06-11-2004, 08:15 AM
Well in Holland we had a staggering 40 % of the people who could, did actually vote. Compared to 30 % 4 years ago. So something is going the right way.
I think Pete is right that most people consider themselves not really europeans, but more, French, German, or whatever.
Still with the euro (our currency) probably we will become more and more europeans. Of course a greek and a german are more different then a new yorker and arizonian, but we will benefit from (on some topics) equal laws for everybody in europe.
One thing is still difficult though. I heard a lot of people saying;" I'm not voting because I am against a united europe". I think there is not really a protest-party available, but if I would think about it like that I guess I would vote "blank" anyway, not voting at all can never be right in my opinion (at least if you don't vote you also not "allowed to complain").
to Brista: your description is more or less right, only "my" party went from 1 to 2 seats (of 726 or something)
To minionman: in holland we hear a lot about this elections on television and we read about it in papers etc. It is however not comparable to normal dutch elections. As I said there are something like 730 seats in this european parliament and we vote for the 27 of them. The main focus of the elections are on "european themes" like a general drugs policy, how to treat asylum seekers, environment etc. It is not about income tax (yet) and healthcare etc, those are more national things.
I think Pete is right that most people consider themselves not really europeans, but more, French, German, or whatever.
Still with the euro (our currency) probably we will become more and more europeans. Of course a greek and a german are more different then a new yorker and arizonian, but we will benefit from (on some topics) equal laws for everybody in europe.
One thing is still difficult though. I heard a lot of people saying;" I'm not voting because I am against a united europe". I think there is not really a protest-party available, but if I would think about it like that I guess I would vote "blank" anyway, not voting at all can never be right in my opinion (at least if you don't vote you also not "allowed to complain").
to Brista: your description is more or less right, only "my" party went from 1 to 2 seats (of 726 or something)
To minionman: in holland we hear a lot about this elections on television and we read about it in papers etc. It is however not comparable to normal dutch elections. As I said there are something like 730 seats in this european parliament and we vote for the 27 of them. The main focus of the elections are on "european themes" like a general drugs policy, how to treat asylum seekers, environment etc. It is not about income tax (yet) and healthcare etc, those are more national things.