European Parliament election, 2014

[Benefactor]

Surely, "democracy" means that they should accept a candidate put forward by the majority, but simply by a plurality? That might to turn out to be the same thing, but not necessarily so.

As I understand it, Camerons pre-emptive 'stop Juncker' campaign has rallied some of the other major European Parliament groups around the EPP. It would have been more interesting to see what compromises would have been made without the Council preemptively interfering, but I guess that's the way it currently has to be.

 

[Flying Pig]

He's suggested that he'd be open to coalition with the Conservatives, although I doubt the Conservatives would accept that. They're struggling to balance both centre-right liberal voters and their traditionalist base, and coalition with UKIP would alienate the former while risking validating UKIP in the eyes of the latter. (I'm not sure if Farage knows this. Sometimes he seems like a savvy political operative, sometimes he seems dim but lucky.) The likely outcome would be UKIP playing a role similar to the Unionists in Northern Ireland (and, formerly, in Scotland), exchanging support on the majority of affairs for the indulgence on their key issues. Possibly more so, in fact, because the Unionist parties have tended to lean "One Nation" on economic issues, but the Kippers are unapologetic Thatcherites.

I would caution that that's exactly how Farage wants to be seen - his slick, professional PR campaign is devoted almost entirely to making him seem like the only politician without a slick, professional PR campaign.