European Parliament Elections this Week. Brexit Party Looks to Topple May

Once-every-five-years European Parliament elections are to be held this week. For a soporific write-up, see Steven Erlanger's "European Elections Will Gauge the Power of Populism." Erlanger's assignment is to inflate the Salvini-Orban-Le Pen bogeyman, a wrathful specter designed to keep the good folk penned in on the dystopic neoliberal reservation, something that Erlanger fails to do when he acknowledges that the anti-EU populists are slated to win at most 180 seats in a parliament that seats 751: "Opinion polls suggest that populist parties could win up to 180 seats in European Parliament, enough to create serious delays and difficulties."

One anti-EU party expected to top the polls is Nigel's Farage's new Brexit Party, which, as Robert Stevens writes in his excellent "Conservative Party implodes over Brexit crisis as May agrees to stand down next month":

The crisis of rule in Britain and the meltdown of the Tories will be exacerbated by the expected victory of the newly formed Brexit Party in next week’s European elections. A victory for the Brexit Party, set up by former UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage, will further polarise divisions within the main parties. The vast majority of Farage’s support comes from disillusioned Tory voters and is particularly strong among older generations.

According to opinion polls, the Brexit Party is set to win by taking anything up to 34 percent of the vote and could possibly score higher than both the Tories and Labour combined. There are even estimates that the Tories may only poll in single figures and finish sixth overall—which would be the worst national election result in their history.

Farage's Brexit Party has seemingly accomplished something that none of the other UK parties and their various factions have been able to do -- topple the zombie prime minister Theresa May. Last week it was announced that after a fourth vote in parliament on her Brexit plan in June she would make way for the Conservative Party to select her replacement, a process that will gobble up the newspapers this summer. Jeremy Corbyn responded to the news by pulling Labour out of the Brexit negotiations with the Tories:

The moves by the Conservative Party to replace May prompted a letter from Corbyn to May on Friday morning. Corbyn wrote, “I believe the talks between us about finding a compromise agreement on leaving the European Union have now gone as far as they can … The increasing weakness and instability of your government means there cannot be confidence in securing whatever might be agreed between us.”

It's hard to believe that May is in fact on her way out. If true, it is a cause for celebration. We've been here before though, and the zombie prime minister always manages to plod on.

What would that take now? The Tories would have to over-perform this week and the Brexit Party would have to crater at the polls; Labour, too. Then possibly May could fudge her replacement until after the new October 31 crash-out deadline.