In a recent poll, more than half of Swedes claim they will not vote in the upcoming elections for the European Parliament. The numbers were fairly equally divided, with 48 percent saying they would vote and 52 percent saying they would not; it shows that Swedes are not particularly interested in the makeup of the next EU parliament.
Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Radio added that 64 percent of the respondents say they have little or no interest in the elections, which are scheduled for 7 June. The last EU parliament elections in 2004 saw a meagre 37.8 percent turnout from Swedish voters.
This is far below the figures for normal Swedish national elections, which tend to be around 80 percent. Henrik Oscarsson, an election researcher at Gothenburg University, told Sveriges Radio he thinks Swedes will remain indifferent throughout the run-up to the June vote.
“There’s not going to be any major increase if you look at these numbers, turnout is going to be around 40 percent but let’s hope it’s a little higher than that, Oscarsson said, adding that low voter turnout “hurts the European parliament’s political legitimacy.”
Sweden has been a member of the European Union since 1995; it is therefore considered somewhat surprising by many that its citizens have such little interest in the politics of the governing body.
[…] Half of Swedes won’t vote in Euro elections […]
how could they vote knowing there’s some mafia-guy like Silvio B. ruling around Europe?
As an outsider (100% American) I’d imagine to be a citizen of an EU country is feel completely disconnected from EU governance. So you don’t even participate.
If I have an issue with federal law, which I recently did, I contact my representative in Congress, which I recently did, and I get an answer.
What does a Swede do when they are unhappy about some EU directive ?
Why should we care about voting in the Euro elections? The EU is undemocratic, we only get to vote to the EU parliament and they have no power, it’s the EU commission who holds the power. If we hold referendums it’s only accepted if we vote “right”, otherwise they simply disregard the result or bombard us with threats and new referendums until they get the result they wanted.
SIR EURO (FORMER GUS),
we the once who used to live in E. Europe are familiar with any kind of propaganda like this, and though for us it is over, for you the propaganda EU machine is going on full power. Vhod – rubl, vyhod – dva.
WITH EMERGING GIANTS LIKE CHINA AND INDIA, AND WITH OTHER BIG POWERS TO DEAL WITH LIKE USA, JAPAN OR RUSSIA,, THE EU IS NOT A MATTER OF JOKE, IT IS A MATTER OF SURVIVING…
AND NOW, THE EUROZONE, ONE OF THE MOST STABLE ECONOMIC AREAS AND POSSIBLY THE MOST DEVELOPED GEOGRAPHIC AREA OF THE WORLD, HAS ALSO THE EURO, THAT COMES OUT TO BE ANOTHER INTERNATIONAL CURRENCY OF INTERNATIONAL REFERENCE.
EU IS A REAL SUCCESS IN MANY WAYS. THERE ARE MANY ISSUES INSIDE THE EU BORDERS, AND THERE WILL ALWAYS BE, AS THERE ARE ISSUES IN USA AND OTHER PLACES IN THE WORLD. BUT WHAT IS REALLY CLEAR IS THAT EUROPEAN COUNTRIES IN THEIR OWN HAVE NO CHANCE IN THIS GLOBALIZED WORLD. WEE NEED TO BE UNITED.
50 YEARS AFTER USA AND USA STARTED THEIR SPATIAL CAREER, EU HAVE REACHED SUCH LEVEL OF INNOVATION AND TODAY WE HAVE OUR OWN SPACE AGENGY AND PROJECTS… AND I CAN TELL THAT MATTERS A LOT.
EUROPE IS TIRED OF BEING UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF OTHER SUPERPOWERS. AND THOSE SUPERPOWERS EXIST STILL, AND OTHERS ARE ARISING. THANKS TO EU EUROPE IS LESS DEPENDENT ON WHAT OTHERS DECIDE, WE ARE STRONGER NOW.
EUROPE HAS BEEN DIVIDED IN TWO FOR A LONG TIME. NOW SINCE THE WALL OF BERLIN FALLED, WE ARE ONE. THERE IS A LOT LEFT TO DO. BUT FREEDOM AND DEMOCRACY IS SPREADING, AS IT IS SPREADING A CULTURE OF PEACE AND COOPERATION, INSTEAD OF THE OLD TRADITION OF CULTURE OF WAR.
EU IS IN MANY WAYS BETTER THAN WE HAD. AND NOW YOU CAN NAME ANY EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRY AND TELL ME THAT THINGS WERE WAY BETTER WHEN THEY WERE UNDER DIRECT CONTROL OF URSS… NOW AT LEAST THEY ARE FREE AND THOSE COUNTRIES ARE EXPERIMENTING BIG AND POSITIVE CHANGES, SOCIALLY, ECONOMICALLY AND POLITICALLY.
EU IS VERY BENEFITIAL, NO DOUBT OF IT…
Alex, I agree to some extend.
-very good for those who is paid to manage this Union, yeap, undoubtedly.
-very expensive, hmmm.. maybe, I’m not sure. It depends on the perspective. My national government for instant is significantly more expensive, more corrupted and more incompetent.
-a joke? I hope not. Not yet anyway. It might end up a joke or even worse a nightmare. It might end up something productive and useful. I think we (the eu members citizens) have to fight for that. And as everything worthy, it wont be easy. :)
nikos.
EU was created as a “reply” to the USA and USSR – a kind of third world power.
But after USSR collapse and East European countries jump on board – it became a joke. But very expensive one. And very good for those who is paid to manage this Union, of course.
yeap.
The whole EU project has become really tricky.
On the one hand we all want a more democratic EU, more citizen participation etc etc, since right now it’s on the council of ministers and prime ministers the responsibility to decide the way to go. The required unanimity is a big pain in the ass, although the big countries have the biggest influence, no doubt.
On the other hand (apart from few federalists), no-one wants to lose his sovereignty and hand over excessive power to an elected European parliament or the commission (wisely in my opinion. I really shudder to the idea to end up inside a super-state like the US).
And the Lisbon treaty seems inadequate to give a clever solution to this puzzle..
So, at the moment nobody cares much about these elections, not even the most democratic aware citizens like the Swedish.
Sigh.. We need fresh ideas and soon..
In national/local elections you have influence on a political program when you vote. Smaller countries in Eu cant get influence by voters.
As an outsider – the politicians in the EU seems to be Merkel/Brown/Sarkozy – and of course Berlusconi if he had said something strange/funny.
These are probably the only that really have the rights of veto.
The EU is more based on thrust to the system than traditional democracy.
No surprise at all. It just a good example of the fact that interest of politicians and interest of people are different.
And people of Sweden realized that EU can’t make miracles… But some people in Iceland still belive in such fairy tale ;-)