Sharing a policy of slashing welfare spending - and electoral failure - Blair with German leader Schroder. Fighting back against austerity: Euromarch banner in Cologne THE EUROPEAN election results should have given Tony Blair pause for thought - though nothing in his subsequent actions indicates that it actually has done. Not only was there bad news in Britain. with the Tories out-polling New Labour and the disastrously low turn out especially in Labour's heartlands: but there was no consolation from the results in the rest of the continent. All the social democratic governments - with the exception of Portugal - saw their votes fall. Many will have seen that on TV screens and in the papers. Less commented on by the media was the more worrying outcome for Blair: while his friend Schroder also suffered a bad night at the polls, in France the Jospin government did rather better. Could it be co-incidence that the French government, but a few days before the election had refused to sign a common document on the "Third Way" with Blair and Schroder? Jospin is by no means a radical, but the balance of forces in France, where the social movements have been much better organised than elsewhere on the continent, perhaps convinced him that it would be electorally. foolish to throw in his lot too closely with his British and German counterparts.
As well as the first questionings of the Third Way project there were some important results for the far left. Most crucial was the election of 5 deputies from the LCR/LO slate in France with 5.2 per cent of the vote. The slate beat the French Communist Party in 5 regions, and did particularty well in working class constituencies and districts (with votes ranging between 6-13 per cent).
In other places too the far left scored some successes. In Germany the PDS votes remained largely confined to the East, but were important enough to suggest that they might prefigure genuine expansion across the whole country - something that has so far eluded them.
The Greens had mixed fortunes - something nicer not bassor ine tarletsine (cerman results indicated that the pro-war stance of the party came in for sharp criticism, as did the general increased tendency to tall end Schroder since the general election. The left in the party was and will be strengthened by the •licome Elsewhere the green vote had a different ment statements on GM foods. "defend British sovereignty" product both of strong meaning. Greens across Europe will be pleased that at last the British party has joined them in Strasbourg. They did so on the basis of a left platform - opposition to the war and opposition to the single currency - as well as the transparent stupidity of recent governOn the other hand to some prospective voters on the left the Greens seemed more internationalist than the SLP which stood to Far right For the far right too the results were mixed. -As expected the Le Pen's Front Nationale suffered from the split with Megret - itself the campaigning by the left and the manoeuvres of the Gaullist right.
In Britain however we would do well to shun complacency about the showing of the British National Party with a total of 102,647 votes. It's certainly true that they benefited from the overall strength of those showing outright opposition to the Euro: but election results themselves can breed further developments. and we need to be on the alert. Before the election the overall situation in Strasbourg was finely balanced. In the outgo- blocks.
IND ing parliament the Centre Left, the Party of European Socialists, held 214 seats while the Centre Right - the European People's Party -held 201. Together these main blocks controlled roughly two thirds of the 626 seats, with the remainder scattered among seven smaller blocks. The next biggest block, the Liberals, had only 42 seats.
These elections saw the Centre left block fall to 180 while the Centre right rose to 224. The only other block to see a significant change was the Greens which grew from 27 to 38, to make it now the fourth largest block and only 5 seats smaller than the Liberals.
Whether or not this will have any major impact on the political direction of the EU remains however a moot point. Despite the Parliament asserting itself against the Commissioners in the wake of the corruption scandals earlier in the year, Ittle real power resides here. Equally important, the project of austerity measures for the working class - as typified by Schroder's swingeing cuts in social spending -and greater integration at the economic and political level is one shared by the major