The EU thread

[Richard Hakluyt]

I find it fascinating how the DDR persists; they have been free now for nearly as long as they were under the soviets. I suppose there is a continual leakage of their brightest and best to the west of Germany which does not help.

[Admiral Yi]

I find it fascinating how the DDR persists; they have been free now for nearly as long as they were under the soviets. I suppose there is a continual leakage of their brightest and best to the west of Germany which does not help.

I was thinking the Allies might have been better at de-Nazification than the Soviets.

[Zanza]

I find it fascinating how the DDR persists; they have been free now for nearly as long as they were under the soviets. I suppose there is a continual leakage of their brightest and best to the west of Germany which does not help.

East Germany lost about 15% population since 1990, West Germany grew by 10%. In 1990, the West had 4.1 times the population, now the ratio is 5.4 times. There are a few cities that have population growth, but in rural areas, population is collapsing. Fast.

It is very tough for companies to attract talent and the anti-migrant party being so strong does not help.

That population collapse makes keeping up infrastructure, public transport and retail or health services impossible.

The people left in these dying villages don't understand why money is spent on refugees or Ukraine and the Nazis are sometimes the only group that organize local activities. That's why they get so much support.

Edit: Saxony-Anhalt peaked in 1964 with 3.23 million people. Nowadays it has 2.18 million.

[Duque de Bragança]

Zeit has some good maps of the German results :

https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2024-06/wahlergebnisse-europawahl-deutschland-landkreise-live

Maybe it is time to build an Anti-Fascist Protection Wall. 

Indeed! Worked wonders last time! 

Plus another wall around Bavaria to protect it from Saupreißland 

[Sheilbh]

I find it fascinating how the DDR persists; they have been free now for nearly as long as they were under the soviets. I suppose there is a continual leakage of their brightest and best to the west of Germany which does not help.

Although 35 years isn't very long. I mean we can still see Congress Poland (Poland's election results - which were very good for KO)


And maybe even the Danelaw

(Or who came second in 2019):


Obviously Communes not people, but fair to say the French map looks a bit different:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/les-decodeurs/article/2024/06/10/map-the-2024-european-election-results-in-france-town-by-town_6674392_8.html

[Josquius]

It's funny. I recall not too long ago speaking to an American woman who had moved to the posh paris suburbs to escape trump.
Woops.

[Valmy]

Zeit has some good maps of the German results :

https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2024-06/wahlergebnisse-europawahl-deutschland-landkreise-live

What the hell is the BSW? Or the FW?

And here I thought I had learned my German parties.

[Valmy]

Indeed! Worked wonders last time! 

Got to watch those East German Panzers through the Ardennes

[Valmy]

It's funny. I recall not too long ago speaking to an American woman who had moved to the posh paris suburbs to escape trump.
Woops.

It is part of the reason I am resolved just to stay here regardless of how weird things get in Texas. Within reasonably limits, us going full Orban might do it.

[Duque de Bragança]

It's funny. I recall not too long ago speaking to an American woman who had moved to the posh paris    to escape trump.
Woops.

American woman in Neuilly, Versailles or the like?
Nah, probably too colbertist/socialist for her.

[Duque de Bragança]

Zeit has some good maps of the German results :

https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2024-06/wahlergebnisse-europawahl-deutschland-landkreise-live

What the hell is the BSW? Or the FW?

And here I thought I had learned my German parties.

Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht.

True/radical left not too big on gender ideology/« pronouns »/non-binarism etc., soy/veganism/gluten-free/tofu etc. In French that would be described as progressiste socialement (higher wages and more welfare) and .
conservateur sociétalement.
Also, not at all for mass immigration, and green transition will have to wait since the burden falls too much on the proletariat.


Basically, a throwback to left-wing parties of yore, as in working class, socialist parties.


That was the best part.

Splinter of Die Linke, which they beat in votes.

Anti-atlantist, anti-EU and guess what, « neutral » in the Ukraine-Russia war (no weapons to Ukraine). Pro-Palestine but the issue is not played up to the same extent as your run of the mill islamo-leftist party à la Mélenchon.

May be described as as left-wing populists and/or left-wing nationalists.
It's the ex-DDR party, after the AfD that is, if you will.

[Syt]

Analysis of how voters switched between elections in Austria. FPÖ's new votes mostly come from conservative ÖVP and non-voters.

With non-voters increasing and forming such a large block, I hope that in the Federal elections in Autumn there will be an "anyone but FPÖ" surge (kind of like the presidential elections 8 years ago when Greens Alexander Von Der Bellen stood vs Norbert Hofer from FPÖ in the final run off).

[Sheilbh]

In Finland, the results were actually quite good compared to the big EU countries. The big winners are National Coalition (center-right) who rose from 3 seats to 4, and the Left Alliance (mainstream left), who got 2 new seats and are now at 3. Far-right nationalist The Finns are big losers, with only 1 seat remaining as their support melted. So no far-right rise over here! I understand it's similar in Sweden, where the far-right SD did not get as much as was feared.

Finnish parties are also a bit different in that our left is very anti-Russia and our greens are pro-science and like nuclear power.

Yeah the Scandi results generally are interesting and very good for the Greens and Left. I think Helen Thompson's attempt to provide a scheme was quite helpful: Scandinavia good for Greens with the Left and Liberals doing well in some areas; Southern Europe (except Italy) broadly the traditional party groups are holding up; and then the founder 6 (particularly Germany and France) where there's a large decline in support for the incumbents and the hard right are doing well (Italy's similar but a bit different).

Both in terms of the election results, but then also the analysis (maps of Germany, French parliamentary elections) and consequences it is striking how national these elections were. I know that in theory VdL and Metsola, say, do campaign events across Europe but I think it's still not a European demos voting.

With non-voters increasing and forming such a large block, I hope that in the Federal elections in Autumn there will be an "anyone but FPÖ" surge (kind of like the presidential elections 8 years ago when Greens Alexander Von Der Bellen stood vs Norbert Hofer from FPÖ in the final run off).

And interesting how that can have different affects in different countries. I believe the Netherlands saw the PVV vote decline and the GreenLeft win in large part because PVV voters stayed at home.

Overall it looks like turnout might have been a little lower than the last European elections (once adjusting for the UK).

[Sheilbh]

Totally separate from elections etc - a really important story in the Guardian (part of a series) on the use of migrant children in Europe's cocaine trade:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/ng-interactive/2024/jun/11/north-african-children-beaten-tortured-europe-cocaine-gangs

[Jacob]

... I expect that those children who are beaten and tortured by criminals will - if they survive - are at risk of becoming unpleasant grown ups, perpetuating the social damage