Europe
COVID-19 AMID A NUMBER OF EUROPEAN ELECTIONS written by Sara Dozai
T
he Covid-19 pandemic has taken the world by storm, putting countries into an unprecedented state of complete lockdown. Amidst all the chaos the coronavirus pandemic has caused, elections still had to take place, and as one might imagine, they were heavily impacted both in terms of public opinion and logistics of the organisation by the virus. However, this is not where the difficulties with the elections end. Some countries experience an after-storm of massive protests. When it comes to municipal elections in France, run-off elections were held as the first round was not decisive. The main focus was on President Macron’s La République en Marche party and the race for mayor of Paris. After a three-month delay, elections were held under strict health and safety measures. The results of the second round showed that France’s Green party, as well as other left-wing parties, have made significant progress in it. On the other hand, Macron’s centrist LREM party has seen less support at a local level than at a national level, as they have failed to secure the administration of any major city. The Green Party won in Marseille, Strasbourg, Bordeaux and Lyon, whilst in Paris, incumbent Hidalgo, of the Socialist Party, returned as mayor. The first round had an abstention rate of 54.5%, the highest recorded for municipal elections since 1958. Unfortunately, the second round recorded an even worse abstention rate of 60%. While the results may not be truly reflective as the majority of the population didn’t vote, it confirms two points, those being that the French voters see the environment as a priority, and the fear surrounding Covid-19 has made people stay at home. Nevertheless, people’s loyalty towards political figures that better handled the pandemic can also be observed. One such person is Prime Minister Èdouard Philippe, whose popularity has soared due to his handling of the Covid-19 crisis, handing him the election
as the mayor of Le Havre. Finally, it should be observed that the results pressured President Macron to reshuffle the government, including the key roles of interior minister and Attorney General. The Polish presidential elections, at first scheduled to take place on May 20th, were held on June 28th and July 12th. As in France, masks were obligatory on election sites. Poland’s incumbent President Duda beat his opponent Trzaskowski by a narrow margin. Mr Duda obtained 51.2% of votes, which is Poland’s slimmest presidential election victory since the end of communism in 1989. The turnout was reportedly 68.2%. From this, it can be concluded that the Covid-19 pandemic was not a huge factor in people’s willingness to vote and their decision on who to vote for. It was rather the insurmountable division in opinions of the Polish public. When analysing the results, it is clear that the public in Poland is heavily divided. Experts have argued before the election that this is a vote between two different visions of Poland. One of the main division points between the two candidates was their stance on LGBTQ+ rights, with Trzaskowski supporting civil unions for same-sex couples, and Duda promising to protect the institution of family from “LGBT ideology“. Furthermore, Duda promoted his anti-abortionist views, which Trzaskowski strongly opposed. The Polityka weekly referred to these opposing views as “Young against old, cities against countryside”. The results of the elections were seen with concern by foreign media: for example, the German Sueddeutsche Zeitung stated that Trzaszkowski is “a hero, even without a victory”. The EU also expressed its concerns about the stances of the Polish government regarding LGBTQ+ people and the completion of the overhaul of the judiciary, believed to be undermining the rule of law. The high level of division amongst Polish society meant that protests sparked against the police brutality targeted
Autumn 2020 • Dialogue 61
