Farage calls 52:48 election result for EU Commission President "illegitimate" - Politics Forum.org | PoFo

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#15018976
Independent wrote:Nigel Farage complains about narrow margin of victory for new EU chief after she wins 52% of vote

Brexit Party leader mocked on social media

Nigel Farage is facing mockery after he claimed the new European Commission president lacked "legitimacy" because she won just 52 per cent of the vote.

Mr Farage said Ursula von der Leyen had "power but no legitimacy" after she scraped in by nine votes in a ballot in the European Parliament on Tuesday.

"Interesting to hear Nigel Farage describe a 52:48 victory as illegitimate..." independent MP Nick Bole said.

The former German defence minister won 383 votes in the parliament, with 733 votes cast. She needed 374 to win an absolute majority. She was opposed by 327 votes; there were 22 abstentions and 1 blank vote.

Ursula von der Leyen elected as next EU Commission president

It is not the first time the Brexit Party leader has appeared to show double standards about the margin of results.

In 2016 before the referendum Mr Farage has previously suggested that such a result would be close - but only if it favoured remain.

"In a 52-48 referendum this would be unfinished business by a long way,' he told the Daily Mirror at the time.
#15018997
noemon wrote:Farage complaining


Actually I do agree with Farage to a degree here. Not because of his motivation though but in general a better suited candidate can be found and should have been found. His motivation is obvious because the alt-rightists were basically shut off from the candidacy process for EU Commission and all other posts since they did really shit besides the Brexit party. And if UK leaves then alt-right/hard eurosceptics will hardly even matter. They went from having 48 representatives to 42 representatives in 2019 and will loose 18 if UK leaves. I guess there is the Le Pen/Salvini group with like 73 members and which is more relevant (Identity and Democracy) but they are nowhere near the lunacy of Farages group. All in all, there are 751 Reps in the EU parliament. So if you put Farage group + Le Pen/Salvini group then you will get 115 out of 751 which is 15%. If UK leaves than Farages group is basically gone because 18 members will be gone and that is almost half of that group. You need to note that both Salvini and Le Pen are not hard eurosceptics like Farage, i just group them together for the fun of it i guess. Farage and his group by itself is irrelevant in the EU Parliament.
#15019131
Rugoz wrote:I only read bad things about von der Leyen in the German press before she became EU Commission President. Funny.


Honestly, she has been misused in the german government of sorts so obviously there is bad coverage. There are examples of people being in incompatible roles and then acceling in the right roles. I do not think that "Defence minister" is a proper role for her to start. Not to mention the german military is in a bad state anyways beyond just her being incompatible in my opinion. So the likelihood of her succeeding was in a bad place from the start.
#15019133
JohnRawls wrote:Honestly, she has been misused in the german government of sorts so obviously there is bad coverage. There are examples of people being in incompatible roles and then acceling in the right roles. I do not think that "Defence minister" is a proper role for her to start. Not to mention the german military is in a bad state anyways beyond just her being incompatible in my opinion. So the likelihood of her succeeding was in a bad place from the start.


Defense minister is the most ungrateful job in any government, scandals guaranteed.
#15019274
Interestingly enough the Hungarian government considers Von der Leyen's victory a success, although she's a federalist, supports gay marriage and female quotas, and even housed a Syrian refugee.

But she's not Timmermans at least. :lol:

It's also a huge success that Orbán's party won't be kicked out of the EPP, although he even seemed flirting with the idea of joining Salvini's group. :excited:

He may also believe he managed to oblige Von der Leyen by boosting the German arms industry a bit.

Hungary, Germany’s biggest arms customer with a 1.7-billion-euro purchase

It may also be a success that neither the populists nor the V4 Group got any EU top jobs. :D

However, Von der Leyen "indicated a more nuanced approach towards states such as Poland and Hungary, which have been brazenly challenging the EU consensus on issues such as migration, the rule of law and press freedom."

Which is supposed to mean a multi-speed Europe perhaps, in which even the rule of law can be interpreted somewhat differently in the periphery.
#15019488
V4 group cannot expect to get a top job in every term. There are many more countries than them. If you go down the path of blocking candidates you can expect to be blocked as well.

Von der Leyen seems to be a bad choice based on information spread by press, but this is exactly why she was chosen. Her political leaning is irrelevant as all prospective candidates were about the same. V4 doesn't want a strong and capable president of European commission.

Euroskeptical candidates have zero chance of reaching good position in the EU. Having a strong pro EU candidate from V4 wouldn't represent the region anyway and would be worthless.

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