Word: parliament
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Parliament's 111-member Socialist bloc came in a decided No. 2 to the center-right parties, even though it is larger than any one of them. If the three latter groups (the Christian Democrats of continental Europe, with 106 seats; the British and Danish Conservatives, with 63 seats; and the French, West German and Low Country Liberals, with 40) can come to a working alliance, they should be able to dominate the Parliament for its first five-year term. The Socialists publicly refused a common "popular front" with the 44 Communists and their allies, although on such pocketbook...
...poor showing by the Italian Communists the week before was reinforced. The Communists dropped below the psychologically important 30% they won in the national elections, to 29.6% in the Euro-elections. The Christian Democrats also fell from 38.3% in the national election to 36.5% in voting for the new Parliament. But they could boast that the local ticket headed by Emilio Colombo, outgoing Parliament president, rolled up an impressive total of 860,000 votes, thereby boosting his chances to continue in office at least during the new Parliament's important formative stages...
Public posturing and backroom politicking began within hours after the results were in. The first matter on the agenda when the new Parliament convenes in Strasbourg on July 17 will be the choice of a president. Willy Brandt, who campaigned across the continent for his Socialist colleagues, had been considered the leading contender. In view of the center-right's strong showing, Veil was being touted by supporters as a more fitting choice. Former Belgian Premier Leo Tindemans, who heads the Parliament's powerful Christian Democratic group, meanwhile, was bidding for the informal post of majority leader...
...Parliament met ten or twelve times a year. The new members expect to work harder, and will be paid the same salaries they would have received as members of their national legislative bodies (which vary widely), plus travel allowances. These could prove to be considerable if the Parliament sticks to its plan to hold half its monthly plenary sessions in Strasbourg, the other half in Luxembourg and nearly all committee meetings in Brussels. But the political heavyweights are already chafing about that idea. Brandt, for one, in an initial show of parliamentary independence, declared that the seat...
Even for a parliament that is notoriously rowdy and undisciplined, one session of the Israeli Knesset last week was unusual. Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon, who is known as his country's "settlement czar," gleefully baited and ridiculed opposition members who attacked the Cabinet's decision to establish a new Jewish settlement at Elon Moreh on the occupied West Bank. Not only will the settlement be located, in part, on privately owned Arab land, opposition M.P.s argued, but it will also be within a mile of the populous Arab town of Nablus. Sharon blithely dismissed opponents of Elon Moreh...