Sunday 7 June 2009

Civil responsibility and me

Today, we European citizens of France are called to the urnes to vote in the "European elections". Until 2 minutes ago, I had no idea what this meant...funnily enough, I work for "Europe" and still don't know what it all means.

After a quick perusal of http://www.elections-europeennes.org, I now know that I will be voting for the European parliament representatives in Strasbourg (For those who know less than I, there are actually 3 major European cities in terms of the European institutions - Brussels, Luxembourg - the most boring city in the world- and Strasbourg, France). Apparently, the parlimanet has legislative and budgetary power as well as a certain check and balance. Sound familiar?

I'm still unsure of what "my" European rep does or will do, but at least now I know that this is the only time that European officials can be elections by public voice (reassuring, not). I also know that France has 72 representatives, which is the second largest among the 27 countries of Europe.

So the next question is, who am I going to vote for now that I actually know something (can I actually say I know something?) Well, I'm not voting for anyone whose name is LePen, who's associated with Sarko, who is for hunting, against immigration. So I guess that leaves the socialists or the Greeen Party.




5 comments:

Isabelle said...

I don't think that you are taking your civil responsibility very seriously since there are much more candidates left than the socialists and the Green Party.
And I hope that you at least took a look at all the different programs before going to the voting station...

Owen said...

oooff, glad to know I wasn't the only one feeling confused by all that... I kept asking my wife, "ok, but what are we really voting for here...?"

Reb said...

Sadly enough Isabelle, I agree with you and most of France didn't take their civil repsonsibility seriously either. There was a 60% obstention rate in France. My voting bureau only counted 25% of it's constituents (ie about 350 people came to vote in my neighborhood!). I did have a look before voting, but Europe is confusing...like I sad, I work for Europe and still don't get it...!

Owen, LOL. You're definitely not alone. I actually had to tell my normally very political savvy husband what the vote was about!

Isabelle said...

Yes, the very poor voting rate (is it proper English?), makes me sad too.
The euro-deputies are going to vote laws that are going to affect our country, as well as the other 26 countries in the European Union.
And the people who don't vote are the first to complain about these laws afterwards...

Beth said...

When we got our packet full of the many, many electoral choices, I was delighted. There was so much choice! Not only Greens, Socialists and Fascists, but also Communists and Royalists. Crazy!

I did a bit of research and the husband and I went and voted early Sunday morning. Great fun! (And no, I didn't vote to bring back the French monarchy, though it was tempting...)

It is indeed a shame that over 60 percent of folks didn't bother to go vote. Awful!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...