The vote this week was a big win for center-right parties across the continent. Sarcozzi and Merkel saw their parties hold on to their number one spot, where as British Prime Minister Gordon Brown saw his Labor Party only net 16% of the vote- the lowest ever.
In Germany, the conservative CDU of Chancellor Merkel and sister party CSU together took 37% of the vote. While this is down about 6%, it was not expected that the party could hold on to unprecedented gains realized in the last election when the political climate was abnormally favorable. The SPD was the big loser, while the FTP showed surprising gains
The lackluster voter turnout of 43.39% is the second consecutive record low. This makes me wonder how Europeans feel about the EU. Outside observers are fed a picture of a strong and united Europe that wants to play a big role on the international scene and be an economic powerhouse. Yet wouldn't people turn out to vote if this was a commonly shared goal?
The truth is as always not so simple. There are a lot of drawbacks for countries that are "net givers" and which haven't coped well with inflation, unrestricted movement of labor and other changes in circumstances associated with European integration. Some people just aren't that happy.
I think it has a lot to do with how decisions are made in the EU. In addition to a complex EU structure, Europe's heads of state still seem to pretty much set policy. Countries like Germany and France have an additionally large say. It may just not be clear to voters how their vote is being transferred into policy, and they are therefore unmotivated to vote.
That's what's going on here, more on the vote in Lebanon, Iran and of course, President Obama's speech in Cairo, which was well received here in Germany.
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