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EU presidential campaign
The Robert Schuman Foundation reported that the leaders of the German delegations (CDU, CSU, Greens, FDP and Die Linke) at the European Parliament had published an open letter on 13 March 2014 addressed to the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, in which they asked him to suspend his function during the electoral campaign for the European elections. Martin Schulz was elected on 1 March 2014 as the candidate for the Presidency of the European Commission by the European socialists. According to the authors of the letter, the impartial function of the President of the European Parliament is incompatible with the campaign he is now undertaking as the leader of the European socialists.
Full letter (in German)
Euroscepticism
Big gains for French FN in local elections
In the local elections in France, the mainstream centre-Right UMP party fared better than the ruling Socialists, who suffered the most from record low voter turnout of around 60 per cent The FN made the second round run-off in around 200 towns, won an outright majority in the northern town of Henin-Beaumont and was first-placed in the eastern town of Forbach and the southern towns of Avignon, Perpignan and Béziers, reported the Telegraph.
Meanwhile, Mr Hollande's Socialist Party was heading for heavy losses as voters appeared to punish his dithering and lack of results two years into his five-year mandate. These could trigger a re-shuffle of his cabinet, potentially seeing Ségolène Royal, his former partner, taking up a ministerial post.
The Independent's editorial writes that the National Front’s handful of wins in French local elections should not be dismissed as a protest vote. Ms Le Pen has worked hard to distance herself from the aggressive nastiness of the party created by her father, Jean-Marie, and has taken great care to cultivate target seats. Last weekend’s results, particularly the first-round win in Hénin-Beaumont, suggest that the strategy is paying off. Across the country, however, the National Front won only 6 per cent of the vote and even the successes are not assured.
Marine Le Pen told the press that the vote is testimony of the end of bipolarisation in French politics. The FN will participate in the second tour of 229 municipalities, according to Le Monde. It will now be crucial to see how the UMP reacts. The FN is stretched to the limits in terms of human ressources and the call from the left for a "reunited Republic" could cause the FN to lose some of the towns where Socialists come third. The forward strategy for the FN thus would be to mobilse the ones that abstained in the first round, according to the article.
Acknowledging the populist threat in an interview with Handelsblatt, German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble said that the performance of France’s National Front in the recent local elections and the growth of eurosceptic parties elsewhere was “not a good development”.
British Influence writes that the breakthrough for Marine le Pen’s Front National (FN) in the French municipal elections has sent a chill wind through the HQs of the country’s mainstream political parties – and in Europe’s chanceries where fears of extensive gains for the Far Right in May’s European Parliament elections have been strengthened. France’s incumbent socialist party (PS), from an even weaker position, is now arguing for "republican forces" to join together to defeat the FN in Sunday’s run-off but is being rebuffed by the dominant centre-right UMP. Even so, it is in the elemental interests of all European democrats that they work together to head off a pan-EU breakthrough for the FN, Geert Wilders’ PVV, Hungary’s Jobbik, UKIP and other right-wing extremists.
Full article
German Minister of State, Michael Roth, said in a speech: Two months before the election to the European Parliament populists and eurosceptics are attacking the EU. In the heated and emotional debate on the free movement of EU citizens, one could get the impression that we are faced with the sell-out of national social systems and massive job losses for locals if we do not strictly limit immigration. Of course, social problems had to be solved, he said, and in deprived areas peaceful coexistence had to be promoted by targeted education and integration programmess.
Europe needs a "reboot" - in the sense of strengthening our efforts to find common answers. "For I am convinced that Europe is not the problem, but the solution to the great questions of our time. Global issues such as the global economic and financial crisis, uncontrolled financial markets or multi-billion dollar funds that transfer within seconds vast sums from one continent to another, all of there are equally challenging. Europe must emerge stronger in every way from the crisis than it has entered."
Corruption
Three quarters of Europeans think corruption is a "major or widespread" problem in their political institutions, according to research published by EUObserver. The countries worst hit by the European economic crisis have recorded larger decreases in trust in political institutions in recent years, with public perceptions of corruption above 90 percent, according to a report commissioned by the UK's Committee on Standards in Public Life.
The highest levels of concern were in Greece - where 99 per cent said corruption was a major problem - followed by Portugal, Italy, Spain and Ireland.
The research, which was based on data from the European Values Survey (EVS), the European Social Survey (ESS) and Eurobarometer, was commissioned following a sharp downturn in public trust in UK institutions caused in part by a parliamentary expenses scandal in 2009. In a statement accompanying the report, Lord Paul Bew, the chairman of the Committee, said the survey was an attempt to measure whether declining public trust in the UK was "a unique national trend or part of a broader change in public attitudes across Western democracies".
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