To Brussels Batman!!!

By Kate Manning

The people have spoken. The elections are over and MEPs all over Europe are organising their life for their move to Brussels. Former MEPs are possibly still coming to terms with their defeat and wondering what went wrong. Unsuccessful candidates are hoping a general election is on the way soon so they can put themselves forward for that. Journalists are back to looking for stories rather than being bombarded with leads on candidates.

On reflection, this year’s elections were most definitely not short on drama. In Ireland as a whole, the smooth election of Nessa Childers in the East Constituency was not predicted, as a battle between herself and Senator John Paul Phelan was supposed to be on the cards. Instead sitting MEP Liam Aylward faced the uphill challenge. Both Mr Aylward and Senator Phelan hail from Kilkenny with Aylward coming up with the goods in the end. Younger voters, in particular Young Fine Gael members, were devastated that their main man failed to succeed.

Libertas had a humiliating defeat with no candidates securing a seat in Ireland and Declan Ganley announcing his exit from politics. While many will find this decision to be the best decision he has ever made, the fact remains, Irish voters could not find a good enough reason to bring Libertas to the Parliament. Perhaps it was the lack of a clear, concise and across the board manifesto that caused the end result.

In Dublin, there was always going to be a fight to the end as the constituency was to lose a seat. Mary Lou McDonald and Eoin Ryan lost their seat while Socialist Joe Higgins secured the last seat. While Eoin Ryan’s losing of his seat was potentially because of his party and the current economic climate, Mary Lou McDonald lost hers on her dreadful attendance record in the Parliament. The voters would prefer to have Joe Higgins criticising the Parliament from Brussels rather than Ms McDonald who spoke out against the Parliament from back home.

In the rest of Europe as a whole, it was good news for the Parliament as the centre right EPP ED secured 263 seats maintaining its role as the largest grouping. Even with the desertion of the Tories and Czech MEPs, it remains on top.

Libertas only managed to secure one seat in the whole of Europe, the lone rider being Philippe de Villiers, a French MEP. This caused even further embarrassment for leader Declan Ganley.

It was bad news for Britain's Labour Party as they received a serious backlash from the voters, which saw the BNP secure two seats in the Parliament. The BNP are very much anti-EU and are desperate to call a halt to immigration. The election of two BNP MEPs is worrying and Nick Griffin’s (BNP leader) pelting with eggs last week is proof that this latest move in Britain will have huge consequences for the Parliament.

In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders' Freedom Party won four seats. The party is anti-Europe, anti-Islamic and anti everything that will raise an eyebrow. You can be guaranteed that they will make noise in the Parliament with the BNP MEPs. Great, just what the Parliament needs to slow it down!

The people have indeed spoken. I only wish the rest of Europe (in particular Britain) had spoken as commendably as Ireland did.