European Elections, 2009; Why Should We Care?

So from tomorrow, Thursday the 4th of June until the end of the weekend, people Europe wide will be voting for their representatives in the European Parliament. Well, some people, anyway. Turnout in 2004 was a disappointing 45%. It’s expected to be higher this time around; whenever voters want to send a message to the parties in power that they’re displeased with what’s going on, they’ll come out to the polls in greater numbers.

Just in case you’re not totally up to speed with the more arcane workings of European Democracy, here’s a quick primer. The European Parliament acts as the upper chamber, or scrutinizing house, to the European Commission. Think, basically, the Senate to the House. Except, in this case, there’s 736 seats, and the European Commission is an unelected body. The Parliament has the power to review laws that are sent up to it, and in some cases can reject them in their entirety. The members are chosen by the D'Hondt method of proportional representation. It’s really not worth getting into the finer details of how this works, except to say that it’s used across the world, and means that most regions will produce one or two representatives from minority parties.

The main national political parties all put forward lists of candidates for selection (in Britain, for example, there’s Labour, The Conservative Party, and the Liberal Democrats), and once in Brussels, they form loose voting blocs based around their political leanings. The biggest three are the center-right European People's party and European Democrats (catchy name, huh), the center left Party of European Socialists, and the, erm, more centrist European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party. All of these definitions are by European standards, remember. The American Democratic Party probably comes in somewhere right of centre on a European scale, with the mainstream Republicans being further to the right than they are considered here. Obviously, the more extreme elements of either of the American parties compare to just about anything that the Continent has to offer.

Oh, and back to the minority parties. The largest, obviously, is the Green Party, and then there’s a bloc of anti European Union parties, and then all sorts of local interest groups (there’s a “representatives of stateless nations” bloc, which includes such things as a Cornish Independence party – imagine if we had an Alaskan Independence movement here, for instance? Perish the thought). This, really, with the proportional representation, is their time to shine. Even the Animal Rights party.

So, what’s going to happen, and why does it matter? Well, in matters in as much as it’s an indicator of the direction the electorates of Europe are heading. These are the people most interested in politics, the most connected, the most likely to go out and campaign, to persuade their friends, to donate money to a party. And The Parliament itself is slowly growing in power. It’s still a long way off, but it does represent the paradigm that some imagine a fuller Union of European states will be built around.

As for what’s going to happen? Well, the indications are that Europe’s move towards the right will continue. In Britain, in particular, the center left Labour party is going to take a beating, which could ultimately result in the removal of the Prime Minister. There are also Federal Elections coming up this year in Germany, too, so this will act as an indication of Angela Merkel’s popularity. As with any election, though, no-one knows until the votes are counted...