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| Thread: European Elections 2014 | |
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xerox
Promising
Undefeatable Hero
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posted May 22, 2014 10:35 PM |
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Edited by xerox at 22:36, 22 May 2014.
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European Elections 2014
We have hundreds of pages everytime there's US elections, so I feel it's only fair for the world's largest union and market (over 500 milion people) to have a thread covering the EP elections, where voting is currently underway. People vote for national parties, who then join parliamentary groups. The groups are:
EPP: The centre-right Liberal Conservative group has been the largest in parliament for over a decade. They generally prefer subsidiarity (national sovereignity) over federalism, but are happy to push for more economic integration and deregulation in Europe's single market.
S&D: The centre-left Social Democrats is the second largest group. They are more supportive of federalism than the EPP, wanting minimum standards on social rights such as abortion and proposing to give the EU the right to tax its citizens. Like the EPP, they also support economic integration in the single market but are less keen on deregulation and other economically liberal policies.
Alde: The centre-right Liberal group is the third largest in parliament. They are among the most stauch supporters of federalism, supporting federalization of social rights while also pushing for economic liberalization. This effectively makes it a centrist group, since they will cooperate with the EPP on economic policy and the S&D on social rights.
Greens: This small group is home to various Green parties. Their basis is enviromental policy and human rights, issues that they believe are best handled on the European level. This has contributed to making them the most pro-federalist group, alongside Alde.
ECR: A small group of right-wing Conservatives that oppose further EU integration more so than the EPP, and especially federalism.
GUE: Another small group, formed by various Socialist parties across Europe. Far more left than the S&D, they oppose pretty much all "neo-liberal" economic integration and federalization.
EFD: A small group of right-wing Populists led by the infamous leader of UKIP, Nigel Farage. They are more or less opposed to all EU integration, and would want nothing more than leave the union (which, ironically, is decided by their national parliaments).
Independents: There are also a lot of independent parties that do not have a group. Among these, are the nationalist parties that are expected to make gains this election. Those parties are currently negotiating creating their own group.
The last, compiled opinion poll suggests that the centre-right coalition between the EPP, Alde and ECR will lose its majority. The EPP looks like it will remain the largest party for another five years though, while no group seems to succeed in taking Alde's third place. The victors of the election seems to be the populist and nationalist parties of the right, with the Socialists also making some gains.
____________
Over himself, over his own
body and
mind, the individual is
sovereign.
- John Stuart Mill
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Tsar-Ivor
Promising
Legendary Hero
Scourge of God
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posted May 22, 2014 10:49 PM |
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(I just got in so I missed this)
Just cast my vote, for some reason I came out of the polling station as if I just saved the lives of a dozen drowning babies. I suddenly got this feeling, that me putting some cross on a bit of paper is viewed more highly by some than all the things that I've done before, and instead of feeling bad, I felt good. (OMFG the deja vu I had before on this site, it was this feeling)
Then, the way the whole thing is run I honestly believe that it's all just a massive farce. People fold their papers this way and that, the only way you'd count it all is with a machine, but that's impossible due to the endless folding, you'd have to unfold them all, and if done by hand it is prone to errors or tampering.
Even if the whole process is done properly who is to say that it's not ****ed with afterward. As Stalin said, "It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes." (a criticism directed at the capitalist regimes)
Edit: While I went up with full intention of voting for UKIP, I did not, when I got this odd looking paper I fell in love immediately and cast my vote for that party.
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"No laughs were had. There is only shame and sadness." Jenny
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xerox
Promising
Undefeatable Hero
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posted May 22, 2014 11:26 PM |
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Edited by xerox at 23:29, 22 May 2014.
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So did you vote for UKIP or not???
Honestly, I think people wanting to leave the EU should abstain from voting.
Exit polls from Dutch election:
Quote:
CDA 15.4%
D66 15.3%
PVV 12.7%
VVD 12.1%
SP 10%
PvdA 9.3%
CU/SGP 7.9%
GL 7.2%
PvdD 4.2%
50PLUS 4.1%
An extraordinary amount of parties. One of these is a "Retired People's Party", another an "Animals' Rights" party. At the top are Christian democrats, second and third places liberals, fourth place Geert Wilders populist party. This is a major blow to him, as he was expected to win by far the most votes. The Dutch social democrats only got 9,3% - which says quite a bit about the decline of social democracy in Europe.
As we can see, Alde is the clear winner in Europe's perhaps most liberal country. 4 of the indepedent seats is Geert Wilders.
Next up is the UK...
____________
Over himself, over his own
body and
mind, the individual is
sovereign.
- John Stuart Mill
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fred79
Disgraceful
Undefeatable Hero
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posted May 22, 2014 11:36 PM |
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Tsar-Ivor said:
(I just got in so I missed this)
Just cast my vote, for some reason I came out of the polling station as if I just saved the lives of a dozen drowning babies. I suddenly got this feeling, that me putting some cross on a bit of paper is viewed more highly by some than all the things that I've done before, and instead of feeling bad, I felt good. (OMFG the deja vu I had before on this site, it was this feeling)
Then, the way the whole thing is run I honestly believe that it's all just a massive farce. People fold their papers this way and that, the only way you'd count it all is with a machine, but that's impossible due to the endless folding, you'd have to unfold them all, and if done by hand it is prone to errors or tampering.
Even if the whole process is done properly who is to say that it's not ****ed with afterward. As Stalin said, "It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes." (a criticism directed at the capitalist regimes)
wth, i'll move my reply here too:
i could've told you that, tsar. that feeling you get while voting? that's supposed to happen. it's called "the illusion of lower populace actually controlling anything". 
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Tsar-Ivor
Promising
Legendary Hero
Scourge of God
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posted May 23, 2014 01:30 AM |
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Quote:
So did you vote for UKIP or not???
No. Figured that they were the lesser of evils, but then I didn't think that it justifies it, I'd support them if they were a pressure group on the issue of the EU, but not as a political party. Voted for the socialist party instead, as soon as I saw them on the ballot I got some strange fervor in me. Our nationalist party is balls, all it does is focus on racism & divides the nation rather than promote national unity.
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"No laughs were had. There is only shame and sadness." Jenny
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Fauch
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted May 23, 2014 04:03 AM |
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I think it's a joke. I'm not sure there is any point voting for any of the 10-15 parties seeing that most of them are obviously lying or being deliberately vague and confusing, or just seem to have no clue.
well, anyway, according to Xerox I should not vote...
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Aron
Known Hero
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posted May 23, 2014 11:59 AM |
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Voted a few days ago. Voted for freedom.
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Aron
Known Hero
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posted May 23, 2014 01:28 PM |
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Fauch said:
I think it's a joke. I'm not sure there is any point voting for any of the 10-15 parties seeing that most of them are obviously lying or being deliberately vague and confusing, or just seem to have no clue.
well, anyway, according to Xerox I should not vote...
No you must.
It is because people like him vote and people like us don't that they get such a big say in everything despite being such a big minority.
The liberal upper middleclass are the most active voters.
Also lol at "Geert" being a typical liberal.
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Fauch
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted May 23, 2014 02:33 PM |
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Aron said:
The liberal upper middleclass are the most active voters.
that's not surprising, every party or almost seem to be right wing, they have a lot of choice.
they all say the same thing :
"EU bad, EU many problems. need more EU, but different."
or, in the case of the FN for example :
"EU bad, EU many problems, France good. need out of EU and euro. or maybe not. or maybe yes. or maybe not. err... let's blame immigration instead."
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War-overlord
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
Presidente of Isla del Tropico
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posted May 23, 2014 02:33 PM |
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Xerox, you've made a little mistake. The VVD is the liberal party, the PVV is the party by mr. Wilders. You've switched their places round.
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Vote El Presidente! Or Else!
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Lexxan
Honorable
Undefeatable Hero
Unimpressed by your logic
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posted May 23, 2014 10:09 PM |
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Edited by Lexxan at 22:12, 23 May 2014.
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I am probably abstaining from the european election because i don't care about them, oops.
also, the flemish liberal party's foreman, old-PM Guy Verhofstadt has once again proven himself to be an unbecomingly self-satisfied toadperson:
"when he speaks, europe listens" liiiiiiiike how arrogant can you be?
I heard this actually became a MEME in dutch media and it just makes me giddy with excitement some of my faves:
"when he jumps, europe bounces"
"this person befits expensive wine. would you kindly pay the bill?"
AMAZING <3 so yeah if i vote during the european elections, i am definitely not voting for the liberals, but idk who else i would instead so meh.
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Coincidence? I think not!!!!
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Locksley
Promising
Famous Hero
Wielding a six-string
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posted May 24, 2014 04:28 PM |
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Tsar-Ivor said:
Even if the whole process is done properly who is to say that it's not ****ed with afterward. As Stalin said, "It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes." (a criticism directed at the capitalist regimes)
It's me who says it's not ****ed with afterward as I'm one of the vote counters tomorrow.
I think it will be interesting to follow the process from within, there's whole lotta instructions and routines to make sure that each vote counter is controlled by other vote counters and by the public all the time.
And we, the vote counter, are actually a part of the public too, in a typical Swedish election around 30 000 - 40 000 citizens volunteer to work as vote counters.
It's in every vote counters interest that every vote counter is working with this in the correct way.
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GunFred
Supreme Hero
Sexy Manticore
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posted May 25, 2014 10:43 PM |
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I lost my voting virginity to the only dude from "F!"(Feministic Initiative) today. "Jazz" is pretty stupid for a name though...
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Warmonger
Promising
Legendary Hero
fallen artist
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posted May 26, 2014 08:06 AM |
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I don't follow this liberal-conservative battle. Al that matters is if these people are able to do something for real.
I voted for Micha³ Boni, a guy who is an expert of telecommunication law and fights for personal data protection. Probably EP is the right place for him as it can somehow oppose US supremacy in telecommunication services, unlike our Polish government.
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The future of Heroes 3 is here!
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Fauch
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted May 26, 2014 01:07 PM |
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then, why is US pushing for the construction of the EU?
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xerox
Promising
Undefeatable Hero
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posted May 26, 2014 01:41 PM |
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I think long-term, a unified EU is probably a threat to US interests.
____________
Over himself, over his own
body and
mind, the individual is
sovereign.
- John Stuart Mill
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Fauch
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted May 26, 2014 06:18 PM |
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unified? by who? nazis? 
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xerox
Promising
Undefeatable Hero
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posted May 26, 2014 07:43 PM |
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federalists
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Over himself, over his own
body and
mind, the individual is
sovereign.
- John Stuart Mill
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War-overlord
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
Presidente of Isla del Tropico
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posted May 26, 2014 07:54 PM |
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I don't think it's gonna happen. If the die-hard federalists actually go for it hard core, several countries, Great-Brittain predominantly among them, are gonna bail. That's gonnna cause an exodus, fragment the map, making the federation unworkable and cause the whole project to collapse.
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Vote El Presidente! Or Else!
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Fauch
Responsible
Undefeatable Hero
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posted May 26, 2014 08:58 PM |
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that's why you need nazis. you are way more convincing when you say it with a tank.
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