Sunday Night’s European Parliamentary elections saw a significant swing to the centre-right, right and in some cases, the far-right. In a political landscape dominated by recession and economic woes, European Voters chose not to react against the perceived cause - free market economics - in the traditional manner, and turned away in swathes from the left. This was most stark in Germany, France (despite Nicholas Sarkozy’s apparent unpopularity) and the UK where the left took a battering.

 

In the UK - one of Kosova’s strongest allies in Europe and the World, anger at a tired Labour government saw the electorate swing to a more Euro sceptic Conservative Party. The UK, with 72 seats in the European Parliament - Europe’s only directly elected institution - is obviously a major player at EU level, and has traditionally favoured enlargement, Foreign Secretary David Miliband recently expressing support for Turkish, Balkan and even North African accession to the 27-state Union. Conservative Parties of the past have supported enlargement as a means of access to new markets, but elected this year on an anti-Lisbon treaty platform, and a platform which sees Europe as consistently legislating in areas which it was not intended to, could add further impetus to President Sarkozy and Chancellor Merkel’s recent remarks that the EU was approaching ‘full capacity’. Something which could become more pronounced if, or (almost certainly) when, David Cameron’s Conservatives form a government next year. The generally pro-enlargement Labour party were even beaten into third place by the anti-EU United Kingdom Independence Party, a party which received so much support from it’s anti-Turkey platform.
 
Further to the right the neo-fascist British National Party gained two MEPs. This is particularly important for Kosova when seen in conjunction with the successes made by the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders’ Freedom party’s gains, a party which explicitly wants to halt all Muslim immigration into Europe and the Netherlands. These far-right gains cannot be seen in any light other than bad for Kosova. Though the far-right still remains in the minority in the European Parliament, they can certainly be expected at least to vote for all anti-enlargement legislation.
 
This has come about as a result of the failures of supposedly pro-EU parties to present the electorate with anything approaching a reason to vote for them. The Socialists in France are viewed as divided and not anything resembling an ‘opposition’, the first time in EU election history that the ruling party in France has also won the European vote, with 28% of the vote compared to the Socialists’ 17%.
 
Another causal factor affecting this move towards a Europe which is increasingly at odds with itself was the incredibly low turnout, estimated to be around 43% of the 375 million Europeans eligible to vote, leading to gains being made by parties who are animated to vote through grassroots support. Hungary’s nationalist anti-Gypsy party ‘Jobbik’ being an apt example.
 
What all this means could be profound for the political culture of Kosova, dominated by accession to the EU - something essentially equated to ‘progress’. In the long term it could at worst mean great problems for any prospective members of the European Union (something particularly important for Croatia) - as it would only take one national veto to stop a state’s accession.
 
But the immediate effects could be much more profound. Though accession to the European Union would certainly bring economic benefits to Kosova in the long-term, if the results do appear to indicate a move towards a less pro-enlargement Europe, this could have the effect of making the EULEX mission in Kosova less committed to long term aims, such as democracy, freedom and justice, and instead focus on short term aims such as ‘stability’.
 
Consolation can perhaps be taken from the fact that if Europe does decide it does not want Kosova (or indeed any new state) to join, it appears that the citizens of Europe may be questioning whether or not they want to be members themselves.

 

Nicholas lives in the UK. He is currently completing a dissertation thesis on the subject of the EU in Kosovo.