One week until the European Parliament elections. Emotionally, there is nothing that catches my attention. Intellectually, there is not much to do what hasn't been done before.
Yes, there is more attention, but it all looks so artificial. It doesn't feel like a natural campaign, neither domestically nor Europe-wide. My impression is that both, politicians and media, have to motivate themselves to actually do something.
So do I.
It feels like they are getting up in the morning without the will to be active and only after someone kicks their ### they decide to leave the house and say something European.
There are no new topics, the discussions merely scratch the surface, I don't hear any argument that hasn't been made over the last months already. Quantitatively you can see the elections approaching, but qualitatively there is no improvement.
Maybe it's just deception about the low-profile character of the campaign, something that hasn't really changed despite E-Day coming closer and closer.
Maybe it is because I have been covering the subject for so long, maybe it is my own fault. Maybe it is because I have already voted.
But one week before the European Parliament elections 2009, my personal interest in the subject is the lowest in a year.
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Under the category "European parliament elections 2009" I am following up national and European activities on the path to the European Parliament elections 2009.
For an overview over all articles in this category have a look at the overview article.
For the five newest post see also the sidebar.
Tuesday, 26 May 2009
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4 comments:
I'm amazed you've lasted this long, it must be said... Intense boredom and frustration is part of the joy of covering EU politics, surely? That and the distinct lack of interest shown by everyone concerned...
Come on! You've done a great job so far! I deeply appreciate your blog.
I'm following also the campaign in France and Italy and I have the same symptoms of boredom. It's normal, since these European elections are somehow a looming disaster for European believers.
Thank you guys! :-)
In fact, I just wanted to make clear that those who might have expected that my blog would see an increase in articles on the EP elections these days should not be surprised if this doesn't come.
Unfortunately I'm sharing your frustation.
We have been working for over a year in trying to get people to become aware of the elections by organising workshops in schools and so on. And as the election dates come closer I personally would have thought that at least this year the political parties would take over and start running a real campaign covered by media.
I could understand if they would only campaign in 2009 but I was expecting that they at least do it before June. And that's a vicious circle in a way because I haven't seen so few media coverage about real European and political topics in while. It is frustating to see that not even those who'd like to be elected put a real effort in it. I have the impression that it's only the civil society (if you will) or weird invididuals like us that seem to care.
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