A while ago I have already blogged about the sudden wave of interest of the Dutch media in the elections. Happily they have continued on a similar note. Newspapers, internet and television: all of them are paying regular attention to the EU and its Parliamentary elections; and I must say, all most urgent questions of Dutch citizens (How? What? Who? Why?) are being addressed on these national platforms. I have even heard rumors that paying attention to the elections scores: a morning talkshow that usually does not really attract a lot of viewers (surprising, at 8 in the morning) suddenly saw its ratings go through the roof after had announced that a handful of EP-candidates would be present.
Maastricht's Michiel Dijkman is hoping for the best.
In a similar vein, the party campaign seems to have sort-of-kind-of taken of. Although the small provincial town were I live seems to have fallen of the electoral map, since the only campaiging we get to see here is initiated by the locals that are not really having a chance of making it to Brussels, Amsterdam is literally being littered with posters.
On top of this, these final weeks will be the stage of a whole series of debates, the first of which has already been shown on national television. Although I think it is safe to say that I have probably been the only one that was sitting in front of the televions with a bag of crisps, a can of beer and sweaty hands, it surely hasn’t been a boring television night. In summary: a hen-house, at least that’s what we tend to call it in the Netherlands when everybody is talking without actually listening.
In an interview with the newspaper Trouw, one of the candidates, socialist Dennis de Jong made a plea for the placement of interruption-microphones in the EP, apparently not part of the EP debating routine. However, having seen just 9 MEP’s with no less than 2 chairmen and only 1 language, i do not think that would be a wise decision. An Italian delegation taking more time to fix its hair and make-up than founding its statements would all of the sudden become a blessing.
Campaign posters in Amsterdam by night: "The Netherlands wants less Brussels".
To sum it all up: good times for the average Euro-follower, which I consider myself to be (I have even joined the EP-Facebook group, where a surprising amount of discussion is going on). However, maybe this height of attention unveils an even more fundamental problem of the EU: it might be the fact that its citizens do not really care. Not yet at least.
I cannot conclude other than that high quality information is being made avaialable on several platforms, serving both those who prefer to ‘lean forward’ as well as those who’d rather ‘lean back’. Do people really want to be informed? Do they really feel as if the issues the EU is going to address in the upcoming 5 years, and consequently the issues that are being raised in the campaign are directly concerning them? I believe the answer is “No”. Again.
I have encouraged some of the people in my inner circle to fill out the EUProfiler, which resulted in a lot of puzzled looks, both from my friends and family, when they were a little confused about what a certain policy would concretely mean, as well as from me: why so conservative? This is just an indicator of the gap between those are interested in Europe, and those who are not, those who keep up with Europe, and those who do not, those who easily fill out test like this and those who do not and those who who know who to vote for and why and those who have no idea. Those who will vote, and those who won’t. One group seems to outnumber the other by huge numbers, and the gap between them is far to big.
From a Dutch perspective: of course, the European elections do not possess the prestige of national elections and therefore are short on funding, time and politicians, but, at least in the Netherlands, the national media has taken over the role of informing the people. The most essential lacking ingredient is not information, but a sense of active citizenship; stemming from a sense of belonging. Belonging to Europe.
(4 votes, average: 4.75 out of 5)
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