Less than half of registered voters turned out for election of members in the European Parliament, but those who did boosted representation of parties that oppose the continent-wide governance. David R. Cameron, director of the Yale Program in European Union Studies, analyzes election results for the EU’s only directly-elected body. Moderate majority parties lost seats and more extreme parties, both on the left and right, made gains. Most prominent is the victory of the National Front party in France, anti-immigration and anti-EU, winning 25 percent of the French vote compared with 6 percent in 2009. The European parliament is more polarized, but observers should not expect dramatic changes in EU policymaking. The continent still represents wealth, opportunity and human rights as demonstrated by the decisive win of Petro Poroshenko in Ukraine’s presidential election, who has expressed intent to proceed in signing an association agreement with the EU. – YaleGlobal
http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/content/euroskepticism-triumphant
