Hello, I’m Sotirios Zartaloudis and I’m a lecturer in Politics and Policies at the
University of Birmingham.
My specialisation is in European Politics and the Political Economy and I will be focusing
a little bit more on how the current elections in Britain are being viewed from other countries,
both in the continent but also globally.
So I would call this election the so-called ‘Silent Election’, so they are [0:00:28]
elections.
So far if you look on European media – the German media, French media, Italian media,
media around Europe – very few people really talk about the British election.
So it’s quite interesting how come this important election in Britain, but also important
in terms of their relationship between Britain and the EU, especially by Europe as not so
significant.
I think there are a number of reasons for that.
First, most European nations more or less assume that Theresa May will win, but also
I would say another important reason, and this was put very clearly by the Head of the
European Commission, Mr Junker, but also key figures from the European Parliament, is that
whoever is elected in Britain in government doesn’t really change much.
So contrary to what Theresa May is saying, there will be speaking to the British government
about leaving the EU and more or less the issues are not going to change by any electoral
results.
So the issues of what happens to the British citizens living in European countries, what
happens to European citizens living in Britain, what happens to trade, what happens to living
in the EU and what happens with the relationship after Britain leaves the EU.
So I would say that most European nations are a bit silent or indifferent to what’s
happening in terms of the elections because they assume that whatever happens, the scenario’s
almost written about Britain and the EU.
It’s quite interesting that globally the British elections do not feature much.
For instance, if you read any US outlets, most of them focus on Trump,
Putin, China, North Korea.
Very few of them focus on European issues.
It seems that Europe is not really high on their agenda anymore.
So I would say that from a European and also global perspective, the British elections
are not that, in a way, important.
As I say, it was the referendum or it was the French elections and this is in a way,
a blessing and a curse.
A blessing in that most outsiders or people from all around the world assume that it will
be business as usual, that we will have more or less the same government, the Conservatives
probably will win, Theresa May will be again the Prime Minister, but also the curse is
that a lot of people probably have certain expectations about what will happen between
Britain and Europe and what will happen in Britain internally so I don’t know if that’s
good or bad.
I would say that I would like to see a bit more interest and a little bit more anxiety
about what’s going to happen to Britain because that will give a lot of leeway for
British politicians to maybe negotiate.
So we don’t see what we were seeing in France with the French elections where people were
quite concerned about the rise of a Neo-Fascist candidate, Mrs Le Pen, and also we don’t
see this kind of, if you like, jubilation after the election of Macron.
Most people, especially in Europe, are kind of waiting but also they are not waiting for
any surprises because they know that no matter who is in power, more or less it will be the
same issues that will have to be discussed.
Another important, if you like, element of the international aspect of the British elections
is what will happen with Jeremy Corbyn.
Jeremy Corbyn is one of the last remaining New Left leaders which started from Latin
America countries like [0:04:04] or in Greece, [0:04:05], or in France, Melancon.
It seems that most of them – obviously in the case of [0:04:11] he has passed away but
also [0:04:11] is not doing very well in Venezuela, [0:04:17] has completely compromised with
the [0:04:17] completely lost out.
[0:04:24] in the Social Democrats in Germany also is not doing very well.
It seems like probably Merkel, Angela Merkel, will win again so it seems that Jeremy Corbyn
is one of the few remaining people of the Left or New Left or Re-emerging Left if you
like, and it will be quite interesting to see what will happen after the British elections
if, as according to the polls, the Labour Party will not do that great, it’s quite
interesting to see on a global perspective what happens with this new movement of people
that were against the elites, against the financialisaton of the political economy,
against banks, against global trade etc.
It will be quite an interesting, if you like, development on the global Social Democratics
last left aspect of politics and it seems that currently this new movement that started
ten years ago is not doing that great.