The Chamber of Deputies of the European Parliament will be set up on 2 July. In a context of strong parliamentary fragmentation, for the first time, the coalition between the popular and the socialists remains without a majority in Parliament. However, Europe is expected to join the Renew (new name acquired by the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats) coalition with a triple of the absolute majority. In addition, where two thirds qualified majorities are required, the tripartite may negotiate with the Greens.

On the left, the European Parliament has been moderated, because the United Left/Green Left of Iparralde has lost 14 Members and the Socialists have lost 32 Members in favour of the left and right centrists: The Greens/Free Alliance have won 23 Members and Renewed Europe 37. In the case of the former, the main contributions are the good results of the Greens in Germany, France and the United Kingdom, in the case of the latter the increases of the Liberal Democrats in La République in Marché!–MoDem and the United Kingdom.

From the right, the European Parliament has been centrifuged by the rise of the Eurosceptics. The popular have lost 37 Members, while the biguous eurosceptic groups of Conservatives and Reformists have lost 16 (the 15 British). Otherwise, the Freedom and Direct Democracy group led by Nigel Farage has added one more Member by compensating for the good results of Brexit with the loss of Movimento 5 Stelle. The biggest increase, however, has been for the far-right group, Identity and Democracy, which has won 37 Members, 23 of them new seats in the Lega Nord.

It is no coincidence that the extreme right has won the elections in Italy and France. The Centre for European Policy Studies, based in Brussels, has published a study analysing the impact of the euro in eight countries between 1999 and 2017. As a result, the euro has only generated benefits in the period under investigation: Germany has enriched EUR 23,116 per capita and the Netherlands has increased by EUR 21,003. Among the worst affected, EUR 55,996 per capita have been depleted in France, while EUR 73,605 has been depleted in Italy.

In the long term, political systems are not legitimised by procedures, but by results. A good example is that the European Union (EU) is not democratic. While the majority of the population improved living conditions, Eurosceptics were scarce, but when the economic crisis arose and the EU’s decision affected some countries and social classes and benefited others, Eurosceptics grew among them.

The EU has been a place to reconcile the particular national interests of the countries, but when they have started to be contradictory the Eurosceptics have gained strength. Freeing the knot is not easy, although the road is clear: we must move from the convergence between different interests to the construction of a general and common interest. If the federation and democratization do not flourish in the next five years, the economic crisis will deepen further. It is not possible for the EU budget to remain lower than that of Denmark, it is not possible for its institution to defend mainly certain national interests and the interests of some economic elites. It is essential to embark on a path towards integration and socio-economic balance and to agree on a common immigration policy. In order to make this possible and for the EU to manage its decay well, it has to emancipate itself from the geopolitical point of view of the US. It is high time that the EU prioritised and defended its interests, even if they run counter to the interests of the United States.