Last week, voters in 27 countries across the European Union went to the polls to elect a new European Parliament. The elections are some of the biggest in the world - or would be, if anyone bothered to vote on them - and elect the EU's sole democratically legitimate body. Today, the results are coming back. The headline result is that the Party of European Socialists - traditionally the second biggest group - got hammered, losing a quarter of its seats in the midst of the biggest recession (and biggest capitalist mistake) the world has seen in a lifetime. Meanwhile, the European People's Party–European Democrats, traditionally the largest group, have held steady despite the defection of the UK Conservatives and the shrinking of the Parliament.
But there is good news from this election: The Swedish Pirate Party - an anti-copyright party founded by file traders - gained 7.1% of the vote there, and won one seat. Take that, copyright mafia! And in the UK, Labour might do badly enough to precipitate the final ouster of Gordon Brown. Not that his replacement will be any better, and not that it will save the party and prevent them from being decimated at the next election, but it will be some deserved revenge against the man who consistently done the wrong thing and betrayed the promise of Not Being Tony Blair.
The really bad news is that the white supremacist BNP have won their first seat. Which means they'll now have access to Parliamentary funding to build their organisation and spew their hate. Something else we can thank Tony and Gordon for.
UKK results aren't final yet, so its not clear whether UK Labour has been pushed into 4th place behind the anti-Europe UKIP and the LibDems. If they are, hopefully it will mean Brown is gone by next week.
(More coverage, as always, on European Tribune)
