The European vacuum: Governments in crisis everywhere

Spain is no exception anymore. Six months after the European elections, the far right is on the rise in Madrid, and a government crisis is paralysing the country. The EU is threatened by a political vacuum.

“Every second government is wobbling,” we warned in this blog a year ago. At the time it was dismissed as a black mark. The European elections in May seemed to confirm the optimists.

Voter turnout was higher than ever, the right could hardly increase, the pro-Europeans won. But that is only one side of the coin. The other is that there is no clear majority.

The people’s parties are dissolving, fragmentation is increasing at an alarming rate. The result: the new European Parliament is a mess, the top candidates have failed.

Germany is now also in crisis. The grand coalition is now only a shadow of itself, and after the SPD, the CDU is also beginning to break up itself. Nobody knows how long the GroKo will last.

In Italy we have experienced a cold change of power, the new government in Rome probably does not have its own majority. New elections are being held in Great Britain, and the political crisis in London is well advanced.

And now Spain, too. The ruling Socialists are election winners, but they do not have a majority. The left-wing podemos are smearing, the right-wing ones of “Vox” are gaining ground – the political stalemate is total.

The most important governments in Europe are dragging themselves from day to day with the last of their strength, even Chancellor Merkel is no longer leading. Only France makes an exception with President Macron.

Macron is also trying to fill the European vacuum. But he is alone – and is clumsy. He appears “like the heir to an empire,” says the liberal “Süddeutsche.

And what about the new, badly elected leaders of the EU? Von der Leyen and her team are still not finished. The new Council President Michel is still warming up, the new external representative Borrell is already in trouble again.

The political vacuum is getting bigger and bigger. But the European elections were supposed to give fresh impetus, Macron even spoke of a European “renaissance”….

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator