Ireland and the Czech Republic, the two biggest obstacles to reform of the EU’s Lisbon treaty, went to the polls today on the second day of the four-day election marathon for the European parliament.
With Václav Klaus, the Czech president, climate change denier and Europhobe, urging Czechs to cast a vote against Brussels, European leaders were anxiously watching to see if either of the two countries would copy the anti-EU triumph in the Netherlands of Geert Wilders, the anti-immigration populist.
Wilders’ Freedom party shook the Dutch political establishment in the first of the 27 elections for the European parliament yesterday by coming second with 17% of the ballot, almost tripling his vote from Dutch general elections in 2006.
“A breakthrough,” he called it today, attacking the traditional parties for trying to erect what he called a “cordon sanitaire” around him.
Turnout in the Netherlands was a poor 36%, lower than in 2004, confirming overall predictions of the lowest turnout since voting for the parliament started 30 years ago. An even lower turnout was expected in the Czech Republic where the vote continues tomorrow.
But Ireland was set to buck the trend with the highest turnout in the EU, estimated at about two-thirds of voters. They were expected to hammer the governing Fianna Fáil of the prime minister, Brian Cowen, amid a desperate financial and economic crisis.
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Hope springs eternal!!