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Now that the European elections are over, what can be said about the results and what consequences do they have for the Celtic countries? Below the General Secretary of the league, Rhisiart Tal-e-bot makes some comments relating to each of the Celtic countries that participated in the European elections.
Alba (Scotland)
Of all the nationalist parties from the Celtic countries standing in the elections, the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) achieved the best results, taking the largest share of the European election vote in Scotland and beating Labour into second place. It is also the first time that the SNP has topped the poll in a European election in Scotland.
First Minister Alex Salmond said that the SNP margin of victory in the European elections was much greater than in the 2007 Holyrood elections. The SNP were also 10 points up on their result in the last European elections.
The result meant that both the SNP and Labour gained two Members of the European Parliament (MEP's) and the final turnout in Scotland was 28.6 per cent, compared with 30.75 per cent in 2004.
Breizh (Brittany)
Both the Union Démocratique Bretonne (UDB) and Parti Breton had candidates in the European election, but only Parti Breton had their own list. The UDB instead put their support behind a new joint list (Europe Ecologie) made up of Green party candidates and representatives from the nationalist political parties that make up the Fédération Régions and Peuples Solidaires (RPS). The political parties that make up the RPS are also individual members of the European Free Alliance (EFA) European political party – along with the SNP, Plaid and Mebyon Kernow - and the agreement was that if one of the RPS members on the list was elected, they would represent the interests of all the nationalist political parties of the RPS.
The number two on the list and EFA Treasurer, François Alfonsi, was elected and consequently the UDB gained direct representation in the European Parliament for the first time. Alfonsi is a member of the PNC nationalist party of Corsica.
The Europe Ecologie list was a shrewd piece of political manoevouring and even though it meant some compromises from the UDB, it nevertheless provided them with an elected candidate they can call their own. A joint list is something that perhaps Mebyon Kernow (MK) should be looking at in the future, because as in the case Brittany, Cornwall is part of a much bigger European parliamentary region and to gain a bigger share of the vote would mean appealing to voters who are not Breton.
Parti Breton gained 2.82% of the vote in Brittany and even though they probably got more publicity than the UDB during the election campaign, it didn't give them a representative. Parti Breton saw their result as a success, but they too could profit perhaps from being included in a joint list in the future. Parti Breton said in a pres release after the results were announced:
« Les élections européennes ont été pour le Parti Breton une formidable occasion de placer la Bretagne dans sa dimension internationale. » (The European elections were the Breton Party a tremendous opportunity to put Britain in its international dimension.Alors que ces élections ont été particulièrement marquées par des considérations hexagonales, notre liste "La Voix de la Bretagne en Europe" a pu dans ce contexte se situer au niveau des listes ayant une véritable signification politique.)
Cymru (Wales)
Plaid increased its share of the vote by 1.1% and ended only 19,000 votes off the top spot, but disappointingly third place behind the Labour Party and the Conservatives. This is especially disappointing because in the exit polls just before the election, Plaid was in the top position. Nevertheless Plaid retained MEP Jill Evans, who has been Plaid's long standing European representative for many years. The Labour Party, the Conservatives, UKIP and Plaid all had one MEP elected.
Plaid is nevertheless gaining on the Labour vote in every election and the Labour Party HQ is rumoured to be worried that votes are being lost faster in Wales than in other parts of the UK. After the results were called, Plaid Leader Ieuan Wyn Jones, announced that work was underway to create a new Plaid Cymru Development Unit in order to bring about further breakthroughs in areas where the party is proving to be a serious challenge to Labour and the Conservatives.
A Plaid blogger hit the headlines last week with his comments to the Party that Plaid should think about pulling out of their coalition with the Labour Party for fear that their association with them could pull Plaid down in the elections.
The election of a UKIP MEP is indeed worrying, because UKIP advocate the abolition of the Welsh National Assembly. Also, so far previous UKIP members in the European Parliament have decided to abstain as a matter of principle from voting – no matter how important the issue is. This is not good news for the people of Wales.
Another worrying development in Wales was that 5.4% of Welsh voters in Wales voted for the British Nationalist Party (BNP), which is almost twice as high as in Brittany, Cornwall or Scotland. This could perhaps be explained to an extent by the fact that the BNP's propaganda campaign for the European Parliament election was being run from a Mid Wales warehouse.
Environmentalist, author and Guardian columnist George Monbiot choose Plaid Cymru for the European elections in Wales. In the Guardian newspaper he wrote:
"Living in Wales, the choice isn't hard for me. Plaid Cymru, in its present incarnation, is a green, progressive, effective political force. I see little point in splitting the vote between parties with politics like mine, and while the Green candidates appear to be likeable people, they are always going to be playing catch-up here. That the Welsh Greens still haven't got round to producing a bilingual website doesn't help their cause.
"But how should people who live in the arid wastes across the border vote? The answer comes just as easily: Green of course."
In fact in Wales very few people voted for the Green Party, who took only a 1000 more votes than the BNP. Perhaps the greens should start looking at the policies in Wales and making them more localised, especially in terms of their policies on the Welsh language and culture.
Eire (Ireland, including the north of Ireland)
The number of MEP's from the Republic of Ireland in the European Parliament was reduced from 13 to 12 for this election. The Dublin constituency was reduced from 4 seats to 3, and the counties of Longford and Westmeath were transferred from the East constituency to the North West Constituency.
On the nationalist front, one of the big disappointments in Ireland was the loss of the European seat of Mary Lou MacDonald. MacDonald is the vice President of Sinn Fein and was the first to gain the Party a European seat in 2004. In this election her first preference vote declined to roughly 48,000 and the seat was taken by Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party.
Sinn Fein however retained one seat in the north with Barbara De Brun, who broke the voting record the DUP has held since 1979. Ms de Brun got 126,184 votes and was the only candidate to reach the quota on the first count. There was initial concern before the elections that Sinn Fein had wrongly diverted a substantial proportion of their party's resources towards the Irish Republic, assuming that the De Brun seat was safe. It turns out though that the Sinn Fein gamble proved correct, but it wasn't enough to persuade voters in the Republic to vote for MacDonald.
Another big looser of the European elections was Ireland's Declan Ganley, the leader of the pan European political party Libertas and one of the leading voices in Ireland's No vote campaign on the Lisbon Treaty. Before the elections, Ganley said that if he didn't gain a Euro seat he would not lead the No campaign in the second vote on the Lisbon treaty, which will be held this autumn.
In the end Fine Gael took 4 European seats and Fianna Fáil and Labour took three seats each. Both Labour and Fine Gael gained significantly at Fianna Fáil expense. As a consequence of the European elections and the County and City elections in the Republic, a vote of no confidence has been called in the Government, which will take place tomorrow (9th July 2009).
Kernow (Cornwall)
Mebyon Kernow – the Party for Cornwall (MK) stood in the European elections for the first time since 1994. Not really expecting any chance of winning or getting their deposit back, the party chose to stand to highlight their public presence among voters. Cornwall, like Brittany is submerged in an European election constituency that offers very little hope of them ever gaining a seat from their own list.
Nevertheless the party gained over 14 000 votes, which was over 4 000 votes more than their previous record in 1979 when Richard Jenkin stood on a platform of a "Cornwall Only" seat rather than one shared with part of Devon. Jenkin however polled 5.9% of the total vote compared to the 1% of the vote that MK pulled in this time. In the Cornwall-only part of the constituency, MK gained 11,534 votes. MK described their result as "fantastic" and MK Leader Cllr. Dick Cole said:
"Parties polling over 2.5% of the vote automatically get the deposit back. As a Cornish Party, we only campaigned in Cornwall and polled 7% of the votes cast in Cornwall, though in the massive South West seat this equates to 1% of the overall poll.
"We are a unique party and it is hardly our fault that we have to stand in a massive constituency of which Cornwall makes up only 10%.
"As we only distributed literature within Cornwall, we believe that there is a strong moral case for the money to be returned to MK to support our ongoing campaigns for a better deal for the people of Cornwall."
Results for the European election (for Cornwall only) have now become available and are shown below:
The result of the European Election in Cornwall was as follows:
Conservative Party 46,589 UKIP 39,954 Liberal Democrats 29,436 Green Party 13,361 Mebyon Kernow 11,534 Labour Party 8,483 BNP 5,118 Pensioners Party 3,944 Christian Party 2,168 English Democrats 1,781 Katie Hopkins (Ind) 1,117 Socialist Labour 1,058 NO2EU 890 Fair Pay, Fair Trade 660 Libertas 608 Jury Team 519 WAI D 107
MK hit the London press yesterday (8th July), because they had gained more seats in the elections than the Labour Party (party of government). The Cornwall only vote shows that only a small percentage of the electorate voted BNP, but a huge number voted for UKIP, a party that does not favour greater autonomy for the Celtic countries.
Another interesting development for the League to come out of the elections was the motion proposed by SNP Kenneth Gibson MSP congratulating MK on their election victory and declaring support for the Party and its aims.
Concluding comments
In two of the three states that the Celtic countries are part, there was a big surge away from the parties of government during these elections. In the French state though there was increased support for President Sarkozy's ruling UMP Party, including in Brittany. The progressive nationalist parties in the Celtic countries were, on the whole, fairly happy with the election result, but so were the English right wing parties (e.g. UKIP, BNP and English Democrats). In France, Front Nationale accused Sarkozy's UMP of stealing their voters, which would make sense because the UMP has developed some fairly right wing policies. In fact across Europe the right wing did well in these elections, but it seems that the reasons for this are less to do with their current popularity than the unpopularity of the ruling parties and the fact that many people still do not go to vote in the European elections.
The (`local' and European) election results in the UK at least should show the UK government that politics needs to change radically to engage more people. Politicians need to be held more accountable to the people, the voting system needs to change and `democracy' needs to be more transparent.
If the Irish Government wins the vote of no confidence tomorrow, they surely must realise that they to have a lot of work to do in gaining back the confidence of the people. Like the Labour Party in the UK, Fianna Fáil suffered major setbacks in both the local and European elections and will need to be frank with itself in asking why this occurred.
There could be an opportunity now for Sinn Fein, Plaid and the SNP to gain even more political ground should a general election be called in the near future in the Irish and UK states. MK could indeed take votes from the Liberal Democrats in Cornwall if a general election is called soon, making the most of their current momentum.
The UDB has shown itself yet again to be capable of imaginative politics in an attempt to overcome the suffocating French system and will no doubt continue to work closely with its allies in the future to gain even more ground. Parti Breton has achieved wider European recognition and have shown themselves to be capable of contesting elections at every level of government. There is little doubt that their strength will grow.
(Article prepared for Celtic News by Rhisiart Tal-e-bot)
Note: Mannin is not a member of the European Union
J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League
10/06/09
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