Monday 8 May 2017

There was another mainland European election yesterday

Liberals here are justifiably breathing a sigh of relief at the defeat of Marine le Pen by Emmanuel Macron in yesterday's second round in the French presidential election. Le Pen's 35% vote share must give cause for concern, though.

Macron is described as a liberal centrist. That description might also be applied to the Free Democrats in Germany. They saw their vote share increase in the Schleswig-Holstein state elections yesterday, but the headline news was that Angela Merkel's CDU took seats from the socialist SPD, who had previously been the senior partners in the ruling coalition, and that the reactionary AfD gained a foothold.

Next week's North Rhine-Westphalia elections, which will see results from the major industrial belt, will be interesting.

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