BLOG

June 2004

THIS MONTH's THEME:

Elections in Europe

Did you remember to go to vote?
Are you regretting you didn't?
What is democracy worth if
people doesn't give a damn?

Please read some considerations
about the elections for
the European Parliament
in my b-log"


Europe

Sorry, I haven't written much this month, have been very busy with lots of different things.
So, now I would just remind you of the EU elections.
Go to vote and vote decently, you lazy dog!!!
It gets me mad when I see such low percentages of voters. Are you completely nuts? The European Parliament is so central and important for our life and future.
The 'information' on the media has been a scandal. Not even the news about my greengrocer's daughter getting married would get so little and ridiculous attention.
The final proof of how nationalism can destroy your attention.


Have just voted (and not for criminals)

I have just voted in a nice school here in Frederiksberg.
It seems like the percentage of voters, so far has been quite low.

On the main page I invited you to vote decently and not for criminals.
So the choice is easy, at least in Italy, where most of the parties supporting the center-right alliance have criminally violated the laws in the last couple of days.

The chief-criminal leader Silvio Berlusconi has just held a incredibly vulgar speech in the voting poll. This is clearly forbidden (I mean to hold a speech, not because vulgar :), according to the Italian law nr. 212, art. 9.
It states it is absolutely forbidden to make propaganda in the polls. Whoever does that is arrested and condemned to one year of prison. So why was Berlusconi not arrested immediately? The opposition parties have quickly denounced this fact to the Interior Minister, who has not reacted so far. The Italian national news have not reported this very serious violation at all, with the exception of the little RAI3.

Gianfranco Fini, the leader of former fascist party, has payed for an airplane with a banner inviting people to vote for him. This airplane is flying during the election, in the skies of Rome's region.

The Lega Nord's television is transmitting old speeches by their leaders Umberto Bossi. All the previous acts are illegal, criminal and cynical violations of laws. The elected in the mentioned parties should end up in jail not in the European Parliament.


Violating elections is not so serious anymore, it seems.

I am not dead, just busy.
I promised to comment on the European elections, and I will before this month will be over.

First, I wanted to correct something here.
Lastly I wrote about this Italian law. I remembered it from the time I was living there, and most newspapers reported the same. But now it seems that the law was changed (guess who has done that...), and violating it doesn't lead to jail, only to very low fees (like 100 to 500 €).

Anyway, there is a man who denounced Silvio Berlusconi to the authorities because of that episode I reported last, his name is Pietro Ricca. He is the same who cried "buffone" (clown) to him, and "let the judges trial you or you will end like Ceaucescu". Silvio Berlusconi denounced him immediately, so he will face some troubles. But it seems he is fighting back, as one of the few Italians not slipping their pants and offering their bottom in front of the so called Cavaliere.

There is more: the Italian Clown Association has vehemently protested: their profession is very serious, they state, and they are deadly offended by being compared to Burlesquoni (as he is called in France).


Elections in Europe

I promised some considerations about the elections in Europe and here I am.
I waited for the second round in the Italian local elections and the Serbian and Lithuanian ones. So, here we go with both general considerations and more specific local remarks.

Even though...
Some have stumbled over the fact I was so caustic about people not going to vote, condemning it quite strongly.
How come you endorse that, they asked, when you are so critic about the democratic system?
Well, democratic systems are definitely showing their limits, that's why I am proposing an alternative to that in UnitedPeople, but, remember:
no matter how bad the situation is, you are always in front of a choice, so better to choose the least evil than not to choose at all.

Sometimes you are in the very nasty situation where you would rather die than vote for any of the candidates.
Right: than choose the least evil, anyway. It is indeed unfair to be put in this situation, no doubt, but then you have to take your responsibilities any case, you can't just turn your head and do as if you were not looking at the problems.

Well, if you really throw up, and if in an election you are only presented with two names, and you can't choose anyone else, OK, I will understand that dilemma.
Let's take a clear example: the American elections. You might hate both Bush and Kerry. Still, no doubt you ought to (electorally!) eliminate Bush, it is simply a moral need. He has been a catastrophe for the entire world. Kerry is not at all ideal, but he is relatively better than Bush, so do vote him, at least for the environmental sake.
Wait a moment, I hear you say, there is a third choice available: Ralph Nader.
No, there isn't, because this is not a proportional vote, it is a simple or-or vote in practice, no matter how unfair that actually is.
Ralph Nader is evil, because his need is to make Kerry loose, as he did last with Al Gore.
Now, does anyone think Gore would have been a worse president than Bush? No way, so Nader is a moral responsible of Greenhouse effect killing all of us on some years.
That's reality, not those paranoid little ambitions of someone who could candidate for the rest of his life and get his miserable 2% each time. He has all the rights to fight for his good reasons and programs, but before the elections, not when it is clear that only two people will have the possibility to win.

When this is said, very loud and clear, then the first moral urge for all of us "throwing up" voters, will be to change the "democratic" system, to something more decent, not to end in the same situation again and again.

The results
A very appalling habit, after any election, is that absurd, grotesque mania of talking about nothing.
We have seen so many times before, that rush to talk about results that are not known yet!
It happened many times before that some politicians or parties proclaimed themselves as winners, just to wake up next day and discover they weren't.

I am very passionate about politics myself, and I follow the flow of the results as soon as they get available, but I would keep my mouth shut if I was a politician!
So, I guess many have only looked at some partial results, and got the wrong impression, as the media and journalists are usually inadequate in commenting them.

Let's then look at the definitive results of the elections for the European Parliament. You can find some (a bit unclear) tables at the always precious Wikipedia site:
results.

Our vision (or lack of it) about Europe
Another fundamental aspect: the way we look at Europe.

One very remarkable thing happened in the last elections. In the "old" European countries, there has been a fair interest for these elections, while the participation in most "new" east European countries has been a disaster. The same old story: the people who needs politics most is the same that refuses politics most.