Europeans elections affect us all, because they influence our everyday lives

From June 6 to 9, all citizens of the twenty-seven countries of the European Union will be called upon to vote for the new European Parliament. Let no one pretend that they do not know this. It would not be an excuse not to go to the polls.

But there is the fear that voter turnout will be pretty low, if not outright low or very low, as it has been in this kind of election for some time now. That’s why European institutions and Parliament, first of all, are scrambling to remind voters of this appointment. It started in Italy, in the South, with the first awareness-raising trip  by Eurocamera President Roberta Metsola, who visited Campania, Puglia, Calabria, and Sicily in three days. The tour will continue across all European Union as other information campaigns get underway. Our newspaper will follow this process closely, convinced that we must go to European elections with at least as much determination as when we vote for our municipalities, regions, and Parliament (although we performed rather poorly at the  polls).

Go and vote for the reason you feel closest, just go, because it is here in Brussels that, according to some calculations, about 70 percent of national legislation is decided, which means that in this City our representatives, government and Parliament members, or the Commission, together determine a large part of our daily life, more than our national Parliaments do in many matters.

Do we want to call ourselves out? Do we want to let others decide? Are we disappointed and think it is pointless to have anything more to do with politics? These are all reasons, however, that tomorrow will prevent us from complaining if not to feel sorry for ourselves and say that “the world is bad.”

We don’t have to do much: just to choose a party, a candidate (or even in the reverse order) and then put a cross and a name (not compulsory) on the ballot.

Many people say that European elections are not an indicator of domestic political preferences and that people vote more freely, according to who they prefer at the moment because they do not feel that the vote counts much. This last reason (for the 70 percent, as I was saying earlier) is wrong, but what is right is to go and vote for who you want, even in protest against your government, or a dispassionate approval vote. When you choose a democratic party, one that respects institutions and voters, of course, everyone is fine. It is better to speak one’s mind than to remain silent. One can say that “one is worth one”: if I don’t vote, I don’t have an impact, I don’t count.

Be careful, however: the people we help elect then will play a role in making decisions; let us not cast our vote by using it only in a symbolic way, therefore, to tell someone to go to hell, choosing to vote for someone without knowing what they think, what they will do, and the way they will do it: because that person may influence and affect our lives more than we imagine.