As the European elections results come in, we’re watching the right, pirates and a turnout you might expect in the United States…

Let’s start with the turn out – which was 43 percent, a number far lower than officials predicted.
Overall, the consensus is that the European Union moved towards the center right.

Our first perspective comes from the Financial Times. The newspaper says it’s a dramatic change for the European Parliament.

“… with the arrival of a larger group of eccentrics, extremists and thugs, the decorous and complacent proceedings of the European parliament could be disrupted on a more regular basis. The new parliament threatens to be uglier, more uncouth and more representative of Europe – in all its unsettling diversity.”

But Spiegel Online International sees the shift much differently…. saying the poll results send a signal to several parties across the continent…

“The European shift to the right … isn’t one. Rather, it is a signal for a return to reality. The established centrist parties … are busy with crisis management, with the nationalization of ailing banks and bankrupt companies. They are neither able nor willing to attend to other problems.”

But one group is willing to take its problem head on…
Russia Today looks at Sweden and the election of a member of the Pirate Party…

“We want to change the copyright to make file sharing legal. And we want to protect the privacy of the citizens of Sweden. We want to change the patent laws.”

The Guardian looks at the success of the far right in Europe. It highlights two seats won by the anti-immigration British National Party or BNP. The win raises a big question for the British newspaper – is the continent threatened by fascism?

"[The BNP's victory] should be seen as a protest vote at a difficult moment; it does not mean that the UK electorate is swinging in favour of fascism. ... I am more worried about the drift to the right in the rest of Europe, where the mood is fearful, anti-immigrant, anti-Islam and deeply hostile to the left."

(AOC)
What do you think the European parliament’s shift to the right will mean for the continent? What do you think of Sweden’s Pirate Party?

World News

Ahoy! European Parliament Sees Pirates and the Right

June 10, 2009
(2:33)
Pirates enter politics and the conservatives find a base. Is this European shift a "return to reality" or the arrival of "extremists and thugs"? Newsy.com takes a look.
   
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