Europe’s New ‘Spring of Nations’?

The welcome return of Nigel Farage to UK politics this week evokes British memories of the last elections to the European Parliament, in 2019, which the Brexit Party won just six weeks after he launched it. Five years later, that success of course means that the UK is not involved in this week’s Euro elections. But we should all still take notice.

This time around, a Brexit-style populist revolt to ‘take back control’ from the Brussels oligarchy and the old political elites is spreading across the European Union. When close to 400million Europeans elect their own nations’ Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), between Thursday 6 and Sunday 9 June, sovereigntist and national-conservative parties are predicted to do well.

The European Parliament is a strange elected entity. Unlike sovereign national parliaments, it cannot propose and pass its own laws – all EU legislation comes first from the unelected European Commission. Also unlike national parliaments, it is not truly accountable to an electorate, since MEPs from big powers such as Germany or France can interfere in and legislate for smaller member states.

There is a case, as veteran Polish MEP Ryszard Legutko recently told the European Conservative, for arguing that: ‘The European Parliament shouldn’t exist at all. It’s aimed at some kind of future hypothetical reality when there is a European demos.’