Politics side of Tumblr listen up...
We know that far more interesting/exciting/dramatic/terrifying things are happening all around the world, and that other parts of the world are going through political upheaval right now.
But right now the results of the European Parliament elections are being announced and shit is being shaken up.
Some seriously Right Wing members are being announce. And I don’t mean your normal, run-of-the-mill, reasonable right wing party member who has conservative values but is a fully functioning member of society who is willing to debate policy and show up to legislation discussions and act like responsible members of parliament.
Some are just really against immigration from across Europe (though specifically Eastern Europe former soviet states) and against cooperating with other European member states in the Parliament. But some are racist, misogynistic, anti-semitic, anti-islamic refusing to take part in european parliament discussions, expense abusing, seriously worrying individuals.
France’s Front National has made serious gains, Denmark’s Danish People’s party is making serious gains, Greece’s Golden Dawn Party has jumped up in the polls, Hungary’s Neo-Facists Jobbik has taken 15% of the vote, UKIP is making serious gains in the UK, and Germany might be sending it’s first ever Neo-Nazi member.
There seems to be a huge swing to the right where fringe party’s members have been galvanised to go out an vote whilst overwhelming apathy from the middle ground has meant the traditional parties across Europe have lost a huge amount of seats in Parliament. In many countries less than 50% of the electorate showed up as they believed their vote wasn’t important.
Please watch this developing story as there is about to be a big shake up in European politics. These results combined with recent acts such as the shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels seem to show a worrying trend in European politics.
This is what you get when fucking 36% of the population shows up to vote.
"and Germany might be sending it’s first ever Neo-Nazi member."
ex-NPD (nationaldemocratic party Deutschlands, which is basically the reconstructed nazi-party NSPD [national-socialisticDeutschland's Arbeitspartei/German labour party]) chef Udo Voigt is going to be part of the European Parliament. (source: Tagesspiegel)
He alledgedly appealed to the German youth to take arms against the political system in 1998. (He was re-tried in 2003 and sentenced to 4 months in jail in 2005 before getting out on a technicality.)
He's openly a fan of Hitler. (source: interview in the tabloid Junge Freiheit)
The policed pressed charges against Voigt for nominating Hitler's right-hand man Rudolf Heß for the Nobel Peace Prize. (source: Süddeutsche Zeitung)
And these are only a few choice pieces.
The European Union is going to be in a lot of turmoil these next few years, if not for candidates like these than for the fact that a lot of members are unhappy with the current state of affairs.