by Sarah Schröder Kleinstparteien für Europa –„Naturmedizin für alle!“ - Torben Waleczek (Small parties for Europe – Natural medicine for all!) Der Spiegel Online 04/06/09 On Thursday, June 4th, 2009, Torben Waleczek publishes an article in the Spiegel Online stressing the success of very small parties in the EU Parliament elections. As political scientist Florian Hartleb’s study reveals, the small participation at European elections is beneficial to so-called “midget parties”. Amongst these parties are not only the usual extremists from left to right (NPD, DVU, Communists and DKP), but also “one-subject” parties, concentrating on one particular theme in the elections, such as the protection of animals or world peace, as well as religious movements. While some of these parties can only hope to reach 0,5 % of votes, which would allow them to get money from the State’s party-financing program, others do have chances to get at least one seat in Parliament. To read the full Der Spiegel's article Sorge um Wahlbeteiligung - Parteien lahmen im Europa-Endspurt (Concern about participation rate in elections – Parties limp at European final spurt) Philipp Wittrock, Veit Medick, Zacharias Zacharakis, Severin Weiland und Florian Gathmann Der Spiegel Online 25/05/09 On Monday, May 25th, 2009, various political experts publish an article in the Spiegel Online emphasizing their concern about the low quality of party engagement in the European elections. In this German “super election year” and after the recent election of the federal President, none of the major political parties has come up with a satisfactory election campaign: the slogans are neither very elaborate nor meaningful and no big party seems to have made any big investment in its campaign advertising. Generally, the EU elections are perceived as rather unimportant in comparison to the upcoming regional elections, and above all the elections for the Parliament (Bundestag) this fall. Two weeks before the EU elections, the Spiegel Online resumes the ideas stressed in the final sprint of the main German parties. While the right-wing parties CDU/CSU concentrate on controversial themes such as saying “no” to the admission of Turkey in the EU, the socialist party SPD centred its campaign on aggressively turning down the other major parties. Unlike the CDU/CSU, the SPD and the Green party consider the EU elections as a way to forget about the results of the recent Presidential elections and as a starting point for a new election dynamic. Another concern, stressed by the liberal party FDP, is the probably low turnout of the elections, which is feared to be under 40%. Finally, the left party “Die Linkspartei” counts on a radical campaign against the Lisbon treaty to gain at least 10% votes at the elections. To read the full Der Spiegel's article Mit Gleichgültigkeit “bestraft” (Punished with indifference) Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 29/05/09 On Wednesday, May 29th, 2009, Klaus-Dieter Frankenberger publishes an article about the possible low turnout in the EU Parliament elections and its effects on European democratic legitimacy. The EU Commissions President and most of the European administration seems indeed to consider it as a given fact that the turnout of the upcoming June elections will continue their downward tendency from the past. As the journalist further stresses, the European Parliament reflects many paradoxes: while no other European institution has gained as much new competences over the past treaty reforms, it remains the most ignored and the most frequently “punished” with popular indifference. Even more paradoxically, while it has become a common idea that most problems can be better solved through EU-wide cooperation, European elections are still seen as “boring” and “Euro-bashing” as funny. Another problem is the “nationalization” of the European elections: as the authors Jürgen Mittag and Claudia Hülsken stressed out, no big German party has the European “distinguishing potential” and German citizens generally base their vote on national criteria. Furthermore, the European citizen generally does not know what exactly he votes for and the European elections are generally considered as “second order elections”. Contrary to what predicted the German Minister for foreign affairs Genscher in 1977, the European direct elections have not fundamentally changed the political reality in the member States. To read the full FAZ article Wir Kinder Europas – Alice Bota (We, children of Europe) Die Zeit, 04/06/09 In Die Zeit on Thursday, June 4th, 2009, Alice Bota publishes a real pro-European manifesto in which she defends the idea that our vote at the European elections has never been as important as this time. According to the author, European elections are not primarily about concrete political ideas; they are a statement of solidarity to the European ideal, which has become very popular today. As Bota further explains, the current generations literally “live and breathe the values, ideas and liberalities” of the European Union. The upcoming European elections are not simply about the future composition of the EU Parliament, they are rather more a way to express commitment to Europe in this period of crisis. Confronted with major political challenges and profound interrogations about its actual aim and meaning, the European Union needs a high turnout to gain new legitimacy and to overcome the harsh critics about alienation and the loss of its democratic character. According to Bota, the biggest critics of the EU, those who refuse to sign the Lisbon Treaty in the name of liberty and national sovereignty, are nothing more than “preachers of populism”. Finally, the fact that this time’s EU elections coincide with the 20th anniversary of free democratic elections in the new East-European States is a perfect illustration for the fact that the European idea is founded on a “grand vision”: the idea of European-wide democracy and freedom. To read the full Die Zeit's article Wilders-Sieg – Europa droht weiterer Rechtsruck (Wilders’ victory – Europe is threatened by a further right swing) S. Bolzen and C. B. Schiltz – 05/06/2009 – Die Welt On Friday, June 5th, 2009, S. Bolzen and C. B. Schiltz publish an article in Die Welt about the possible danger of a further right swing in Europe, after the Dutch right-wing and xenophobic politician Geert Wilders made it to the second place at the European elections on Thursday. This victory was welcomed by other European right-wing parties and could be seen as the first sign for a general progression of extreme-right political parties at European elections. After the Netherlands, Great Britain’s electors on Thursday gave indeed also more votes to the nationalist party BNP and thus allowed it to hope getting up to seven representatives in EU Parliament. The same progression of right-wing parties can be expected in Austria with the BZÖ, in Hungary with the national-conservative Fidesz-party, in the Check Republic and in France with Philip de Villiers’ Libertas. Xenophobic and anti-European slogans are indeed always getting more and more popular. According to Thomas Klau from the European Council on Foreign Relations, this relative victory of minority-parties can be analysed as a sign of popular punishment against the lack of clarity of the big majority parties and a proof that European electors are looking for clear political ideas. To read the full Die Welt's article Deutsche Spitzenkandidaten streiten um Türkei-Beitritt (German Top-Candidates argue about Turkey- accession)Spiegel Online – 05/06/09 According to this article published in the Spiegel Online on Friday, June 5th, 2009, the issue of the admission of Turkey in the European Union provoked one of the last major debates between German top-candidates for EU elections. Indeed, while the socialist party (SPD) representative Martin Schulz expressed himself in favour of the EU enlargement to Turkey, the centre-right politician Hans-Gert Pöttering (CDU) clearly stated that the EU does not have the necessary strength for this further admission. According to this candidate for the EU Parliament’s presidency, the Union would be financially and geographically overcharged. While the CDU/CSU are indeed in favour of a stronger cooperation between this Islamic country and the EU, they oppose the socialists’ idea that Turkey’s membership is the only good solution. According to a recent survey led by the German TV channel ZDF, 58% of the German citizens are indeed against Turkey’s accession to the EU. To read the full Der Spiegel's article Back to German Press on Europe