Seneca III is monitoring both the European parliamentary elections and the leadership crisis in the “Conservative” Party following Cousin Theresa’s resignation. He sends the first part of a report on these events; Part 2 will follow after the official results of the EP elections are announced.
The Tide and Some Worms Have Turned
Part I
by Seneca III
Thursday/Friday 23rd-24th May 2019
The Dutch exit polls may indicate that that Marxism triumphs yet again.
From POLITICO[1]:
The Dutch Labor Party of Frans Timmermans, the center-left candidate for European Commission president, is the unexpected winner of the European Parliament election in the Netherlands, according to an exit poll.
The party won five out of 26 seats with more than 18 percent of the vote, doubling its result compared to the last European election in 2014.
Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) rose from three seats in 2014 to four seats this time, according to the exit poll, while Baudet’s FvD enters EU politics with three seats.
Rutte congratulated Timmermans’ party. “The Labor Party has delivered an unbelievably good performance tonight,” he said. Of his own party’s result, he said the VVD has made “considerable progress.” He added: “It’s a fine result, but of course one would have preferred to be the biggest party.”
Asked whether he is happy the liberals came ahead of Baudet’s party, Rutte said it is good the Euroskeptic FvD is “not the largest.” He added: “Above all, I am very much in favor of a vision of Europe. There is still a great deal wrong with the EU, [but] in order to keep the Netherlands strong, you have to remain part of the EU, and this has, in any case, led to a profit for my party.”
FvD’s European lead candidate Derk Jan Eppink said that his party is “the biggest winner in the number of seats, we go from zero to three.” He also congratulated Timmermans on his victory.
The big loser was Geert Wilders’ far-right Freedom Party (PVV), which lost three of its four seats. The socialist-liberal Democrats 66 lost half of their votes, ending up with two seats. According to the exit poll, turnout was up: some 41.2 percent of eligible voters in the Netherlands cast a ballot, compared to 37.3 percent in 2014.
The Netherlands and the U.K. were the only EU countries to hold their part of the European Parliament election on Thursday. Official results will be released only on Sunday evening, after all 28 EU countries have voted.
[The PVV with only one seat? All is not well in the land of the Cloggies, but this raises another question: What’s going on here? Voters lying at the exit?
Whatever. Why can’t we publish the results of our exit poll in the UK but the Dutch can? Is it one rule for Europe and another for us, or Is it because the Marxist EU Presidential candidate Timmermans is purported to have won 5 of the 26 seats and the EU want to encourage more voting that way all around the Block rather than revealing our results which are highly likely to be the exact opposite.?
We shall see, but watch out, those of you in the patriotic EU countries voting on Saturday and Sunday — you are being stitched up as badly as we are.]
Friday 24th May 2019
Theresa Mary May, the Vidkun Quisling of the United Kingdom, announced at 1015 hours BST today that she is resigning as leader of the Conservative and Unionist Party on the 7th June. They must now elect a new leader.
[The election process is instigated by either the incumbent resigning or the Parliamentary Party passing a vote of no confidence. Such a vote is automatically triggered if the 1922 Committee receives demands for new leadership carrying the signatures of 15 per cent of Conservative MPs (currently 48).
The Conservative Party then uses a twofold system to select a new leader:
The Conservative Chief Whip (currently Julian Smith) receives nominations from party members.
If just one MP is nominated, they are automatically installed as party leader.
If multiple names are put forward, a ballot of Conservative MPs is held. The lowest-polling name is removed and another ballot is held. This continues on subsequent Tuesdays and Thursdays until just two nominees remain. These two nominees are then put to a ballot of the wider Conservative Party membership (150,000) with the winner becoming the new Conservative leader
Candidates will go head-to-head at hustings events around the country with their pitches to party members in the hope of winning their support.
A candidate achieving more than 50 per cent of the vote among Party members will be declared Leader of the Party.]
Analysis
May is now out of the running for:
Nevertheless, the worrying thing is that because of the convoluted nature of the Leadership election she could still be running the government for anything from two to six weeks until her replacement is elected.
She could do a lot of damage in that time, being the sort of person she is. What the country really needs is an impartial caretaker leader with only a limited mandate until the new leader is in place.
Saturday 25th May 2019
And in Eire: From The Daily Express[2] :
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