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China-EU relations
ChinaDiplomacy

China hawk von der Leyen confident of new term as Europe lurches right

  • European Commission president’s party remains largest parliamentary group while heavyweights Macron and Scholz damaged

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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen celebrates at the European People’s Party headquarters in Brussels on Sunday. Photo: AP
Finbarr Berminghamin Brussels
The European Parliament lurched to the political right on Sunday, with the parties of heavyweight leaders Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz suffering damaging losses in French and German polls.
French President Macron dissolved the national parliament after his centrist group was trounced by the far-right National Rally of Marine Le Pen, in a move that will lead to legislative elections at the end of June.

Alternative for Germany (AfD), another far-right group, followed the conservative Christian Democrats to take second place there, while the far-right party of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni came out on top in Italy too.

However, the key takeaway for those watching China policy was that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) remained the bloc’s largest parliamentary group.

The EPP won 189 seats – an increase of seven on five years earlier – in the world’s second-largest democratic process after India’s mammoth general election. Second was the Socialist and Democratic Group (S&D), which slipped to 135 seats from 154 in 2019.

The right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists won 72 seats, up from 62 five years earlier.

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