The elections to European Parliament are approaching, and some steps have already been made in order to inform the public and make it interested in the elections. There is quite a lot of space provided for the topic on the Internet; in Slovakia, there are i.a. also some academic discussions and meetings, or an EU knowledge contest for secondary-school students. Not so bad, let me say; yet there is one aspect nobody takes into account—the weather.
Yes, the weather. Let me explain that.
The last few weeks have generally been beautiful all over the Europe: sunny, warm, and definitely inviting to spend as much time as possible outdoors. Outdoors—that is everywhere but stuffy and crowded halls, internet cafés, or home in front of a whirring computer. (Home in front of a whirring computer—one eye on the monitor, one eye on the outside behind the window—that is where I am now. No bench in a park and a laptop. The sooner I finish this post, the sooner I go out…)
(OK, I hadn’t been strong enough, and I went outside right after having written the previous sentence; now that I’m writing this it’s dark already.) How many outdoor activities linked with the elections have you experienced so far? Not too much, I guess. Yet just imagine all the possibilities… For example, imagine a combination of beautiful weather, nature, food and drinks, informality, fun, and beauty of novelty; imagine having a europicnic!
MEPs or candidates or EU experts sitting on blankets in the middle of a park, and people and food and drinks all around them; MEPs/candidates/experts chatting and answering and explaining and commenting; people chatting and asking and analysing and commenting; food and drinks being eaten and drunk; sun shining; trees and grass being the greenest green…
By the time somebody puts this idea into practice, make a picnic on your own, just you and your friends. You can still talk about the EU. Or save this topic for a few hours later, sitting in front of a whirring computer…
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I like that idea. Did you know that the wall came tumbling down also because Austrian and Hungarian citizens organised a Pan-European picnic before the iron curtain was opened officially? I have written about that in my 1989/2009-post: http://elections.thinkaboutit.eu/2009/03/the-year-that-made-today’s-history/