Europe after the #EuropeanElections

The European elections threw up few surprises but a lot of confusion. The major blocs in previous European Parliaments, the European People’s Party and the Socialists, lost a lot of seats, although relatively few went to the more extreme populists, writes Jim Gibbons.

The success of Nigel Farage’s Brexit party in the United Kingdom may be one reason for that, according to Felix Dane, who heads the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in the United Kingdom and Ireland. He told a conference in London that the Brexit phenomenon in Britain led to some populist parties in the rest of Europe toning down their rhetoric, afraid of the toxicity spreading.

The conference, near the Palace of Westminster, was organised by the Federal Trust in co-operation with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation and the Global Policy Institute.

Its intention was to look at the results, why they happened and what it means for the future governance of the European Union.   One of the greatest unknowns at present is what effect the result with have on who will become the next President of the European Commission, the European Central Bank, the European Council and the Foreign Policy unit.

Indeed, it may be a race that’s impossible to call until after it’s known for sure if Britain really is leaving on 31 October. Certainly, that will affect the balance of parties within the European Parliament.

If they stay longer, the Brexit members may prove harder-working and more committed than most of the UK Independence Party’s MEPs.

According to Dr. Giacomo Benedetto, senior politics lecturer and occupier of the Monnet Chair at the University of London, the Brexit candidates would seem to be “of a higher calibre” and may prove more talented.

Dr. Benedetto was one of the speakers at the conference.

No conclusion was reached; perhaps there cannot be one until Brexit is decided, and negotiations are suspended while the Conservatives choose a new leader.

There was some concern about the enthusiasm of the greeting for President Trump, especially given his wish for US companies to get a foot in the door of the National Heath Service.

A fairly small anti-Trump demonstration was taking place in Parliament Square, just a few hundred metres from the conference venue.

Like most such events, it left a lot of uncertainty except for the assurance that Britain - and now Europe, too - remain dangerously divided.

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