why are/were members of organisations such as the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Reform UK etc., so desperate to be members of the European Parliament, (MEPs), if they want nothing to do with Europe?…
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short answer: they couldn’t get anyone into Westminster, because their supporters were not sufficently concentrated to actually win a constituency, but knew the European Parliament elections were normally quite low turnout (basically no one cared about them) and covered much larger areas (to keep the size of the EU Parliament reasonable), so by concentrating thier efforts of the European Parliament and getting their voter base to turn out, they were able to get elected to positions that both gave them “legitimacy” as duly elected representatives of the British people, and also let them argue against greater European federalism in general, and UK involvement in that federalism in specific, form inside the EU itself.
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They have strong views on Europe and the polices of the European Parliament, why not join it? While there they could stop polices they disagreed with from being passed.
They were very successful in getting elected because people with very strong views on Europe were often people with strong negative views, and they were some of the few who actually voted in European elections.
Plus, it’s a well paid job which requires no qualifications. Lot’s of money and privilege to object to things you don’t like, thats a good gig.
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The short answer is that it’s the easiest way to get an elected position along with the status and air time it entails.
Winning a Westminster seat is difficult for such minor parties, especially at a General Election. Their best hope would be a byelection or a defection. Byelections have smaller turnouts and more chance of people making a protest vote for a smaller party.
Since 1999 (until 2020 when we left the EU) the United Kingdom used Proportional Representation for European elections. Since it was a European vote, Europe was a major topic of conversation and these parties could expect to have an uptick in the polls as they got more air time. With turnout often pathetically low, their share of the vote would be way higher than for other types of election. Under a proportional representation system, this led to them winning a number of seats and having a voice in the media.
Until the first world war, there was a decent amount of royalists MPs in the french national assembly, a country that tended to cut short its relationship with its kings.
Democracy is kind of a game where the winner gets to decide the rules of the game. So you can hate the game, you still need to play it.
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