What this ultimately
means is that conservative and moderate parties, as per the
status quo, will remain in control, expressed via an extremely
likely coalition of the European People’s Party (center-right)
and the Socialists and Democrats (center-left).
What comes next, in the second half of 2014, is the appointment
of a new EU Commission. That’s Kafka redux, as in the
bureaucrat-infested executive arm of the EU, which shapes the
agenda, sort of (when it’s not busy distributing subventions in
color-coded folders for assorted European cows.)
There are 5 candidates fighting for the position of EC president.
According to the current EU treaty, member states have to
consider the result of EU Parliament elections when appointing a
new president. Germany wants a conservative. France and Italy
want a socialist. So expect a tortuous debate ahead to find who
will succeed the spectacularly mediocre Jose Manuel Barroso.
The favorite is a right-winger of the European People’s Party,
former Prime Minister of Luxembourg Jean-Claude Juncker. He is an
avid defender of banking secrecy while posing himself as a
champion of “market social economy.”