A co teraz, Europa?

As soon as the elections are over, the new discussion starts: Who will become President of the European Commission?

The largest parliamentary group EVP wants to send their conservative leader Jean-Claude Juncker for this post. But finally the European Council is proposing a candidate whom the Parliament only can accept or reject. We will see how much the former premier of Luxembourg can rely on the support of Merkel and Cameron…

However all politicians should be aware of the effect of such a discussion on the European citizens. It will disappoint enthusiastic voters and confirm Eurosceptic in their criticism. And to all of those who actually did not vote at all it shows their voices would not be heard anyways.

A dangerous development: Parties who plan to infiltrate EU-decisions gained a lot of seats for the next legislative period but the majority of the people are not represented at all.

Throughout Europe the turnout was low – at least not lower than 2009. But the results differ from 90% in Belgium where voting is obligated to less than 20% in Slovakia. Italian and Greek people used the European election to show what they think of the crisis management of their governments –and give trust to left-wing activists. In France and Great Britain the right-wing parties who blame the EU for all problems of their countries are leading.

In Poland the interest in the election was even decreasing, only 22,7% of the people wanted to use their influence. Like always, there is a difference between East and West. Warmia, Mazury and Podlasie have the lowest turnout at all. The motivation in big cities was higher, especially in Krakow where the people also decided about their candidature as an Olympic venue.

Apart from a general distrust in politicians (for sure inherited from Communist times) the most common reason not to vote is a lack of information about what’s going on in Brussels. In fact, the positive effects of the EU-membership are visible in the whole country: the improvement of infrastructure and an EU-wide labour market. On the one hand, that’s why there is apart from the political participation a generally high motivation for Europe. On the other hand, the success of Nowa Prawica is therefore even more surprising. The right-wing party of Janusz Korwin-Mikke gained four seats in the Parliament but has even higher assent in the group of young voters between 18 and 26 years. A survey in more than thousand Polish schools revealed that 27% of under-aged students would cast their vote for KNP.

Where are we heading for in Europe? Is the solidarity among our volunteer community not a role model for other young people? Will the old guard of pro-Europeans around Juncker and Schulz be able to renew what need to be changed?