Jacobin Radio: Breaking Down the European Parliament Elections

Jacobin Radio

Jacobin

Socialism, History, News, Left, Jacobin, Alternative, Socialist, Politics

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 10 June 2019

⏱️ 54 minutes

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Summary

Two interviews on the results of the May 26 European Parliamentary elections, which did not cleanly match predictions that there would be a further shift to to authoritarian hard-right parties. The biggest losers across the continent were the center-right neoliberal mainstream parties, but the shift to the Right was not as pronounced as feared. First, Sebastian Budgen, contributing editor for Jacobin, analyzes the election across Europe, especially in France, where the failed policies of the center were critical in understanding the results. We also get his take on the continuing protest and promise of the gilets jaunes social movement. Then Kevin Ovenden takes a deeper look at the vote in Great Britain, where the upset couldn’t have been more pronounced in the wake of the repeated failure by the Tories’ Theresa May to implement Brexit. The Conservative Party had its worst result in history, but Labour also lost votes, as Jeremy Corbyn tried to bridge the divide between those in favor and those against Brexit. The newly created “Brexit” Party of Nigel Farage took first, with the center Lib-Dems in alliance with Scottish and Welsh nationalists and Greens doing very well.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Jacobin Radio and I'm Susie Weisman. On today's podcast we concentrate on the
0:14.8	European parliamentary elections held on May 26th with results many predicted would
0:20.0	strengthen the shift in Europe to the authoritarian hard right parties.
0:24.1	The biggest losers across the continent were the center-right neoliberal mainstream parties, but the shift
0:29.4	to the right was not as pronounced as feared.
0:32.5	Sebastian Budgin, contributing editor for Jacobin magazine,
0:36.0	gives us his analysis of the elections across Europe
0:39.1	and especially in France, looking at the larger significance of the vote in the context of the
0:44.4	failed policies of the center or the extreme center as we should call it. We also
0:49.3	get his take on the continuing protest and promise of the Gilejeune social movement.
0:55.0	And then Kevin Ovenden joins us for a deeper look at the vote in Great Britain where the
1:00.1	upset couldn't have been more pronounced in the wake of the repeated failure by the
1:04.2	Tories Theresa May to implement Brexit.
1:07.3	The Conservative Party had its worst result in history, but Labor also lost votes as Jeremy Corbin tried to bridge the divide between
1:15.2	those in favor and those against Brexit. The newly created Brexit Party of
1:19.6	Nigel Farage took first with the Center Lib Dems in alliance with Scottish and Welsh
1:24.5	nationalist and Greens doing very well. We get Kevin's analysis and more when
1:30.4	Jacobin Radio returns in just a moment.
1:33.0	Welcome to Jacobin Radio.
1:40.0	I'm Susie Wisman, and today we're going to have a look at the European parliamentary elections that took place on May 26th, 2019.
1:50.0	Now normally this isn't considered such an important election but this time we think
1:56.2	that the results were important enough that it deserves an entire program to look at it.
	...

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