There are only 48 hours left until the Greek public cast their vote in the European Parliament elections. I will not be voting here (see my previous post). Those who will be voting here I expect will do so because they believe in democracy, because Greeks are highly politicised and in part, I expect, because compulsory voting has been the norm for a long time. The political campaigning and broadcasts however would lead you to believe that your vote has absolutely nothing to do with Europe. It is one step further than playing out the European elections on national lines, here, in Greece, you are led to believe that on the 7th June, you will be voting in national elections.
This is of course entirely misleading, not to mention distracting to voters who actually want to understand their say in European politics. I am currently watching a ’serious’ political debate on TV, they have been speaking for at least twenty minutes about possible election results and not once mentioned Brussels, European powers, or any of the institutions.
I did however hear a fantastic debate yesterday on the Greek radio. Each of the main parties running had a candidate MEP in the studio to discuss immigration problems facing Greece. Each candidate gave their respective stance according to their political affiliation in the European Parliament. Now, the excellent bit was that each of the candidates compared their political party’s position to the others. Doing this really clarified the differences. This is exactly the clarification I would expect to hear. It is when the differences on specific issues are made clear that the voter can really choose an MEP who represents their views. This was a real European debate and I wish there was more of this in the more mainstream media coverage. So, I would like to close my think posts with a proposal for Greek European election media coverage in the future. Please, please, underplay the leadership issues in national politics and let the MEP candidates lead us to the polls!
(4 votes, average: 4.25 out of 5)
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Even if it sounds like a wishful thinking, I totally agree with you, Christina. Maybe when your wish will be granted, we will still be alive!!!
I can only fully agree with your views. I have been trying, without any success, to find any real information on what the candidates stand for and not the parties (actually most parties lack this information too). What do the candidates as persons stand for? In Greece, it is true - the only thing that the European Elections stand for are a more “accurate” national poll on national elections. Very sad. In the future, I believe the European Parliament website should make it mandatory for EACH candidate to have a post of their profile and what they stand for as a prerequisite to being a candidate. There should be European screening level of the candidates not only national party proposals. I now go to the elections to see who to vote for!