A somewhat strange election campaign has started in the United Kingdom where the British will vote on 23 May in the European elections, almost three years to the day they voted their country's exit from the European Union (see EUROPE 11580/1).
A strange campaign because of the irony of the situation - the British will elect 73 MEPs - but also because of the way in which the parties are approaching this election and campaigning or, precisely, are not campaigning.
Credited in many polls to win the election or in others polls to be neck and neck with Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party, Nigel Farage's new Brexit Party, ex-UKIP, could send the largest contingent of British MEPs to Brussels and Strasbourg.
But apart from Nigel Farage's speeches, the party has not yet published any manifesto or programme, the United Kingdom's exit from the EU being its only campaign argument.
Several MEPs from UKIP have joined Nigel Farage and are running for election, such as Jonathan Bullock or Nathan Gill. The sister of Conservative MP Jacob Rees-Mogg, Annunziata Rees-Mogg, is also running under the Brexit Party colours. The ex-UKIP MEP David Coburn, at odds with Nigel Farage, is not running for re-election.
According to some surveys, the Brexit Party was credited with 30% of voting intentions as of May 2. That puts it ahead of the Labour Party’s 21%.
Almost all Labour MEPs already sitting in the S&D group in the European Parliament - there were eighteen in the 2014-2019 legislature - are running again, like Claude Moraes, Seb Dance or Richard Corbett, with the exception of four MEPs: Mary Honeyball, Linda McAvan, Lucy Anderson and Derek Vaughan.
Labour, has indeed a manifesto, presented Thursday, May 9 by Jeremy Corbyn. But the party is divided over its content, regarding the possible holding of a second referendum on Brexit. Mr Corbyn was not in favour of this option.
The Labour campaign will therefore officially focus on a reformed Europe that puts an end to austerity, addresses the climate challenge and improves workers' rights throughout the EU and the United Kingdom. In the perspective of Brexit, Labour advocates a modernised customs union with the European Union.
No campaign at all for the Tories?
As for Ms May's Conservatives, whose nineteen MEPs were in the ECR group, the atmosphere is not to campaign. The party is even considering not publishing a manifesto or a programme, according to the British media.
May is still hoping to get the agreement on an orderly withdrawal from the EU adopted before the European elections, so that British MEPs do not have to sit in the next European Parliament.
The polls are, in any case, very bad for the Tory party, which could even fall to sixth place, according to The Guardian, while on May 2 the polls placed it third, with 13% of the votes.
All the MEPs who have been part of the ECR group over the past five years, such as Syed Kamall, Ashley Fox or Daniel Dalton, are back in the race. Only Jacqueline Foster, Kay Swinburne and David Campbell Bannerman are not running for re-election.
A campaign to stop Brexit
Then there are the parties that are openly in favour of keeping the United Kingdom in the EU, such as the Lib Dems, the Greens, the Scottish SNP, but also the new Change UK party.
For the Liberal Democrats, part of the ALDE group at European level, its leader, Vince Cable, campaigned with the Belgian Guy Verhofstadt on Friday 10 May, with the aim of winning more seats than in 2014.
And for good reason, the Lib Dems currently only have one MEP, Catherine Bearder, who is standing for re-election. Former Liberal MEPs such as Phil Bennion, Chris Davies, Fiona Hall and Bill Newton Dunn are running again. Also noteworthy is the presence of Giles Goodall, a former European official.
For the Greens, Molly Scott Cato is running for re-election, unlike Jean Lambert and Keith Taylor. The Greens’ manifesto calls for a United Kingdom that is part of a greener EU, acting on the causes of Brexit, such as austerity and the liberalisation of public services in particular.
In the SNP, Alyn Smith, who was a member of the Greens/EFA group, is also running. Objective: to win three seats. For the Welsh Plaid Cymru, current MEP Jill Evans (Greens/EFA) is back in the race with three other candidates.
As for Change UK, Richard Ashworth, a former member of the EPP group, is standing for re-election. Noteworthy on this list is the sister of former pro-Brexit Minister Boris Johnson, Rachel Johnson.
Finally, in Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin's MEP, Martina Anderson, who had a seat in the GUE/NGL group, is standing for re-election, with the aim of keeping the United Kingdom in the EU. Same thing for Diane Dodds, from DUP, a member of the governing coalition, but with a diametrically opposed objective.
UKIP after Nigel Farage
Finally, within UKIP, which has suffered departures to the Brexit Party, only three current MEPs are standing before the voters again: John Stuart Agnew, Mike Hookem and the party leader, Gerard Batten.
Link to the Labour manifesto: https://bit.ly/2JgzUYG
Link to the Green Party manifesto: https://bit.ly/2VnJEql
Link to the Lib Dems manifesto: https://bit.ly/2IkFsRc. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)