Venstre leader, Trine Skei Grande, believes it is wonderful that the liberal parties made the strongest progress in the elections for a new EU parliament.
‘’Yep! Need I say anything more?’’ exclaimed Grande when NTB news asked her to comment on Sunday’s election.
‘’The Liberals have had a fantastic turnout. This is a strengthening of the cooperative forces in the EU. The Liberals act as counter-forces against the far right and far left, who oppose international cooperation’’ Grande said.
The EU member states’ liberal parties are currently set to secure 109 of the total of 751 seats in the EU Parliament, a rise of 41 since 2014. Thus, this group is the most active, both percentage-wise andin the number of places.
Much of the progress is due to the Liberal Democrats in the UK securing 20% support and moving from 1 to 15 places, as well as the support for Emmanuel Macron’s party, LREM, which did not exist in 2014.
Grande believes there is a more general trend. She pointed out that the Liberal Party’s sister party in Hungary had received 10% of the votes, triple the previous election, and that the Liberal’s two Danish sister parties, Venstre and Radikale Venstre, had also done very well.
The venstre leader put the progress down to both Brexit and a higher voter turnout than in previous elections.
‘’The seriousness of Brexit has begun to enter as a factor. Moreover, the EU election may have mobilised the younger part of the population, and we are the youngest voters’’ said Trine Skei Grande.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
