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Post by Deleted on May 20, 2014 22:48:06 GMT
It is already quite evident throughout most of the European Union that the elections this weekend are going to be a total disaster. What could have possibly gone so wrong?
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Post by bjd on May 21, 2014 7:49:59 GMT
For one thing, they could have done a bit of advertising earlier. Here, there are about 20 panels up in various parts of town. Until yesterday, there were no posters on any of them. This morning, I saw that about half had a poster. Nothing in the mailbox either.
Constant media reports about the extreme right motivating its troops is not helpful either -- unless it motivates the rest of the population to go out and vote for the others.
And it's only by looking for information on the internet that I found that this time we are to vote for the president -- the replacement of Barroso. No information anywhere else.
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2014 9:58:24 GMT
In the Paris zone, we have 31 lists!
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Post by bjd on May 21, 2014 11:06:32 GMT
Since Toulouse is part of a large southwestern region, I saw on the website for the region that there is a Basque list, but they don't seem to be advertising here. On the other hand, we have José Bové and MM Alliot (can't remember her name) - the one with Tunisian friends.
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Post by mossie on May 21, 2014 13:47:42 GMT
Well it is a non event here, I had no idea there was an election for the useless president. The only posters I have seen are for the party who want no part of Europe, UKIP. I have to say that I vote for them, mainly to help deliver a good kick up the rear of our established parties who do not seem to care what the man in the street says. Many people here are totally alienated from politics, and even more so from the EU.
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Post by Deleted on May 21, 2014 18:19:50 GMT
Tonight, the prime minister of France is giving his main campaign speech in Barcelona, the city where he was born -- it will be in Spanish, Catalan and French. That is what Europe is all about, so it is not surprising that England cannot fit in. However, we will be happy to welcome Scotland into the EU when the time comes.
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2014 18:50:37 GMT
It must cost almost nothing to register a list for the European elections or there would not be so many candidates. Some of them are pretty much beyond belief.
Meanwhile the United Kingdom and the Netherlands voted today, but most countries won't vote until Sunday.
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Post by bjd on May 22, 2014 19:01:11 GMT
It sounds as though he's not an official candidate since he's inviting people to go to the website, print out the bulletin and put it in the box.
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2014 19:16:36 GMT
That's normal because of the 31 lists in the Paris metropolitain area, I only received 22 documents in my election envelope. Even though it is obviously cheap to register, it is super expensive to print up ballots in a sufficient quantity for every polling station when the list is only going to get about 0.1% of the vote at most. So one of the options is to print the official ballot yourself because you won't find it where you go to vote.
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Post by lagatta on May 22, 2014 19:16:41 GMT
I do suppose the PM of France and the mayor of Paris converse in French, though.
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Post by Deleted on May 22, 2014 19:17:48 GMT
I'm sure they do when there are witnesses. More seriously, I'm sure they do. Based on my own experience, anyone who has truly adopted a country speaks in the language of that country, including with other people from the same country of origin who have also made the same decision. In other words, I know a few Americans and Brits with whom I would never converse in anything other than French (nor would they) because we have made a permanent choice. It is actually one of the very best tests to determine who is an expat and who is an immigrant. (Or course, I am neither an expat or an immigrant -- I am a repat! )
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Post by bjd on May 23, 2014 11:20:29 GMT
I haven't received my envelope of election info. The neighbour two doors down got hers on Tuesday.
One good bit of news: despite the far right being expected to do well in the Netherlands, exit polls show that Geert Wilders came in fourth.
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2014 12:24:11 GMT
Yes, that is the first good news in a long time. I'm hoping that the opinion polls are wrong in France also.
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Post by fumobici on May 23, 2014 15:59:16 GMT
I liked this one:
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2014 16:25:28 GMT
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2014 15:34:20 GMT
Well, I just went to vote. There were about 5 of the 31 lists without ballots and about 3 of those lists had a notice saying that you had to print your own ballot from the internet to vote for them.
Some of the names of the parties: Europe from Marrakesh to Istanbul, Europirates, Cannabis without borders, Esperanto equitable language for Europe, Feminists for European Solidarity, Citizens for blank ballots...
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Post by bjd on May 25, 2014 15:39:46 GMT
I went about an hour ago. Quite a lot of people were there at the same time. Maybe the abstention rate won't be as high as predicted.
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2014 16:12:58 GMT
I can never tell, because for some reason, there is never any wait at any time at any polling station that I have ever used in Paris, no matter what time I vote. Paris probably has a denser network of polling stations than most other cities. When I signed the register, it was very clear to me that fewer people had voted than at the municipal elections, not to mention the fact the the transparent ballot box seemed pitifully empty.
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Post by bjd on May 25, 2014 18:26:45 GMT
Absolutely shameful -- in France, 57% abstention and the National Front got 25%!
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2014 22:09:38 GMT
Tonight I have decided to be European and rejoice in the regression of the right wing parties, even though they will remain in the majority for the next 5 years.
As for what happened in France, it is obviously disgraceful, but more because people voted so stupidly without even taking the real European issues into consideration. At the same time, I do understand that people are so frustrated to never have proportional elections that they take advantage of the one and only proportional election that exists in France.
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Post by Deleted on May 25, 2014 23:42:33 GMT
How embarrassing for the French. Will this affect tourism to France I wonder? It will certainly make the rest of the world look at France again and do a double take.
So does this mean that new laws will be put into place in France and other countries (Denmark, Hungary and others?) where the far right parties won so many seats?
Will France be opting out of the European Union (if the choice was ever presented to them?)
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Post by waterhazardjack on May 26, 2014 2:58:07 GMT
And it's only by looking for information on the internet that I found that this time we are to vote for the president -- the replacement of Barroso. No information anywhere else. Bjd, don't think that's correct unless you mean checking which of the European Parliament groupings your preferred choice belongs to, in case that becomes the deciding factor in selecting the new Commission President?
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2014 5:00:04 GMT
How embarrassing for the French. Will this affect tourism to France I wonder? It will certainly make the rest of the world look at France again and do a double take. So does this mean that new laws will be put into place in France and other countries (Denmark, Hungary and others?) where the far right parties won so many seats? Will France be opting out of the European Union (if the choice was ever presented to them?) Nothing to really worry about in that department. The fact that the National Front won 25% of the vote also means that 75% of the voters voted against that party. I am also pleased to say that in my own sector, the National Front came in 5th with "only" 9% of the vote.
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Post by bjd on May 26, 2014 6:57:09 GMT
Yes, Jack. It seems I was wrong about the commission president. I wonder why they had that short debate then, if the choice is not up to the popular vote?
I doubt tourism to France will be affected, Deyana, although the two anti-Semitic incidents this weekend in Brussels and Paris might make a few people change their minds about visiting.
I think the FN vote indeed has to be put into perspective: 25% of the 43% of the electorate who bothered to vote is not that high when spread over the general population. But it's still nothing to be proud of. And some political commentary I watched last night mentioned that Marine Le Pen is having a hard time getting other right-wing parties to join her in a bloc at the EU parliament because of her ideas, and she herself refuses to collaborate with the Greek Golden Dawn group.
Apparently her absence from her seat at the parliament is already really high, and she was using this election as proof that she and her party can win an election. She is interested in France, not in Europe.
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Post by lugg on May 26, 2014 9:13:10 GMT
Greece (Syriza 27%), Denmark (Danish Peoples Party 23%), UK (UKIP - more than 30%) and France (Front National 25%).
UKIP has shocked many by winning more votes than the two main parties for the first time in 100 years. UK had only one National Front MEP and he lost his seat, reportedly Griffin stated that the public had swapped their racists votes for the softer option. No doubt that many voters showed their displeasure with the current government's economic, immigration and European policy.
I wonder how well the European parliament will be able to function with the large number of Eurosceptic MEPs voted in from across Europe
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2014 9:44:18 GMT
Luckily for the principal parties, most of these rabble rousing protest parties can only exist when they are outside of the system. Once they are inserted into the system, they realise that they have no real plans and a programme that can never be implemented.
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Post by mossie on May 26, 2014 14:17:50 GMT
The Eurosceptic parties will have no influence whatsoever on the bureaucratic monster that the EU has become.
This will alienate people here even more and the clamour for England to withdraw will only increase. Our traditional parties will have to pull themselves together and decide on which side their bread is buttered. Poor Clegg will look more isolated and woebegone that ever.
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Post by waterhazardjack on May 26, 2014 15:29:07 GMT
First post-election consequences here in Ireland as Labour party leader resigns...significance is that they are the junior government partners...bumpy road ahead!
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2014 16:49:49 GMT
I am happy to say that I live in a very rare voting district in France -- the Front National came in 5th.
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Post by bjd on May 26, 2014 18:34:48 GMT
You are lucky. Here in the southwest -- areas that are normally socialist or radical, with big cities like Bordeaux, Bayonne, Toulouse, they came in first with 24.7%. Absolutely awful to realize that one person in 4 at the polls voted for the FN. It would be interesting to have a more localized breakdown of the vote.
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