A Welshman in Milano: European Elections

sabato, giugno 12, 2004

European Elections - the vote.

Well, that was certainly an interesting experience. Of course, I'm talking here about casting my vote, as an EU citizen, in the European Elections which are still polling as I write.

Why interesting though? Of course, as a British Citizen I am entitled to cast my vote in the place of my residence for my Member of the European Parliament - MEP. I went along to the designated place to vote - which was a school not that far from my home here - and handed over my voting card together with my Identity Card for scrutiny. I was greeted with a happy "so there you are" kind of greeting, as they had been expecting me, the sole representative of all the other Member States in the EU living in this part of Milano. I had my very own pale blue folder in which was firmly attached a very large piece of official paper - the kind that is normally full of names of potential electors. But there was only one name on this whole sheet of paper - in fact, only one name in the entire pale blue folder. My name. I seemed to be the only EU national in this large part of Milano that had actually bothered to register and get a voting card. It seemed a very English attitude and I was even more pleased to be living in Italy.

So, voting over now. All that remains is to see the results of it all. I have to admit to having a degree of interest in what the UK actually does this time around, after scoring the lowest turnout of electors in the last European Elections with only 24% actually bothering to vote at all. In Italy, there was a turnout in that election of 70.8%, showing, in my mind, an altogether more adult view of the whole business of running a democracy.

Ho hum - more after the results.......