Posted by Ari RUSILA Jun 9th, 2009 | 10 responses
From Finland came 13 MEPs, 3 Conservatives, 3 from Center party, 2 Social democrats, 2 greens, and one from True Finn party, Swedish party and Christian Democrats. The turnout was 40,2 % which was nearly one % less than during previous election 2004. As I was following elections in Belgrade -or honestly not-following due the reason that I had there more interesting events - I don’t make any deeper analysis. Here some trivia anyway for Th!nkers and other Th!nk readers:
- all three biggest parties lost a MEP
- Euro-skeptic “True Finn” party leader got landslide victory with 130 432 votes; he is famous about anti-EU and popular slogans and party also has supporters from xenophobic and even racist circles
- The next biggest support with 80 007 votes got dismissed ex-PM from Center Party
- The third place went to Orthodox priest dismissed from his job as he participated secular elections, likes vine and drives red Alfa Romeo, he was selected from list of Social Democrats but is not party member
- From top three MEPs one is catholic, one orthodox and one protestant while in Finland some 80 % of population is member of protestant Church
- Finnish center left or left wing got instead of previous four MEPs now only two; and from them one is not party member and second represents with her Nato enthusiasm party’s right wing
- Two Finnish MEPs are dismissed party leaders, one is dismissed vice party chairman, one is dismissed minister and two have been athletics at international or national level
- From three ex party leader of Greens two was selected, last one not
- The campaign budget of the winner - True Finn leader - was 9 500 €, so one vote for him cost 0,07 €
- Seven candidates had campaign budget over 100 000 € - none was selected; worst candidate wasted 110 000 €, got 9 815 votes, so he invested 11,21 € per vote without success
- The oldest candidate - 89 years from Senior party - got one vote more than his age
So this kind of team is hanging around Brussels in coming years, probably they can not do more good or harm than previous MEPs and no one probably gets any important tasks inside their groups. More interesting is if the trends of this EP elections are repeating themselves in next national elections in Finland or not.
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Politics sounds fun in Finland!
Not so fun but the positive side is that most of these clowns are now in Brussels where they can’t make any mess neither in EU nor in Finland.
The election:
People are so unpredictable.
They often think, vote wrong.
What a gloomy life.
I still hope it´ll last long.
The Parliament elections would be more relevant if it was a normal Parliament from which a European Government was based, without any European Commission!
The Commission,
is an enduring hangover from the days of a small, limited, European Coal and Steel Community, a common market for coal and steel set up between 6 countries, when the Commission was called the High Authority.
That was then, this is now.
Now we have 27 member nations in wide-ranging political and economic cooperation.
Now we have 27 unelected Commissioners, supposedly wise and independent, with sole rights to initiate and execute legislation that affects 500 million citizens.
Now we have 785 elected Members of Parliament with no real relationship to the Commission (Government) and who basically just look on and give advice to the Commission and to national politicians, whatever about some approval functions it is allowed to share with the national politicians, who meet as the Council of Ministers.
Real power is in the axis Commission - Council of Ministers, the latter (in the sense of individual heads of state, as in the European Council) of course also appointing the former.
The New Axis, European Parliament-Council of Ministers:
Look at the United States model.
Comparisons with the United States usually gives the response “Europe is not the United States!”,
“No more power to Brussels!”
Actually, national sovereignity guarantees can be maintained precisely because the European Union already is like the United States.
Democracy by Population = The House of Representatives = The European Parliament
Democracy by State = The Senate = The Council of Ministers
See http://ceolas.net/#eu1x onwards
“We don’t want a lot of German or French ministers!”,
might be the cry, the fear that countries with many MEPs might dominate among ministerial appointments.
http://ceolas.net/#eu3x
Of course, assuming appointments based on competence, that is itself not wrong or undemocratic.
But ministerial selection would anyway be based on party rather than country.
Also, of course, national governments often have good regional representation.
In the new Europe, this could be guaranteed:
The Head of European Government might, for example, have to present his or her list of ministers to the European Council, who can reject them en bloc but not individually.
The right to rejection might be limited to a couple of times, to avoid a standstill.
This is rather similar to today’s right of the Parliament to reject the appointed Commission, except that small countries have proportionately greater power in the Council than in the Parliament, to make their feelings known.
Re “due the reason that I had there more interesting events”… Nice joke, Ari, “interesting events” like what? Reconstructing the Balkans? I love your “EU bitchy ironic” style…
Thanks Ari for making this perfect summary, I couldn’t have made a better myself. But you didn’t say anything about Riikka Manner, the surprise MEP who was not very known, a good choice in my opinion
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