Maria Zakharova on the EU Parliament elections

Today Maria Zakharova posted the following commentary on the results of the elections to the European Parliament on her Telegram channel:

⚡️ Commentary by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, M.V. Zakharova, on the results of the elections to the European Parliament.

From 6 to 9 June, elections to the European Parliament (EP) were held in the 27 EU member states, according to the results of which a new composition of the 720-seat “representative body” of the European Union is to be formed for the next five years.

☝️ We are forced to state that the EP elections took place under conditions of:

- severe restrictions,

- lack of fair competition,

- the cleansing of the information field from alternative sources of information,

- unbridled anti-Russian campaign.

Political forces opposed to the thoughtless confrontation with Russia, which is detrimental to the European Union itself, were discriminated against and often subjected to direct pressure and harassment.

The past election campaign was brought to the point of absurdity by the absurdity and irresponsibility of the statements made by EU politicians. It seems that not a single mention of the European elections made by the EU bureaucrats was without references to the “Russian trail”, Russia's “interference”, the “hand of the Kremlin” and the need for “Ukraine's victory” in the “war with Russia”. Moreover, under the slogan of countering the alleged “interference of Moscow” in the electoral processes in the EU, systematic efforts were made to prevent the strengthening in the EP of the positions of political parties that defend the real interests of the EU member states and their population, rather than those imposed by Washington. Any expression of disagreement with the policy pursued by Brussels and its consequences for the socio-economic situation in the EU was instantly equated with “working in the interests of the Kremlin”.

If there was any observation of the EP elections, it was purely nominal. Thus, the number of the OSCE ODIHR special mission, which had already recognised the compliance of the European elections with all standards, was only 19 people.

❗️ However, even in these conditions, many European voters clearly expressed their opposition to the policy pursued by the EU “mainstream” over the past few years.

In a significant part of the EU member states, the voting became clearly protest-oriented, both due to the support of opposition parties and a demonstratively low turnout. In the leading EU member states, including those at the origin of European integration, there was a significant strengthening of the position of nationally oriented political forces opposing the erosion of national sovereignty and identity, as well as the replacement of traditional values with neoliberal attitudes. In the Baltics, citizens disillusioned with EU policies essentially ignored the elections. In Latvia and Estonia, just over a third of eligible voters went to the ballot box. In Lithuania, the turnout did not even reach 30 per cent. The situation is not much better in other countries, which are the most active in anti-Russian positions (Poland, Finland, Czech Republic).

🔻 However, judging by the reaction of the EU mainstream, which by all rights and wrongs still achieved a cumulative majority of seats in the new EP, they are not going to draw the right conclusions there. As a matter of fact, nobody expected this, because the EP has long ago turned into a body serving interests that have little to do with the aspirations of ordinary Europeans. They are used to listening to the commands from the ocean and the wishes of transnational companies, including the military-industrial complex.

Over the past few years, the EP's confrontational stance towards our country has degenerated to an unprecedented level of hostility. This European institution, which produces endless anti-Russian texts, has discredited itself and has become an openly Russophobic structure that welcomes all sorts of marginalised people who call themselves the “Russian opposition” and even extremists and terrorists.

The results of the elections in the European Parliament have generally preserved the “ideological basis” for further support for the EU's current self-destructive political course based on Russophobia.

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