The Lesson From Europe’s Elections

It’s hazardous to see elections to the European Parliament as a barometer of European Union politics. Turnout was higher than in previous EU elections, but still only about 50%; voters in many countries aren’t sure what the parliament does; national anxieties predominate. In many ways, ballots have just been cast in 28 separate national elections, rather than in a single European contest. This shows how far the union still has to go in shaping a political identity for the bloc as a whole.

Indeed, the politics of the new parliament will be even more muddled than of late. Traditional center-right and center-left parties look set, as before, to form the largest groupings in the new assembly, but their support has continued to slide. Greens and liberals did well — but, in many countries, so did populists, even though their support failed to surge as broadly as their leaders had hoped. Britain’s new Brexit Party mustered an enormous protest vote against EU membership, as support for the U.K.’s ruling Conservatives plunged. In France, according to early results, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally pushed Emmanuel Macron’s Republic on the Move into second place. Across the union as a whole, anti-EU parties made gains, but fell short of overthrowing Europe’s political mainstream.