Lost in all of the American mainstream media’s hand-wringing about the success of so-called far right parties in the recent EU parliament elections was this fact: The anti-Semitic, Hamas-sympathizing parties of the left took a beating. Maybe the success of the “far-right” parties was all the unhappy news our MSM could digest.
In this piece for Tablet, Itxu Diaz provides the details of the anti-Semitic left’s beating. He starts with Spain:
Three of the most antisemitic parties in Europe, according to a ranking prepared last year by the European Coalition for Israel, are, much to my regret, Spanish: Sumar, Izquierda Unida, and Podemos. All three are extreme leftists, more specifically, communists. All three were dealt a strong blow at the polls in the European Parliament elections that took place on June 9.
I will shed no tears for them. I have seen them call for pro-Palestinian and antisemitic demonstrations in Spain three or four days after the Oct. 7 attack, indifferent to the terrible images of the atrocities, the rapes, and the kidnappings. . .
The three parties had dedicated a good part of their European election campaign to showing support for Hamas and attacking Israel, even though neither issue topped the agenda of the debate on the future of the EU. . ..
So severe was the blow to the leftist parties, that the leader of Sumar and second deputy prime minister, Yolanda Díaz, stepped down from her position as general coordinator of her party. . .
The rejection of anti-Semitic parties was not confined to Spain.
The Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) and Bloco de Esquerda (Left Bloc) have lost half of their representatives in the European Parliament. The day after the Oct. 7 attacks, the PCP published a scandalous communiqué: “The events that are unfolding in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are the result of decades of occupation and systematic disregard by Israel of the right of the Palestinian people to a sovereign and independent state, of permanent violation of all UN resolutions and international agreements on the Palestinian issue.” For its part, Bloco de Esquerda maintained during its electoral campaign that Israel was committing “genocide” in Gaza.
Other losers include Slovenia’s Europeo Socialni demokrati (Social Democrats), whose leader pushed for recognition of the Palestinian state by the Slovenian government; Belgium’s Ecolo, which claimed Israel’s response to the attack was “disproportionate”; and Open VLD, the party of Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, who became embroiled in several anti-Israel controversies after saying that Israel “must prove it is not using famine as a weapon of war.” De Croo finally resigned on June 10 following his party’s poor results in the European elections.
In France, Europe Écologie (the Greens), which accused Israel of “flagrantly violating international law and human rights,” became irrelevant, losing five MEPs out of the 10 it had. In Spain, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), the party of Prime Minister Sanchez, which has approved the recognition of the Palestinian state (against the majority opinion of Spaniards) and which includes in its government several ministers defending Hamas, has lost seats as have all its communist partners.
In Croatia, Vihreä Iiitto (Green League), which accused Israel of exercising “collective revenge against an entire civilian population,” has also lost votes and seats, as have Bulgaria’s Bulgarian Socialist Party, the progressive Piráti in the Czech Republic, the green party (Grüne) in Austria, and the Labour Party (Partit Laburista) in Malta, among others.
I assume that these abominable parties lost ground for more reasons than just their open hatred of Israel. Nonetheless, supporters of Israel should be heartened by their poor showings.
As for European parties that support Israel, they fared well:
Viktor Orban’s party Fidesz won the European elections in Hungary, and Spain’s Vox doubled its presence in parliament with six seats, Sweden’s right-wing Sweden Democrats kept their three seats in the European Parliament, and the Netherlands’ conservative Reformed Political Party (SGP) held on to its seat as well.
Giorgia Meloni’s party was also a winner in Italy.
I’m pretty sure support for Israel is well down the list of reasons for the success of Meloni, Orban, and others. Again, though, their success is a happy development for Israel
Will these happy developments translate into a less anti-Israeli EU? Probably not directly. According to Diaz, “the new EU parliamentary picture after these elections does not change substantially, because Ursula von der Leyen, after the victory of the European People’s Party, has offered the Party of European Socialists an alliance “against the extremes,” as she refers to the new emerging right parties, in order to keep her position as president of the European Commission.”
Even so, Diaz says:
Dozens of new MEPs from the new right-wing blocs (what some media call “extreme right wing,” even though it is a vague, confusing, and inaccurate label in most cases) will have more of a voice than ever before in the history of the EU, and will also have the ability to block laws and votes.
In this context, the determined backing for Israel from the majority of conservative parties might make it possible to improve foreign relations and perhaps increase diplomatic support for Israel and the joint fight against Hamas terrorism, which is not very different from the jihadism that still strikes at the heart of Europe every few days.
And:
With fewer noisy [left-wing] MEPs capable of sowing confusion around what is happening in Gaza, and too often using their European seats to spout antisemitic slogans, debates on EU foreign policy toward Israel will be calmer, more honest, and probably better for the common Western cause of ending terrorism, containing Islamism, and strengthening our democracies by keeping them safe from those who seek to destroy our way of life, our values, and our peace and security.
Diaz knows a lot more about EU politics than I do. However, the paragraphs I just quoted seem a bit too optimistic.
Nonetheless, what happened to the anti-Semitic left-wing European parties earlier this month is a positive development for Israel. And cause for a little hand-wringing by its enemies
I agree that the public wasn't specifically reacting to the Jew hatred spouted by these leftists. But of course it's not a coincidence that the pro European parties that the establishment slanders as "far right" are also supportive of Israel just as it's not a coincidence that the leftist globalists allowing radical Islam to overrun their countries hate Israel. These things go hand in hand.
Great post. Let's hope this recent past in Europe is prolog for the November 5 future. Jim Dueholm