Brussels reacts to general elections results

Let us start with the undeniable winners of the elections, who are represented in Brussels as The Conservatives in the European Parliament. Timothy Kirkhope MEP has spent "many happy hours in Brussels and Belgium, and a few frustrating ones." Right now, he is clearly anything but frustrated: "The Conservative Party has defied its detractors, outperformed expectations and won an impressive victory.”

Mr Kirkhope makes it very clear that Britain has dodged a bullet by not voting Labour into the biggest-party position. "Our victory means the work of fixing Britain can continue after Labour left it broken. If Ed Miliband had got into Number 10 he would have ruined all that and taken Britain back to the divisive, spendthrift politics of Brown and Blair."

Mr Kirkhope claims that, by voting Conservative, the people of Britain have also called for responsibility and reform in Europe. “David Cameron will heed that call and Europe should listen too", he states. However, leaving Europe entirely is not a preferable option for Mr Kirkhope. “I hope the reform agenda allows us to recommend remaining in the EU. That is my personal preference. We want to fix the EU's problems, not just for Britain's sake but for the whole of Europe. That will benefit the people of Britain, our friends in Flanders and Belgium, and EU citizens everywhere."

Brussels & Europe Liberal Democrats Chairman Giles Goodall, who has lived in Belgium for more than 15 years, also believes that these elections were crucial in helping to determine the role of the UK in Europe, making it hugely significant not just for the UK, but for Belgium as well. However, “I do not believe that Cameron himself or the sane wing of his party want to see Britain leave. But there are plenty of conservative extremists who will disagree with whatever deal he is able to, or claims to have secured from the EU”, Mr Goodall explains.

The Lib Dem’er says that Belgium too would undoubtedly suffer if Britain would leave, because of close economic ties and the many citizens resident in the other Member State . “But I doubt Belgium would want to keep Britain in at any price. It’ll be interesting to see to see how far Brussels is prepared to go in giving the UK a sort of special deal.”

Evidently, contrary to Mr Kirkhope, Mr Goodall doesn’t have much to celebrate. “For me as a Liberal Democrat and a progressive, the results are heart-breaking. We fought a very hard campaign after five tough years with many achievements in government, but we have not been rewarded by the electorate. It's the worst result for the Lib Dems since the party was founded.”

The chairman fears that populism is on the rise and liberalism might be in danger. After these elections, he also believes it is time to do things differently in British politics. “The conservatives will likely govern alone against the popular vote. Furthermore, the Liberal Democrats won only 1% of seats on 8% of votes. Meanwhile, the Scottish Nationalists - whose support is concentrated geographically - got 56 seats with just over 4% of votes. It is crystal clear that our electoral system (constituency-based First Past the Post) is not fit for purpose. We are a multi-party democracy shackled in an anachronistic voting system designed for two parties. Political reform is urgent.”

Mr Goodall is bracing himself for Cameron 2. “I hope that Mr Cameron will choose to govern for the many and not the few, and that he chooses to return to the 'one nation' centre-right traditions of his party. I fear though that he will use his majority to govern from the right, putting social cohesion, our environment, and our role in the world at risk."

At the European Policy Centre (EPC) in Brussels, people seem quite worried about Cameron’s re-election and what that might mean to Europe. Senior EPC advisor John Wyles is wary of Cameron’s EU-related plans. “He has talked about reform a lot, but what exactly does he mean by it. We don’t know.” According to Mr Wyles, Cameron wouldn’t go for a Brexit, but he will do his best to move as much power to the United Kingdom, and away from Europe.

EPC Chief Executive Fabian Zuleeg believes that, indeed, a so-called ‘Brexit’ might be feasible: “We’re facing a period of significant insecurity. Brussels isn’t prepared for a Brexit, but the process might start as soon as in two months.” Luckily, there seems to be a slight pro-EU majority among the British people right now, as opposed to the slight anti-EU majority there was a few years ago. Still: “European Leaders (Angela Merkel, François Hollande, Charles Michel) should openly show their support for the UK to stay with Europe!”

Another thing John Wyles isn’t all too pleased about were the campaigns. “They were the most mindless and media-dominated ones ever. It seemed like a crude bidding contest.” Mr Wyles also finds it striking that there were almost no mentions of Europe or the outside world in the very British inward-looking campaigns. He also denounces the fear-factor in Cameron’s campaign that might have given him the victory: “Cameron said that everything good about the economy that they had built would be destroyed by a left-wing coalition. Some news media picked up on this rhetoric and spread outright lies to the public.”

It is fair to say that the party most harshly beaten by the British electorate yesterday is Labour. Cameron’s biggest opponent, Ed Miliband, has resigned as the leader of the centre-left-wing party. Unfortunately, but perhaps understandably, Brussels Labour was not available for comments.