1966 European People's Chamber election

The European Community is the (at least in 1966) quasi-federal entity comprising most of continental Europe. Created in 1956 after the ratification of the Treaty of Paris with the creation of the EPC, an umbrella organisation with both economic and political aspects and which also contains the EDC and the ECSC. The EC is still in the making. Although the polity (country?) has its own Armed Forces, the EDF (European Defence Forces) and has progressed quite quickly in political and economic integration, there is a lot to do just yet before the EC becomes something akin to Switzerland. For instance, the Member States still try to fight for their right to operate independently on foreign policy issues, even though they never have control of military or commercial issues, and some aspects of the military, like nuclear weapons proliferation remain beyond its reach (currently an intergovernmental project, F-I-G). The EC has legitimised itself thanks to its status as the second most important NATO member or the exceptional economic growth that Europe is experiencing, not seen since the Belle Époque, and ongoing since the mid-1950s.

Europe really is flourishing, however questions abound how fair it is abound. Social policy is an area that dominates the European political debate, as countries remain rather reticent to share it, given their differences. Whereas France wishes to expand its model of worker's rights protection through the Community, Germany and Italy are reticent, as their cheap workforce is one of their comparative advantages. Germany could accept it in exchange of the process of monetary stabilisation and convergence speeding ahead, but the French are not too keen on that either. But 1966 was a year marked by social conflicts, because in Italy, in France and even in Germany, not to mention Belgium, it's been a year of labour demands and class conflicts, with a high amount of strikes and social conflicts as Saarbruck and the national authorities try to placate these movements by giving in to their demands through further social funding or legislative means.

As it stands, the EC is practically a dominant party system, with the Christian-democratic Union of European Democrats (UED) as the main political party, dominant in every single Member State save France and Denmark. Indeed, the party has been in government at the European level since 1956 and at the national level, it's practically been in government non-stop since WWII. The Union consists of several national federated parties, but the most important ones are the Italian DC and the German CDU-CSU. The politically vague name is the result of a compromise between French and German members, as the former would not accept a clearly confessional name. The current President of the European Executive Council (EEC) is Pierre Henri-Teitgen, a Frenchman, previously a Minister in various French governments and known for his radically pro-European beliefs, sometimes clashing with the national chief executives.

The 1966 election did not constitute a major shift, the same coalition was re-edited (for the last time), in order to further advance in the institution-building process and expand the EC's legitimising base. Teitgen would renew his electoral mandate, although not for much longer; practically ten years in power is a long time. The election was marked by an improvement of the French Christian democrats resulting in the UED ending 19 seats away from an absolute majority. But social troubles are soon to break the pacific picture.