ELECTIONS EUROPEENNES- EUROPEAN ELECTIONS
I don’t want to put salt on the wound, but on the 9th of June French people will vote for their European parliament representatives. Due to Brexit, you can’t!
81 MPs will be elected in France, 2 more than previously. In total 720 European MPs will be elected for parliament, 15 more than 2019 (last election).
Members are elected by Direct Universal suffrage in a single round ballot. The number of seats allocated to each party depends on the share of percentages of votes. The list of each party is closed so you cannot choose who you want to vote for on each list. Basically, the party that gets the most votes gets the most MPs, and if the percentage of shares of votes means a party gets 20 MPs elected, then it is the first 20 names on their list who get into the European Parliament.
In France, it is not an obligation to vote and the turn out for European elections is traditionally quite low. French people being more interested in what is happening in their village than in Brussels! That doesn’t mean they are against Europe; they just can’t be asked! In fact, some opposing parties and their members use this election as a way of showing their discontent to the ruling party and the current President and instead of discussing European issues, just spend their time complaining about the current situation in France. And French people are never happy!!
In France, there will be 23 different political parties (not as boring as 3 like in the United Kingdom and 2 in the USA!!!). The main ones being Renaissance (president Macron’s party), Rassemblement National (Ex National Front and far right party), Les Republicains (Right), Party socialist (Left), La France Insoumise (far left) and Les Ecologistes (green). In total 3 far left parties, 3 left, 4 greens, 1 center, 1 right, 3 far right and 7 classed as “others” (one being for the defense of animals, one for countryside and even one called the Pirate party!!!).
In 2019, 50,1% of the people registered to vote voted, which was the highest for a European Election. Let’s hope we can beat it this year. Some people in the world do not have the chance to vote, so I am a believer that we are very lucky and feel privileged to vote – also as a thank you for past generations who fought so we could have this right (women in the 1940ies and revolutionaries in 1789!). French women have only been able to vote since 1944!!!