A Tremendous Day for the People of Europe

Opinion

By Karen Siegemund, Ph. D., American Freedom Alliance

06-15-24

The European Parliament elections that concluded Sunday revealed a decided rightward, nationalist shift in the general tenor of the electorate in most countries of the European Union. AFA has always had a close eye on events in Europe, and in fact had hosted a Global Freedom Movements conference in 2019, so we watched these elections with great interest. There were tremendous gains made by populist nationalist parties, by those “euroskeptic” parties that emphasize sovereigntist policies over the globalist policies that have been bringing about cultural, economic and social suicide. Alongside these freedom and self-preservation-based gains were marvelous losses sustained by various Green and Socialist parties.

Not all nations saw the same boosts in this direction, and many factors were at play of course. Which is all reflective of how each nation SHOULD have a right to its own leanings, and the harmonization that the EU strives for is counter to the realities of the 27 different and unique sovereign nations that comprise the EU.

So how do these elections work? There are, in 2024, 720 seats open in the European Parliament which holds elections like these every five years. Nations are allotted a certain number of seats proportional to their population, and within each nation party members are also proportional to the percent of the vote received. So, for example, in the Netherlands, Geert Wilders’ PVV Freedom Party won 17.7% of the vote, so they will get 17.7% of the 31 seats allotted to the Netherlands, which is 6 seats. Considering that his party had had no seats in the European Parliament before, this is a tremendous gain.

Before I share some of the best analyses that I’ve found, I’d like to offer these comments:

1) While in a sense this doesn’t affect governance within each nation, the voice of the people has clearly been heard, and the people are not fans of being dictated to by Brussels, especially on issues related to immigration, energy, Ukraine and all those various EU-globalist-Leftist polices that are doing such damage to Europe, as, indeed, they are to us here in the US.

2) There seems to be a general surge of confidence among sovereigntist-populist-nationalists, and from what I’m hearing, the shame (and fear) of being on the right is being overtaken by a rising national pride. As sovereignty is the antithesis to globalism, this is a great thing.

3) As a result of the trouncing of his party in France, and the dominant win of Marine Le Pen’s RN (Rassemblement National or National Rally) party (31.4% to Macron’s 14.6%), President Macron dissolved the lower house of the French Parliament and has called for a new snap election later this month.

What happened in France: Le Pen and Bardella: France’s far-right double act zero in on power (msn.com)

and Macron dissolves the French parliament and calls a snap election after defeat in EU vote | AP News

and France: Marine Le Pen’s far-right party makes historic gains in EU elections | Euronews which includes Macron’s speech.

And newly from National Review: European Union Elections in France a Political Earthquake | National Review

4)The American Freedom Alliance had hosted a “Global Freedom Movements” conference in October of 2019, intending for it to be the “first annual” such event. Then, of course, the world shut down in a display of globalist anti-freedom tyranny. The two-day conference hosted speakers from England, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria and the Czech Republic as well as South Korea. Our speakers were, with a few exceptions, politicians, and generally in opposition parties, and they each spoke of the shared issues which are the same as they face today. So we are in a great position to note how these weaker freedom-related parties have really gained ground since that time, and it’s extremely encouraging. In fact, we are in conversation to host our second annual such conference later this year – stand by!

5) Germany’s wildly maligned Alternative for Germany party (AfD) (a member of which, Marc Jongen, spoke at our conference) had an incredibly strong showing, almost 16%, coming in 2nd to the Christian Democrat party Union (CDU/CSU), a 5% increase over the last election in 2019. This is the New York Times report on the huge win. And this is a terrific description in a tweet by AfD Member of Parliament Christine Anderson.

In Austria, the Freedom Party (FPO) came in a strong first, which is already having a ripple effect on the national scene.

And the Belgian Prime Minister, Alexander de Croo, stepped down to make way for a re-structuring of their government. More

5) While I am not a fan of the European Union, the election of this past week has been a huge shot in the arm, and as I have said, the election results may well be literally the best thing to come out of the EU, ever.

Some good links:

From Reuters: European election 2024: Live results and analysis (reuters.com) – includes how all this works

From Euronews: Europe veers right but centre-ground resists: What the EU election results mean and what’s next (msn.com)

From CNBC: EU elections 2024: European Parliament results (cnbc.com)

Great reporting from ZDFHeute, a German news website. Your browser can translate it. Europawahl 2024 – Aktuelle Nachrichten und Hintergründe – ZDFheute

From Chronicles Magazine: A Report from Europe: There is Hope – Chronicles (chroniclesmagazine.org)

Given that Brexit – the populist nationalist movement in Britain – preceded the election of Donald Trump – also a populist nationalist here in the US, it makes sense for us to watch what is happening across the pond. And what we are seeing in Europe gives us a sense that the “people” generally are voting in support of protecting their nation, their national culture and ethos, and are rejecting many of the policies shoved down their throats by globalist, leftist authoritarians, policies that are causing losses of freedom, of prosperity, of their heritage and control over their own sovereignty.

I imagine Americans aren’t feeling too dissimilar from our European friends, and may very well be wanting to wrest our country back from globalist, anti-American authoritarians who are weakening and empoverishing us.

I congratulate the Europeans who stood up for their nations, and I hope we take encouragement from them when it’s our turn.

The views expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Citizens Journal Florida