European Elections Plunge the EU into a Political Crisis

"It is a dangerous moment of political instability for the EU - and a moment of truth. The shift to the right indicates deeper dangers and should not lead to simple party-political conclusions, as Europe is lurching and the enemies of freedom and democracy are waiting for exactly that," warns cep CEO Henning Vöpel. According to Salman Rushdie, the world is experiencing an "angry moment".

Vöpel, together with cep experts Andrea De Petris in Rome and Victor Warhem in Paris, draws three lessons from the election result:

• The EU is in danger of breaking up, as the election not only has a direct impact on the composition of the European Parliament, but also has an indirect but very strong effect on national politics in the member states. The consequence of the election result in many member states will be an even stronger domestic political orientation and the defence of national economic interests. The re-nationalisation of politics that has been observed around the world for some time now also threatens to reach Europe. For the EU, a return to nation states would ultimately mean the death of Europe. 
• The next Commission must once again strengthen the EU at its core and formulate an agenda for sovereignty and competitiveness, because otherwise the EU is in danger of being crushed in the tough geopolitical dispute between the USA and China right now, at this moment of internal weakness. Mario Draghi will present a report on this that is likely to have a programmatic character for the agenda of the next Commission.
• Politics itself must change. In recent years, it has become increasingly dirigiste, bureaucratic, overbearing and unrealistic. Not the goals themselves, but the path taken is increasingly being perceived as an aberration. Growing concerns about jobs and security are being met with an increasing loss of trust in politics. Party-political attempts to explain that they have not been able to emphasise their own policies clearly enough are dangerously short-sighted from an analytical point of view. The concerns go deeper and they are justified.