Will the europarliamentary’s results affect Latin America?

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Neither left nor right wing, these elections yielded diverse results. What turns out to be uncertain is whether this plurality will affect or benefit the region

The parliamentary elections, held last Sunday, May 26, leave a more pluralistic Europe and at the same time, the rise of Eurosceptics, where is Latin America standing up in this picture?

Leer en español: Latinoamérica: ¿en que afectan los resultados de las europarlamentarias?

What were the results of the Europarliamentaries?

As the German dairy Deutsche Welle called the European elections, "Europe is full of colors", neither on the left nor on the right. This has been the first panorama that the scrutiny left in the old continent.

Eurosceptics did not achieve as many seats as predicted, however, there were some surprises. The traditionalist parties lost ground, thus liberating the bipartisanship that reigned in Europe, now parties like the greens have gained ground.

Following her victory, the leader of the German Green Party declared to Deutsche Welle: "We campaigned for the climate protection, for the biodiversity protection, but also for a social Europe where the rights of citizens are respected and now We want to implement that in Parliament".

The European Green Party was not the only winner. As expected, the extreme right wing led by Le Pen (France), Orbán (Hungary) and Salvini (Italy) had a half victory because, although they managed to grow in Europe, they did not have the expected results.

For example, as CNN argued, in France the great winner was the far right led by the leader of the National Association Marine Le Pen, imposing itself on the ruling party of the Gauls led by its president Emmanuel Macron.

Read also: This is how the European Parliament was formed

By Monday, May 27, the results began to emerge and the great winner was the European People's Party with 182 seats, followed by the Progressive Alliance of Socials and Democrats with 147 seats and, of course, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats with 86 parliamentarians. However, the largest minority party has been the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists with 59 seats, as reported by the BBC.

With this scenario, how does Latin America stand?

France 24, wanting to know more about this issue, interviewed Professor Lorena Ruano attached to the Center for Economic Research and Teaching (CIDE) and specialist in relations between the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean, who gave some indications of the relationship of South America with the old continent.

The first thing to point out is that the relations between these two regions are not going through their best moments if we talk about something other than the economy. The researcher Ruano pointed out that this precarious relationship has an explanation and is the division that exists between the two continents. On the one hand, Latin America is no longer as united as before, right-wing governments have grown in the region and corruption is a shadow that does not leave both sides of the political spectrum.

Meanwhile, Europe is living a situation of fracture between democracy and the extreme right, for many governments Latin America is not a priority. As Ruano told France 24, "two years ago there should have been a bi-regional summit. We bring a significant delay and we do not see any significant progress. "

Latin America dismissed?

Now, with this division of the European Parliament, it is not clear where South America is. If one looks on the one hand, now that there is more plurality European parties must comply with an agenda. For example, greens do not belong to the extreme right, but they do have compresses purchased with the environment and renewable energies. This means that everyone will have a different and very broad agenda to fulfill.

On the other side of the chess are the Eurosceptics, who advocate for returning power to their nations, and lower the extra expenses that the European Union has, a scenario that is not very favorable for the new continent who could stop receiving economic aids. Because of this, projects for Latin America could be shipwrecked, as France 24 pointed out.

However, not all of them are bad news for our continent. The European power, although diminished, remains in the power of the center-left parties, as happened in Spain with the PSOE, and the help of South America in several aspects is indispensable. As Lorena Ruano pointed out, "for the EU it is important to be able to count on the support of Latin America in the United Nations in issues such as respect for international law, regulation of trade, respect for Human Rights", areas that go beyond Commerce.

However, it is not all the fault of the European far right. As pointed out by the BBC, a problem that South America has always been facing in front of Europe is the protectionism that the old continent makes about its field. The new continent has been known for its export of agricultural products, fruits, vegetables, and raw materials, but it has been a tradition in the EU that European products on this issue are put first, and it is questioned how the free trade across the ocean.

LatinAmerican Post | Miguel Diaz

Translated from "Latinoamérica: ¿en qué afectan los resultados de las europarlamentarias?"