Leftist no-vote won the day for pro-war faction in the European parliament.
The European parliament today failed to adopt a resolution on the Iraq war. A joint resolution by Socialists, Greens/EFA and the Liberals was narrowly defeated by 37 votes (218 yes, 255 no, 46 abstentions ).
Monica Frassoni, Co-President of the Green/EFA group said after the vote :
"We deeply regret that the Parliament was unable to show consistency with its vote on the 30th January before the beginning of the war, in which it was strongly critical of an unilateral attack on Iraq.
Today, Parliament was unable to articulate the overwhelming public opinion against war, and remained silent on the issue.
"The failure to adopt the resolution was due to a combination of Italian Radicals, British Labour and 28 leftist deputies from GUE, who voted against it after picking on minor points that in fact didn’t alter the overall anti-war stance of the resolution.
"Caught in their dogmatic thinking, the leftists were incapable of understanding that the logic of the proposed common resolution was clearly against the war. By voting against it, they helped the pro-war faction in parliament to win the day and left the Parliament voiceless.
See the presentation of the situation.