…In Bavaria. In the 2004 elections to the European Parliament, the German state of Bavaria recorded a rather depressing voter turnout of less than 40 percent. And, despite the best efforts of this blogging platform, the 2009 vote is expected to be even lower. Why? Well, in a word, Pentecost.
In Catholic Bavaria, people take their church holidays very seriously, and Pfingsten (Pentecost) is a very serious holiday because the state’s schools will close from 2 June to 13 June and families will take to the hills. Or the Alps. Or Italy. Or Turkey. Or wherever the sun happens to be shining. With polling set for 7 June in Germany, Bavarians will be absent in record numbers. Although, if the recession turns into a Depression, voters might defer their Pentecostal holidays and go to the polls instead. That’s the silver political lining in this financial crisis cloud.
(17 votes, average: 3.53 out of 5)
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Ja!! Du hast recht!
I agree with you! The same goes for Cyprus as well.
EP elections will take place Saturday 6th of June. But the 8th is Monday and holiday!
Most Cypriots will go for a long weekend, beginning Friday afternoon, till Monday evening.
They will not miss this long weekend for the EP elections.
But because Cypriots do vote, do care for political developments, I believe that their absence will not be that dramatic. We shall see and we shall judge in June!
Nice article! Thanks.
So why was a June date chosen for the election?
There is a mobile reminder service available in Germany to catch the absend-minded - still, it might be even better if voting was possible also via mobile or internet.
http://www.europarl.de/europawahl/wahlerinnerung.jsp
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