org.
May 28, 2019

European Parliament Elections See Greens and Far-Right Gain Ground But Pro-EU Parties Retain Majority
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

European Parliamentary elections took place over four days of voting
that saw the highest turnout since 1994. Centrist parties lost dozens of
seats, while far-right nationalist and Green candidates gained
significant ground. In France, the far-right National Rally led by
Marine Le Pen narrowly beat the centrist alliance led by French
President Emmanuel Macron amid widespread discontent with the government
and after months of popular protests by the yellow vests movement. In
Britain, the Brexit Party led by Nigel Farage came in first with 31% of
the vote. The elections came soon after Prime Minister Theresa May
announced her resignation over the failure to pass her Brexit deal. In
Italy, far-right nationalist League party placed first, while Hungarian
right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's Fidesz party is set to score
around 52% of vote.

The Green Party soared in popularity in many nations-especially Germany,
where it placed second. Greens also did well in Finland, France and
Ireland. The next president of the European Commission will likely be
Bas Eickhout of the Dutch Green Party.

In Spain, leftist Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau lost to Catalan separatist
Ernest Maragall by less than 5,000 votes, and Madrid Mayor Manuela
Carmena said she would step down despite winning the most votes, after a
right-wing bloc collectively gained enough support to claim control over
Madrid's City Hall. We'll have more on the EU elections after headlines.


.