The Latest: Salvini: “The rules are changing in Europe”
BRUSSELS (AP) — The Latest on elections for the European Parliament (all times local):
1:50 a.m.
Italy’s hard-line interior minister, Matteo Salvini, says the European parliamentary vote shows “that the rules are changing in Europe.”
Salvini told supporters at party headquarters in Milan early Monday that the results of Europe’s four-day vote show that “a new Europe is born. I will say to those who have sunk the European dream, transforming it into a nightmare, that I am proud that the League participated in this new rebirth of a sunken Europe.”
Voter projections showed the League won 33% of the vote in Italy, up from just 6% at the last European vote in 2014 and at least 10 percentage points ahead of the Democratic Party in second place. The League’s coalition partners, the 5-Star Movement, suffered a blow, finishing third with just 19% of the vote.
Salvini held a cross as he spoke, and at one point kissed it and looked upward, saying: “I thank whoever is up there, who is not helping Matteo Salvini and the League, who is helping Italy and Europe, to protect hope, pride, roots, work, security.” Salvini has faced criticism from Italy’s Catholic establishment for brandishing a rosary at rallies.
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1:40 a.m.
The two women who shook up Spanish politics by becoming the mayors of Madrid and Barcelona supported by an upstart far-left party in 2015 have both lost in local elections.
Manuela Carmena, a 75-year-old former judge, won the most votes in Madrid’s local election but will likely be disposed by the combined power of three right-wing parties that can cobble together a majority in the town hall.
Ada Colau, a former housing activist, is also in danger of losing power in Barcelona after she came in second to a party in favor of Catalonia’s secession from the rest of Spain.
Their losses come amid a steep decline in support for the anti-austerity Podemos (We Can) party and similar far-left parties since their rise four years ago. Much of those votes have gone to the mainstream Socialists.
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1:30 a.m.
Spain’s caretaker Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez says his victorious Socialists will push for a Europe focused on social welfare and against austerity measures after winning the European elections.
With 98% of the votes counted late Sunday, the Socialists won 20 of the 54 seats allocated to Spain in the European Parliament.
Sanchez says Spain is going to be the leading delegation” of Socialists on the European stage. He calls that a source of enormous pride and an enormous opportunity for us but also an enormous responsibility.”
Caretaker Minister of Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell, president of European Parliament from 2004-09, is among the Socialist lawmakers going to Strasbourg.
Sánchez can now focus on trying to form a new government following the victory of his Socialists in the April 28 national election.
The turnout in Spain on Sunday was up to 64.3% from 45.8% in 2014.
1:05 a.m.
The leaders of the two largest mainstream parties in the European Parliament have ruled out working with far-right nationalists who made gains in the continent’s four-day vote and appealed for cooperation among pro-European parties.
Manfred Weber, leader of the center-right EPP group, said Sunday night that “from now on, those who want to have a strong European union have to join forces.”
Weber says his group will not cooperate “with any party that doesn’t believe in the future of the European Union.”
Frans Timmermans, the Socialist and Democrats leader who is Weber’s chief rival for the top job at the EU’s executive commission, says he wants to work together with progressive parties “to try and build a program that addresses the aspirations, the dreams, and also sometimes the fears of our fellow Europeans.”
The EEP group is forecast to win 178 seats and the S&D group will have 152 seats in the 751-seat parliament, according to EU projections.
https://www.breitbart.com/news/the-latest-salvini-the-rules-are-changing-in-europe/