Luxembourg votes back prime minister; votes in European elections. Belgium holds vote, too

The European Union’s longest-serving prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker cruised to victory in Luxembourg’s general elections on Sunday bolstered by his defiance of the Obama administration’s tax-haven accusations against his tiny nation.

Juncker’s center-right Christian Social People’s Party captured 39 percent of the vote according to provisional results. Despite a sign decline in support for his Socialist coalition partners, the results seem sure to guarantee Juncker another five years in power.

The main opposition liberal party scored just 15 percent.

In the European Parliament election also held Sunday, Juncker’s party won half of Luxembourg’s three seats with one apiece for the Socialists, Liberals and Greens.

Juncker, 54, has ruled the country of 490,000, since 1995. A wily political operator and skilled negotiator he has succeeded in giving Luxembourg an influence in Europe well beyond its size.

Serving also as finance minister, he chairs meetings of ministers from the 16 nations using the euro as their currency, a position that gives him a seat at major international finance gatherings and a “Mr. Euro” nickname. Juncker is expected to step down as his country’s finance minister, but has suggested he could stay on as head of the so-called “euro-group.”

Luxembourgers are Europe’s wealthiest people thanks to the country’s role as a major international banking center. The Obama administration has criticized its banking secrecy rules and threatened to “blacklist” it as a tax haven alongside the likes of Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.

Juncker has hit back angrily, pointing to tax breaks offered by American states such as Delaware, Wyoming and Nevada and suggesting the U.S. should put it own house in order before looking to Europe tax rules.

In Belgium:

Ecologists and Flemish nationalists made big gains in fractured elections Sunday, but voters dealt a serious blow to the far-right movement which had grown into a significant political force in the Dutch-speaking north of the country.

The European elections where overshadowed by a simultaneous vote for the powerful parliaments in Belgium’s three regions — Dutch-speaking Flanders, Francophone Wallonia and bilingual Brussels.

Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy’s Christian Democratic and Flemish party maintained its position as the most powerful political force in Flanders, with 23.1 percent of the regional vote.

The far-right Flemish Interest Party (VB) scored 15 percent, a fall of almost 9 percent from its score five years ago that ends a 20-year run of election successes.

Two new Flemish nationalist parties were the main beneficiaries of the rightists’ decline. The New-Flemish Alliance and the Dedecker List steer clear of the VB’s strident anti-immigration rhetoric, but they share its demands more autonomy or even independence for the Flanders.

The nationalists’ strong showing will make it harder to revive power-sharing talks with French-speakers in a nation where deep linguistic divisions frequently paralyze national politics.

In Wallonia, the Socialist Party retained its traditional leading position despite a string of recent corruption scandals, falling four points to 32.9 percent. The green party ECOLO was the big winner, more than doubling its score to win 18.54 percent, while the liberals and Christian democrats also suffered slight declines and the far-right National Front was knocked out of the regional parliament.

In Brussels, the Liberals overlook the Socialists to become the biggest party.

Politicians in all three regions were starting negotiations to form new regional coalitions, but the regional horse-trading was unlikely to undermine Van Rompuy’s federal government.

http://www.globalpost.com/notebook/europe/090607/no-upsets-luxembourgs-european-parliament-vote