You Give Me Fever

Election fever, that is. It's been sweeping Europe quicker than the Black Death and certainly the last word has been applicable. On Thursday, the UK saw elections in local authorities and devolved parliaments, yesterday the French, Greeks and Russians all went to the polls to elect (or re-elect) their leaders. The results were interesting. 

The UK election results were, if I'm honest, to be expected. The SNP made gains in Scotland, the Tories lost seats in most English authorities and Labour swept the board. The Lib Dems made some sort of showing, but again, the results were as expected. The biggest sigh of relief was breathed in London when Boris Johnson was re-elected as mayor. This, of course, throws up some problems for the Coalition. Boris is a Tory, but he made little of his political credo during the campaign. He managed to show his political colours without making it explicit and therein lies his success. He has therefore shown that to be a Conservative and be ultimately electable is still possible, without resorting to the cheap showiness of social democracy that has clearly pervaded thinking within Tory HQ and gathered pace since Andy Coulson left Downing Street (see previous entries). Some are touting Boris as a possible leadership candidate and I for one would not be surprised if he threw his hat into the ring before his mayoral term is up. We need more of his kind of authenticity; the greasy pole might be there for the climbing but that doesn't mean everyone should try it. This means you, Nadine Dorries. We are not the Labour Party, no matter how much we think we ought to act like them to gain electoral success. 

I'm going to swing south and run forward in time three days to yesterday when France went to their second poll to elect a new president, which they did in style. Francois Hollande, known and loved Socialist, is the new incumbent and given Nicholas Sarkozy the epithet of being the second president in the Fifth Republic's history to not win a second term. This means that those with a great interest in Europe will be watching very closely, as the fiscal compact so carefully worked out by Sarko and Auntie Angie is re-negotiated to suit a slightly altered relationship between France and Germany. I for one think that it might mean the direction of the EU will change and for the better, although I might be a little bit too optimistic in joining the likes of UKIP and the Daily Express in gleefully hurrying in the end of the EU (although it's no bad thing, but wait for my next paragraph). Wait and see ought to be the mantra for the next couple of months, especially since the French must elect the National Assembly. 

Further south lies Greece. Little bit of a cracked urn over the last year and a bit, this cradle of democracy. From austerity measures to being handed a government by Brussels, there seems to have been little hope for this plucky little southern European nation. And now it seems that the Greek people have rejected their situation and sent a loud and clear message to the political class; it's your mess, we're ordering you to clean it up. The centre-right New Democracy seems to have won a slender majority over socialist PASOK, but nobody has enough seats for an outright majority, so it seems a coalition is in order. They have three days before another left-wing party is given a crack. If they have no government by this time next week then all I can say is God help the European project. So many things pinned as pivotal for the EU have happened in or around Greece and the Greek economy that it seems only natural that the two most recent elections should also have a bearing on the future of the great socialist project nobody seems to want any longer.

Bearing further north and further east we now come upon Russia, the great Slavic rotten borough. They operate their democracy as anyone else, with each person having one vote (that is, of course, people with sensible democracies. None of this AV nonsense. But anyway). Unfortunately the one man entitled to have the vote is Vladimir Putin, who has fiddled about with the Russian constitution so much that he will remain in power until 2018, having first been on the stage as Acting President in 1999 before being officially nominated to the post the following year. This is certainly the longest any elected politician in Russia will have been in power and almost edging on Stalin's record. If he believes he has the answer to Russia's slowing economy, having helped bring it up to standards currently enjoyed in Poland, then I say go ahead. I'd also criticise keeping someone in power for nearly two decades, not even Maggie managed that (although if somehow Kinnock and half the front bench team had been arrested when they went after the Poll Tax protesters, we might be telling a different version of our island story). It's rather sad that since the era of glasnost and perestroika there has been little movement to reform the Russian constitution other than Putin's machinations to maintain his iron grip on power. It will be most interesting to see who comes forward as a likely candidate for 2018.

I haven't much else this week, I know these come in a two-hander, but what I've given you should hopefully provide food for thought. More in the coming weeks, of course. Lord help me when Silly Season comes round.