The risk of a lurch to the right in May’s European parliamentary election is vexing top global chief executives, who worry that the vote will make the bloc harder to govern just as they want it to reform. High unemployment, austerity fatigue and still anaemic growth offer the perfect backdrop for fringe parties to prosper at the election. Some pundits predict a group of anti-euro parties including the National Front in France, Britain’s UKIP, Syriza in Greece and the Dutch Freedom Party could capture 20 percent or more of the seats. That could pressure the European Union’s main party groups to tack right and challenge Europe’s ability to integrate further, given new powers the parliament will have to rule on the majority of EU legislation.
Because, as le Tout-Davos knows, further European integration is an unquestionably good thing.
Forward!