European Elections - my Afterthoughts.

 European Elections in Greece and General Elections in Britain done and dusted but it looks like it’s going to take a while for the resulting dust to settle in both areas.

In Greece the turnout was a woeful 41.39%. There was the usual exodus for the beach on polling Sunday because of the good weather and many see such elections as very much of secondary significance to general ones so don’t take them too seriously but that turnout was still woeful. One teacher here on a Facebook post urged people to vote beforehand since suffrage had long been fought for. Totally laudable but it was when she also took it upon herself to tell people who they should vote for, well that is where I draw the line. Let us sincerely hope she did not take that liberty with her students! :O

Shades of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie!

                                                           

I am very much a pro-European (and anti-Brexit, taken as given ☹) and I do appreciate that serving in Europe causes great intrusion into one’s private life. One is expected to up sticks and operate there without any guarantee of this being a long-term position. That’s especially demanding if you have a young family.

You may find the following to be of interest :

How are candidates nominated for election to the European Parliament?

You may nominate yourself as a candidate or be nominated by a voter from the constituency. A candidate may only be nominated in one constituency.

To be nominated or nominate yourself for membership of the European Parliament, you must do one of the following:

• Produce a Certificate of Party Affiliation
• Produce 60 statutory declarations of assentors who are registered voters in the constituency (Form EP2A must be completed by assentors and witnessed by a Commissioner for Oaths, Peace Commissioner, Notary Public, member of the Garda Síochána or official of the registration authority)
• Pay a deposit of €1,800

To apply, you must get a nomination paper from the returning officer for your constituency. You can get contact information for the returning officer for your constituency from the Franchise Section of your local authority. The returning officer must rule on whether a nomination paper is valid within one hour of receiving it.  (Source: citizensinformation.ie)

Strictly speaking, you do not need to have party affiliation as Fidias Panagiotou, below, will testify. A 24 -year-old You Tuber (Channel Fidias) from Cyprus, he stood for election on an anti-partisan platform and secured a seat! No doubt with a great deal of support from his 2.63 million subscribers.

                                                                     

In a recent interview he revealed how much money he could make as an MEP. The not inconsiderable amount in euros mostly came from the 8,000 net monthly income, a general expenditure allowance of 500 per month to cover office expenses, hard-/software, etc., 350 subsistence allowance per day for accommodation, meals,  etc..  travel expenses are refunded from receipts submitted and 2/3 of medical expenses are reimbursed.

What I find intriguing is that no specific level of education is requested –  how can we, the electorate, assess candidate suitability and just general ability? Another teacher, nominated by a minor party, admitted that her real USP was her tendency to being ‘shouty’ – thankfully not put to the test as she wasn’t elected. 😊

 But someone who was elected was the talk of the er…village – where Z is from. A local lady was standing as candidate without any of the locals realizing that that was the case. No speeches, no profile published to assess suitability, and when the news broke, no initial contact with members of the media. This lady had no secondary education to talk of, she was a cattle farmer who moved to the city to run a butcher’s shop with her son. That’s it: restricted life experience, no foreign languages. ☹

So how did this all come about, you may ask and I most certainly do. The party leader admitted that she had been nominated in an area of Athens ?? for the last general elections as a token woman candidate to balance the male/female ratio, while both he and the candidate herself admit they were both shocked she won and that what greatly contributed to her election was the fact that her surname begins with an A so her name was first on the ballot sheet for that party.

After such an admission what shocked me even more than her unsuitability is the fact that she took up the seat and is now in Brussels!! :O What she feels she can actually contribute is anyone’s guess.

 It brings to mind the timeless question that comedian Mrs Merton asked the magician’s assistant, ‘the lovely Debbie McGee’:

‘So what first attracted you to the millionaire Paul Daniels?’

And so channelling her: ‘So Mrs A , what first attracted you to the lucrative European Parliament seat ?

 

May my faith remain un-wave-ering!!