In all four countries of Visegrad – the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary – voter turnout reached record levels, and the parties that oppose migration or consider national sovereignty and the preservation of our Christian culture a priority dominated the EP elections.
“We’ve achieved a record victory amid a record turnout,” PM Orbán told the crowd after the win in the European Parliamentary election on Sunday. "The record-breaking turnout shows that the Hungarian people have understood the importance of these EP elections,” said Balázs Hidvéghi, Fidesz spokesman, referring to the PM’s EP campaign kick-off speech in which he emphasized that Europe’s future is at stake. “Will Europe remain European or will we give way to the masses coming from other cultures?” the PM asked, adding that “we will decide whether we protect our Christian European culture or give way to multiculturalism.”
Fortunately, Hungarian voters were not the only ones who understood the high stakes.
In all of the V4 countries, parties that are vocally opposed to migration and those that stand up for national sovereignty, a strong Europe based on strong nation states and those that consider European Christian cultural preservation an important priority did well.
In Poland, the battle of two Europes – the one of nation states and the one of further integration – resulted in victory for the conservative ruling Law and Justice, which clinched 45.38 percent of the votes. Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki shares Viktor Orbán’s opinion on the important questions of the day, saying “that our sovereign rules concerning border protection and control of migration flows are our absolute priority”.
People’s Party members in Slovakia, Civic Democracy (Spolu) and the Christian Democratic KDH, also had decent showings, securing four seats, and the party of Prime Minister Pellegrini – who was a vocal critic of the Global Pact on Migration – picked up three seats. The two largest parties in Czechia, ANO, the party of Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, and the Civic Democratic Party, emphasize that the voice of the nations should be stronger in the EU, and they won 10 seats together in the next European Parliament.
Where there was higher voter turnout on Sunday, as New Europe pointed out yesterday, those political forces that are critical of Brussels and oppose an overweight, centralized, European mega-state brought home the better results.
And nowhere is that more apparent than across the four countries of the Visegrad Group. Beyond doubt: a critical mass of Visegrad voters made it clear that they want change from the Brussels business-as-usual.
Photo credit: visegradpost.com