EU - Parliamentary elections

[elvain]

so, EUropean mates, who are you going to vote for/have already voted in the upomming elections?

I'm going today, after I finnish my work (in 30 minutes :) )

I'm just wondering how the people of this forum vote...

here's the countries and their number of PMs out of total 736
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/2302/mepnationsda8.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Each of local parties belongs to some EP political fraction and because there are too many local political parties, I will only offer here the EP fractions. Your favourite local party will could be found either in the party's or EP fraction's website.

Here are the fractions:

European People's Party–European Democrats (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_People's_Party–European_Democrats), composed of Christian Democrats, Conservatives and something wiki calls "Liberal Conservatives", recently the most powerfull.
Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliance_of_Liberals_and_Democrats_for_Europe), composed of, strangely enough, liberals. In the European sense.
Party of European Socialists (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_of_European_Socialists), composed of Social Democrats, Democratic Socialists, and whatever is left of the "Third Way".
the Union for Europe of the Nations (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_for_Europe_of_the_Nations), where everyone dislikes eachother;
the European Greens - European Free Alliance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Greens–European_Free_Alliance), a curious alliance of Ecologists and Regionalist Parties, including the SNP;
the European United Left–Nordic Green Left (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_United_Left–Nordic_Green_Left), composed of communists and democratic socialists.
and finaly, the Independence/Democracy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence/Democracy), made up of loonies. And some other not-UKIP eurosceptic parties.

and here are some new
Libertas (http://www.libertas.eu/), made famous by their campaign against the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland have launched a Pan-European Party to run in 2009, although it is not yet known if they will have candidates to field, at least not outside the UK.
Also new are the Newropeans (http://www.newropeans.eu/), who want an elected EU Government.
Europe - Democracy - Esperanto (http://e-d-e.org/?lang=en) run to make Esperanto the official EU language
And finally Europe United (http://europeunited.eu/modules/start/) who aim at your general "more EU and better EU" base.


here some pics :)

http://img194.imageshack.us/img194/3738/148x105euppostcardsengb.jpg

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/3738/148x105euppostcardsengb.jpg

http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/3738/148x105euppostcardsengb.jpg

http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/3738/148x105euppostcardsengb.jpg

[NikeBG]

I'm voting for the liberals in the EU and an EPP party in the national elections.

[Mephistopheles]

I'm not voting because I'm in italy and can't be bothered to make a vote by post. Despite normally supporting liberals I think I'd sway for the Europe - Democracy - Esperanto though due to my interest in Esperanto lately. ;)

It's difficult to see who stands for what sort of policy though. The campaigns in italy or germany were mostly lead under the slogan "For <country> in europe - vote <party>!" and no further clarification...

[jediguardian]

Not old enough, turning 18 next year.
Oh by the way, those commercials are stupid :D.

[Bulgaroktonos]

If I were old enough I would choose AUF (english UP) a new christian center party.

Don't know if it's known in other countries besides Germany.

[Mathyas Rex]

Oh crap, Romania's got 33 seats. And romanian politicians are the most corupt B A S T A R D S in the universe, all they care about is money. Well, there goes the neighbourhood.

[Bulgaroktonos]

The Holy Roman Empire got the most :D

WTF ? In the map on the top of the page there is still Jugoslavia ?!

Haha, I just read about those Esperanto freaks ...

[Mathyas Rex]

There is no Yugoslavia. At first it really seems like there is, but if you take a closer look, you can see that only EU members' borders are defined. ( the same way Ukraine, Russia etc. aren't seperated either)

About Esperanto - I couldn't imagine Esperanto as the new European (or international) language. It's 'artificial' and it sounds horrible when spoken.

Last note: Germany isn't Holy or Roman (although I'd like it too if the political map of Europe today would look like in the middle ages)

[Bulgaroktonos]

You're right about Jugoslavia. But still I can see a big spot in the center of Europe, majestic and important. This empire bears rightfully the title holy (ok it isn't roman I agree)

I have an uncle who can speak Esperanto. Everyone bursts into laughter when he tries to buy a sandwich ...

[Mephistopheles]

This empire bears rightfully the title holy (ok it isn't roman I agree)It's neither holy nor an empire and we should be d*mn well proud of the fact we managed to leave that sort of thinking behind.

[Bulgaroktonos]

Every german can be d*mn proud of the Holy Roman Empire ! A thousand-year empire ! It has to do nothing with Nazis ! You won't blame the Romans for their empire, will you ?

[Mephistopheles]

My comment had nothing to do with Nazis.

[NikeBG]

Ok, I gave my vote today. Seems the activity here is bigger than the last Euroelections, though still rather low (around 37.5%). I guess people don't care so much about the "abstract" EU policies, though I doubt it will be considerably higher in the national elections either.

[elvain]

ok, what was your local attendance?

In Czechia only 28% voted. I'm glad that president Klaus's "anti-EU" parties completely failed (there were 2 and got 0.9 and 1.3 respectively).
Also here the result was more internal than European vote (there will be parliamentary elections in october). If it was more european vote, I guess the semi-EU-sceptical ODS wouldn't have won and other rightist parties (more pro-EU) would have got more votes (now 3 of them got together 13%, only one got over 5%).

[Doux]

I voted for the Greens. In the Netherlands the participation was 36%, which is not very low (minimum so far is 30 I think), but also not that high. Which, as some newspapers concluded, means that the very right wing PVV (party for freedom) did not make more people vote, but rather took away votes from the other parties. The PVV is rising in the Netherlands and might even have become the biggest party if national elections were held this year. But the left wing and central parties blame the PVV for being xenophobic, without a solid program and inducing hate and segregation.

[NikeBG]

In Bulgaria the participation was 37.49%, as I said (9% higher than the 2007 elections). Bulgaria, Estonia and Lithuania seem to be the only three countries with a rising participation, though we're still lower than the EU's average percentage - 42.85.
And here the voting was pretty internal too, just a rehearsal for the national elections on the 5th of July.

@Doux, that PVV party seems to be pretty similar to our Ataka then (they received 12% - 2 seats in the EU parliament). Seems nationalism is rising throughout the whole of Europe.

[elvain]

@Doux, that PVV party seems to be pretty similar to our Ataka then (they received 12% - 2 seats in the EU parliament). Seems nationalism is rising throughout the whole of Europe.

I'm glad that it is not the case here.
Despite the very low participation, the nationalists hardly got over 1%, though in some isolated municpalities they got even as much as 9%. Even regionally, they haven't got more than 2%

[Marty]

I live in the Netherlands - not a fan of the PVV party.
Some experts over here say that PVV might not get so many votes in a national election, because about European elections of a lot of people think: "It's so far away and won't influence me anyway, so I might as well have some fun and vote for an extreme party."
We already had an anti-immigration party with a lot of seats over here in Holland before, the LPF. Their leader got and the party kinda fell apart. We will see what happens with the PVV.

[domagoj]

Well,when Croatia gets in the EU-i will vote for the Pirates :)

[Bulgaroktonos]

LOL maybe I should vote for the Bavaria-party because I'm bavarian by birth. They want to declare Bavaria independent from Germany :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :D :D

[domagoj]

Well arent bavarians germans?

[elvain]

Well arent bavarians germans?

AFAIK, they are special Germans ;)

[Bulgaroktonos]

Hm generally yes but they believe they are not. It's true that they are kind of different. It's like USA and Alaska.

[domagoj]

We have those problems in Croatia too :)
Some madman wanted to separate Slavonia from Croatia....

[Doux]

Did some of the old guard (meaning, SF guard who also registered at goneflowers) also get the e-mail from Ralph that we should vote on the Pirate party? How typical for a webmaster :)
But no, I'd rather vote for a party with a broader program and I'm against piracy anyway.

[NikeBG]

Haha, I know one Bavarian who voted for the Pirates. I wonder, if Somalia ever enters the EU (hey, if Turkey has chances and Israel is also somewhat considered part of the European zone, why not Somalia too), I bet the pirate's party will become quite a hit...

[JarlFrank]

Haha, I know one Bavarian who voted for the Pirates. I wonder, if Somalia ever enters the EU (hey, if Turkey has chances and Israel is also somewhat considered part of the European zone, why not Somalia too), I bet the pirate's party will become quite a hit...

Somalia are other kinds of pirates because they are actually removing something from an inventory.

And this reminds me of a song... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AawQvD8L_h4)

[maks]

Somalia are other kinds of pirates because they are actually removing something from an inventory.

And this reminds me of a song... (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AawQvD8L_h4)

Haha, classic.

OK, our regular internet pirates remind me more of this Relient K song (http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1078943) (as in my fave AMV).

On a separate note, RAmen!