alternatehistory.com

Europe had seen a lot pass over the last 20 years. The European Union had increased in size dramatically, with the collapse of the now-destitute Soviet Bloc. Boris Yeltsin, eager to try to improve Russia's economy and follow in the footsteps of many former Warsaw Pact countries, applied to join in 1996, shortly before the presidential election campaign began in earnest. With the urging of the United States, and after heated debate in the face of opposition from the UK and Italy and some others, the EU accepted, admitting the world's largest country (by area) into the European Union.

The bloc increased still more in 2000, when Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina were admitted. Turkey, which had been in the bloc since 1973 (admitted in large part to its anti-Communist posture and support for NATO, and in tandem with Greece), also urged that the three Caucasus countries also join; this occurred in later 2000, alongside reforms that further centralized decision-making in the EU, and enhanced the powers of its Parliament. With the completion of this step, the EU encompassed all of Europe, and even bordered the Bering Sea.

In the first all-European elections in 2002, an Englishman from the Civic Union party, Micheal Portillo, was elected Speaker of the European House of Representatives, and he easily won his constituency in London. Jacek Piechota, a Social Democratic party-affiliated politician from Poland, was elected as Senate President. The presidential race pitted Mary Robinson, the left-wing candidate, against Altero Matteoli, the right-wing candidate. Robinson won, gaining an office envisioned as weaker than the Parliament.

This is old history by now, though. As any politically knowledgeable EU citizen knows, the years since have been dominated by debates over the power of Brussels, the economy, and immigration. In 2012, Portillo lost his job as Speaker, with a coalition of agrarian and left-wing parties voting him out. The left seized total control, with Robinson, still serving as President, pushing forth an agenda that ended austerity, among other things. This was of course quite controversial, and polling showed the left doing poorly in the polls. The question remains...will the economic upturn since 2012 be enough to save the forces of the Left, now competing as a single alliance, the Left Bloc? Only time will tell.

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Euro TV, August 9, 2017, 6 AM

"Polls will be closing in far eastern Russia in just a few minutes..." announcer Jon Harlvasson said.
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