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Who is gonna vote in the EU parliament elections? What candidates are you going to vote for, and what parties within the parliament are they with?

I'm probably going to vote SD or Green, as the policies of the EPP have not been good for Europe so I'd like to decrease their majority. Looks like SD are going to have the majority next time round.ALDE can go hang, as far as I'm concerned. I'm worried about Ireland not sending any non-eurosceptic socialists to the table, because it's important for us to have people in all the major groups so our voice gets heard. I'm also worried about the number of Sinn Féin candidates we might send, as I don't see them having a coherent ideology with regard to Europe, just simplistic populism.

What about you guys? I'm expecting UKIP to do well, which I think is interesting. Anyone voting UKIP? Do you expect them to ally with the likes of the French National Front, the Dutch sceptics and (hilariously) Sinn Féin? They will be pretty politically impotent without an alliance, so I'm interested to hear what you think. If all the nationalist parties can pull of an alliance, that could be pretty interesting, and bad for my personal beliefs. I doubt they will though, to be honest. I expect a lot of sound and fury from the sceptics but no real impact on how things are done.

What about the EU president? Any opinions on who is good there? I'm leaning towards Martin Schulz, but I'm a bit leery of voting a German in when they have so much sway already. He is at least a member of the SPD, who are nominally left wing, at least.

If you are not going to vote, I'd appreciate an explanation as to why that's more than simplistic cynicism. The EU parliament is a massive and important organisation, it's a damn shame it doesn't get covered better by our various media outlets.

I can see the school they use for the polling station from my house, so there really is no reason for me not to vote.

I'll probably be voting Green, perhaps SNP as while I'm not sold on the whole Independence thing they are certainly friendlier to Europe.

Was pretty Euro-skeptic myself before I looked into the subject more. There are a lot of advantages towards being part of Europe. Certainly a strong argument for Independence would be that the rest of the UK wants to move away from Europe, by becoming Independent we could circumvent that.

Not really sure of the President. Really don't know enough about them. I feel like quite the fool for not knowing more about this, but I can imagine there are people that aren't even aware the election is coming up.

I will be digging out my polling card from wherever it has been hidden. Plan to go green (Hulk for president!).

Other than that, no views on el presidente as I don't know any of the people who might be up for it. Would be nice to get a UK green in the race but probably not going to happen.

Greens usually do much better in EU elections than in local or national ones, which is nice. I'm fairly pro Green, though I wish they'd stop being anti nuclear and anti GM.

On not knowing about this stuff, well, on the one hand, it is out there to read about if you like, but it's rather dry. On the other hand, our various national media outlets do a pretty poor job of keeping people informed. As an outsider, all British media, even the BBC, has a Euroceptic slant. You can find Eurosceptic articles all over the BBC, and they don't (as far as I've noticed) particularly cover the various parliament groupings or European institutions very well. I don't entirely blame people who don't know this stuff- I only became marginally well informed because I was unemployed and bored during a couple of important referenda in Ireland an an EU election, so I looked into it and spent a week reading about it. Still, it's good to know, and even better, to discuss with your friends to raise awareness generally.

Fortunately, I really don't have to care for politics anymore given my current job, but both of us are going to vote classic conservative.

I've tried to read through the greens site but it is really hard to read on a phone and doesnt really seem to have much useful information.

As for the wider eu structure... meh. Picked up a little and am trusting my vote for the greens will help them reform the cesspool that is the eu political machine to actually benefit people

 Da Boss wrote:

What about you guys? I'm expecting UKIP to do well, which I think is interesting. Anyone voting UKIP? Do you expect them to ally with the likes of the French National Front, the Dutch sceptics and (hilariously) Sinn Féin? They will be pretty politically impotent without an alliance, so I'm interested to hear what you think. If all the nationalist parties can pull of an alliance, that could be pretty interesting, and bad for my personal beliefs. I doubt they will though, to be honest. I expect a lot of sound and fury from the sceptics but no real impact on how things are done.

It's an interesting one, to be sure. I'm tempted to vote for them, as I do think the UK needs more independenec from the EU and there's a chance they can get that, but on the other hand, it seems a little cynical to be voting for any MEPs given that I don't think we should be a part of it at all. I may well vote for UKIP come the UK elections, as they promise an EU referendum that they can actually go through with, but filling the European Parliament with those unsympathetic with Europe but still working with it seems counterproductive to me.

I won't ever vote Lib Dems after they became such sellouts in the last election, and I won't vote Conservative as I don't agree with what ideals they have left. Similarly, though, Labour are no longer the left-wing party they once were, far closer to centre than I'd like. I'm not calling for socialist revolution on the streets or anything, but I do wish we could go back to a format of politics where the various parties had some motive beyond getting in power and actually stuck to their ideologies.

What about the EU president? Any opinions on who is good there? I'm leaning towards Martin Schulz, but I'm a bit leery of voting a German in when they have so much sway already. He is at least a member of the SPD, who are nominally left wing, at least.

If you are not going to vote, I'd appreciate an explanation as to why that's more than simplistic cynicism. The EU parliament is a massive and important organisation, it's a damn shame it doesn't get covered better by our various media outlets.

No idea on the president, I haven't really looked into it, but I might do before the elections. If I don't vote UKIP, I'll abstain, but will still submit a ballot paper, rather than just not turning up. Political apathy is one thing that really annoys me; how are politicians going to realise you don't like their policies if you don't submit any kkind of vote?

Edit: @ Sigvatr: So, CDU or CSU?

Or the dreaded FDP?

Edit: Though on the whole I think it's disingenuous to say the EU doesn't do anything to benefit it's citizens. It's certainly complex, and sometimes decisions are made which are quite poor (There's been a good few of those, lately), but the EU does plenty of good stuff. Like promoting human rights, promoting equality, ending discriminatory practices, enforcing food and industrial standards. All of these things benefit citizens. The EU is also stronger on consumer protection than many national governments. I think that many national parliaments tend to use the EU as a bit of a punching bag- take credit for any good stuff to come out of it and blame it for anything that goes wrong. I think from my time living in and next door to the UK, the british establishment and media are especially bad for this.

That said, there are valid criticisms of the EU, and I'd certainly like it reformed to be less technocratic and more accountable to the citizens.

CDU. FDP is too small to have an actual impact...but alas, I don't care much =)

And in the end, most actually important decisions are decided in Karlsruhe and not in the Bundestag by any individual party.

The nationalists and Euro-sceptics are split into like, what, six alliances? I don't really expect that to change soon.

That said, these elections are horrible for me:

I think Schulz would make a decent Commission President, he seems to have a vision, but I can hardly stomach the European socialists; their Austrian variant positively makes me want to throw up.

On a European level I'm "green", but again, the local green party is a fundamentalist, far-left bunch I despise. Sigh.

The local alliance partner of ALDE is a great choice, but ALDE (and Verhofstadt) not so much...

FPÖ is bad enough on her own merits, but allied with Wilders' and Le Pen's bunch, they are simply an absurd choice in European parliament elections.

Which would leave me with the conservatives as the fall-back option, but a vote for them is one that says "Europe is fine as it is", and that's not the kind of message that I want to send. Also, I have a lot of respect for Juncker, but I think by now he's too spent to make a good President.

No idea who'll get my vote this time.

Valid point. I really don't like the different parties. Most parties are far left nowadays, some far-right, and there's very little in-between.

 Sigvatr wrote:
Fortunately, I really don't have to care for politics anymore given my current job, ...

What a strange notion. Care to elaborate?

EDIT: Argh, didn't want to post this seperately. Oh well.

 Sigvatr wrote:
Valid point. I really don't like the different parties. Most parties are far left nowadays, some far-right, and there's very little in-between.

Hey... be glad you're not stuck with a two party system... like the US.

 Allod wrote:

 Sigvatr wrote:
Fortunately, I really don't have to care for politics anymore given my current job, ...

What a strange notion. Care to elaborate?

Upper management in a very big company - whoever gets in charge, you win. It's a different perspective on politics and disheartening at first when you realize how little political parties actually influence bigger scale changes.

 whembly wrote:

 Sigvatr wrote:
Valid point. I really don't like the different parties. Most parties are far left nowadays, some far-right, and there's very little in-between.

Hey... be glad you're not stuck with a two party system... like the US.

I'd appreciate such a system, though. In Germany, right now, there might be a lot of different parties, but they are barely different from each other. Voters consistenly state their similarity as one of the main reasons for not going to vote and I can understand that attitude. Having two parties that clearly stand for something is a good thing in my opinion.

Hey, we have the Conservatives, the not-really-very-left Labour, and the whatever-it-takes-to-get-into-power Lib Dems.

 Allod wrote:
The nationalists and Euro-sceptics are split into like, what, six alliances? I don't really expect that to change soon.

That said, these elections are horrible for me:

I think Schulz would make a decent Commission President, he seems to have a vision, but I can hardly stomach the European socialists; their Austrian variant positively makes me want to throw up.

I kinda agree- I don't like the socialists in Germany, Britain or Ireland (which are the three groups I'm most familiar with), though in my case it's because I don't believe they are actually socialist, simply protectors of a certain kind of vested interest.

Is that a similar reason for yourself, or are you more centrist/right orientated? Also, what is the FPO?

Voting green here. Anything except UKIP really, but overall I think the Greens are the ones I most side with.

 -Shrike- wrote:
Hey, we have the Conservatives, the not-really-very-left Labour, and the whatever-it-takes-to-get-into-power Lib Dems.

This is precisely why it's so tempting to vote UKIP, just to shake things up a bit. If they get enough support (say 25-30% of the vote), the Big Three are going to have to rethink their polcies rather than holding onto the mostly-centrist-power-grabbing-vote-manupilating we're stuck with now. As much as I found parts of my recent study on early 20th Century British politics a little dull, at least the parties actually had ideals they stuck to and sought to change things, rather than maintain this cooperate-ruled Status-quo.

Remember guys, vote for the Wienerdog Party. A treat in every bowl!

 Paradigm wrote:

 -Shrike- wrote:
Hey, we have the Conservatives, the not-really-very-left Labour, and the whatever-it-takes-to-get-into-power Lib Dems.

This is precisely why it's so tempting to vote UKIP, just to shake things up a bit. If they get enough support (say 25-30% of the vote), the Big Three are going to have to rethink their polcies rather than holding onto the mostly-centrist-power-grabbing-vote-manupilating we're stuck with now. As much as I found parts of my recent study on early 20th Century British politics a little dull, at least the parties actually had ideals they stuck to and sought to change things, rather than maintain this cooperate-ruled Status-quo.

A lot of people ive spoke with say "i would vote for party abc, but they will never get enough votes to win so i vote for xyz".

Stand by your convictions and you might be surprised.

But I entirely agree that ukip are doing well because they are a protest vote rather than any real traction withtheir policies.

 SilverMK2 wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:

 -Shrike- wrote:
Hey, we have the Conservatives, the not-really-very-left Labour, and the whatever-it-takes-to-get-into-power Lib Dems.

This is precisely why it's so tempting to vote UKIP, just to shake things up a bit. If they get enough support (say 25-30% of the vote), the Big Three are going to have to rethink their polcies rather than holding onto the mostly-centrist-power-grabbing-vote-manupilating we're stuck with now. As much as I found parts of my recent study on early 20th Century British politics a little dull, at least the parties actually had ideals they stuck to and sought to change things, rather than maintain this cooperate-ruled Status-quo.

A lot of people ive spoke with say "i would vote for party abc, but they will never get enough votes to win so i vote for xyz".

Stand by your convictions and you might be surprised.

But I entirely agree that ukip are doing well because they are a protest vote rather than any real traction withtheir policies.

I'd say their policy of having a referendum on EU status has a lot of traction, but nobody really knows any of their other policies.

Sigvatr wrote:Upper management in a very big company - whoever gets in charge, you win. It's a different perspective on politics and disheartening at first when you realize how little political parties actually influence bigger scale changes.

Ah, I see what you mean. I think you're right, too, I'm just too much of a political animal to arrive at such a Zen-like state.

Da Boss wrote:
I kinda agree- I don't like the socialists in Germany, Britain or Ireland (which are the three groups I'm most familiar with), though in my case it's because I don't believe they are actually socialist, simply protectors of a certain kind of vested interest.

Is that a similar reason for yourself, or are you more centrist/right orientated?

Difficult question, because I don't really fit into the European left/right mentality, but am not really "centrist" either. For what it's worth, I find myself most in what is the "right-wing liberal" camp here in Austria, but keep in mind that in France or the Benelux countries, I would probably be a "green" voter. I can muster a lot of respect for social democrats and christian socials and find myself in tune with many of their goals and positions; "true" socialists of the hammer and sickle variety and "true" conservatives of the "never change a losing team" ilk both turn me off immensely.

Did that help?

Da Boss wrote:Also, what is the FPO?

Austria's far right party.

Heh heh, didn't really help that much Allod, but I appreciate the explanation.

I'm pretty ignorant of Austrian politics. I'm trying to get to grips with France first, but I should put Austria on my list too.

 -Shrike- wrote:

 SilverMK2 wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:

 -Shrike- wrote:
Hey, we have the Conservatives, the not-really-very-left Labour, and the whatever-it-takes-to-get-into-power Lib Dems.

This is precisely why it's so tempting to vote UKIP, just to shake things up a bit. If they get enough support (say 25-30% of the vote), the Big Three are going to have to rethink their polcies rather than holding onto the mostly-centrist-power-grabbing-vote-manupilating we're stuck with now. As much as I found parts of my recent study on early 20th Century British politics a little dull, at least the parties actually had ideals they stuck to and sought to change things, rather than maintain this cooperate-ruled Status-quo.

A lot of people ive spoke with say "i would vote for party abc, but they will never get enough votes to win so i vote for xyz".

Stand by your convictions and you might be surprised.

But I entirely agree that ukip are doing well because they are a protest vote rather than any real traction withtheir policies.

I'd say their policy of having a referendum on EU status has a lot of traction, but nobody really knows any of their other policies.

Apart from Johnny Foreigner's bad mkay?
Besides the Greens also want a referendum on Europe so if that's what you want you don't have to jump over to the far right

 Da Boss wrote:
Heh heh, didn't really help that much Allod, but I appreciate the explanation.

I'm pretty ignorant of Austrian politics. I'm trying to get to grips with France first, but I should put Austria on my list too.

Sorry, but I tried.

And don't put Austria on your list, it'll just make you cry. And I don't mean manly tears here, I'm talking rocking-back-and-forth while bawling like a two-year-old!

 Hlaine Larkin mk2 wrote:

Apart from Johnny Foreigner's bad mkay?
Besides the Greens also want a referendum on Europe so if that's what you want you don't have to jump over to the far right

The problem there is that the policy of increasing petrol tax that is inherent with an environment-centric party means that anyone who owns any kind of motor vehicle loses out from Green getting traction and power. If people are trying to make a point, UKIP are the better chance.

The issue is that UKIP are made up of idiots (see the Gay Marriage=floods incident) that undermines every chance they have.

I'm not a massive fan of the EU in terms of the huge piles of cash it swallows up to no good effect. Indeed the European parliament is an utterly gak form of democracy in that there is no sense that voting really impacts on what it does.

For that reason, I might have been minded to vote UKIP, but I don't really buy into their immigration policy. My team at work includes people from Germany, Portugal, Poland and the States, while today I was working on a project with a guy from Greece. All good people who just want to work and get on with life. Open migration is the way of the future anyway. Nobody owns any one part of our planet. Countries and borders are just an illusion, so we may as well just chill out and hang together.

 Hlaine Larkin mk2 wrote:

Spoiler:

 -Shrike- wrote:

 SilverMK2 wrote:

 Paradigm wrote:

 -Shrike- wrote:
Hey, we have the Conservatives, the not-really-very-left Labour, and the whatever-it-takes-to-get-into-power Lib Dems.

This is precisely why it's so tempting to vote UKIP, just to shake things up a bit. If they get enough support (say 25-30% of the vote), the Big Three are going to have to rethink their polcies rather than holding onto the mostly-centrist-power-grabbing-vote-manupilating we're stuck with now. As much as I found parts of my recent study on early 20th Century British politics a little dull, at least the parties actually had ideals they stuck to and sought to change things, rather than maintain this cooperate-ruled Status-quo.

A lot of people ive spoke with say "i would vote for party abc, but they will never get enough votes to win so i vote for xyz".

Stand by your convictions and you might be surprised.

But I entirely agree that ukip are doing well because they are a protest vote rather than any real traction withtheir policies.

I'd say their policy of having a referendum on EU status has a lot of traction, but nobody really knows any of their other policies.

Apart from Johnny Foreigner's bad mkay?
Besides the Greens also want a referendum on Europe so if that's what you want you don't have to jump over to the far right

Yeah, but their stance on nuclear power is nonsensical. Until such time as renewable energy is actually efficient at producing energy, nuclear fission is the best option.

Fully agree on the nuclear energy point. It's pretty safe and gets us a lot of cheap energy. I don't understand Germany's decision to ban all nuclear power...even if there was a nuclear accident in any neighboring country with Radioactive plants, the fallout would devastate Germany just as well. The only consequence is higher energy cost for the average German citizen.

Just compare the energy costs in Germany to the energy costs in France...