European elections: First-order voting weight

Just a quick thought, when various polls seem to promise abstention rates of 60 or 66 per cent at the June 2009 European elections:

If you belong to the four out of ten EU citizens who cast their ballots, your vote will count two and a half times compared to the potential turn-out.

In other words, first-rate voting weight for second-order elections.

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As Clausewitz would have said: The European Union is too important to be left to the member states’ governments.

With the Lisbon Treaty the European Parliament would further gain in importance, although the march to EU level democracy promises to be long.


Ralf Grahn