Who should I vote for. Redux.

[Sheilbh]

As far as I know, they always get 10-11%. 

Oh I thought they'd got a lot worse at the last election.  I mean in seats the FDP and CDU-CSU won over 50%.

Edit:  Interestingly the Greens who got 41 seats in 2004 have already reached 40 seats.

[Sheilbh]

Couple of interesting results in local areas.  In one constituency in the South-West Labour's just got under 10% and are fifth behind Tories, UKIP, Lib-Dems and Greens

Apparently the BNP have come fifth in Burnley which was meant to be an area where they were strong

[Sheilbh]

Good Lord.  Apparently the Tories may have come first in Wales.  The last the popular vote in Wales wasn't won by Labour was either 1918 or 1931

[Alatriste]

Spain:

PP 42,25% - 23 seats (right)
PSOE 38,50% 21 seats (socialists)
CEU 5,04% 2 seats (nationalist right)
IU 3,74% 2 seats (communists)
UPyD 2,88% 1 seat (new party, antinationalist)
Edp-V 2,53% 1 seat (nationalist left)

In a few words, the socialists have lost 5 points, but PP managed to get only 1 of them, in spite of rising unemployment. UPyD, a new, antinationalist party (its main point is central guvernment should reclaim a portion of the powers devolved to the regions) and quite ambiguous in all other fields, that refuses even to be defined as leftist or rightist, seems to be the biggest winner.

[Martinus]

Polish results.  7 liberals gone.  Is this the Martinus effect?

Who are you calling "liberals"?

[Sheilbh]

Polish results.  7 liberals gone.  Is this the Martinus effect?

Who are you calling "liberals"?
[/quote
Whichever party's in the Alliance for Liberals and Democracy for Europe?  Don't know who they are in Poland, I'll look them up.

[Zanza]

Surprising how bad the Left and NPAC (?) have done in Germany and France.  Or was that expected?

The Left Party in Germany doesn't benefit at all from the crisis - which is surprising in a way I guess. They also have fierce inner-party struggles between different wings.

How did the FDP do so well, I thought they weren't expected to do that well?

They regularly poll 10+ in the federal election surveys. No idea what there predicted number for this election was.

As far as I know, they always get 10-11%. 

They were pretty weak in the 1990s, e.g. didn't make it to the European Parliament at all in 1999. They have a bit of a renaissance in the last few years - probably thanks to the Grand Coalition between Conservatives and Social Democrats ruling Germany right now. A lot of disgruntled CDU voters looking for a more laissez-faire approach to economics probably.

[Martinus]

Oh them. They are totally gone from Polish politics and got absorbed into socialdemocrats and the coalition I voted for. None of the Polish parties is now associated with ALDE.

[Sheilbh]

Apparently it was the Democratic Left Alliance and Social Democracy in Poland.  So reading round them it looks like they dissolved

[Martinus]

Here are the Polish results. Even though it's a center-right vote mostly, what's interesting is that most of the winners are pro-EU, unlike the situation in Western EU countries, it seems.

PO (EPP-ED, pro-EU) - 24 seats, 45% of votes
PiS (EUN, moderately anti-EU) - 16 seats, 29% of votes
SLD (PES, pro-EU) - 6 seats, 12% of votes
PSL (EPP-ED, pro-EU) - 4 seats, 8% of votes

Noone else got any seats.

[Martinus]

Apparently it was the Democratic Left Alliance and Social Democracy in Poland.  So reading round them it looks like they dissolved

I think that's wrong. They are part of the European Socialists.

[Sheilbh]

Apparently it was the Democratic Left Alliance and Social Democracy in Poland.  So reading round them it looks like they dissolved

I think that's wrong. They are part of the European Socialists.

You're right.  It's Freedom Union that were Poland's liberals.

[Martinus]

Apparently it was the Democratic Left Alliance and Social Democracy in Poland.  So reading round them it looks like they dissolved

I think that's wrong. They are part of the European Socialists.

You're right.  It's Freedom Union that were Poland's liberals.

Yeah, they have been gone for years. Most of their former members who stayed in politics joined the Green-Liberal-Social-democrat coalition I voted for. And they didn't get any seats.

But in the last elections they only got seats because they formed a coalition with SLD (the socialdemocrats). On their own, they never get many votes. It's fucking Poland.

[Tamas]

The Hungarian result (attendance was about 36% BTW) is just about a landslide victory for the nazis.

This party of theirs, "Jobbik" (which is a play with words in Hungarian, it both means "better" and right-er, ie. more to the right than the main opposition party) is pretty new to the scene, they were non-existent prior to 2006, and they were not taken seriously until they formed this Hungarian Guard (our modern-day version of the SA, basically) of theirs.

The total number of votes they got, would be enough, counting with a 70% attendance, to grab a 7% result on parlaimentary elections. That means even if they fail to convince even one more people to go and vote on them next year (or rather this year, seeing the utter failure of the governing party), than what they have now, they have more than enough support to get into parlaiment.

[Martinus]

Why is Hungary so fucked up? I mean Poland is not a paradise either, but at least the most right-wing party that won any seats is "PiS", which is of course full of Kaczynski-style failures, but they are definitely not nazis (the closest comparison would probably be the Spanish People's Party, but without a historical involvement in any right wing dictatorship).