The upcoming European Elections..

[Andoreion]

Coming to a town near you, somewhere during the next week. If you live in an EU memberstate that is. ;) I was just wondering who is going to vote (and what you are going to vote) and who thinks that the EU is little more then a money pitt without much of a future? Personally, I'm going to vote for the Liberals. Although I doubt they'll be among the big winners of the upcoming elections. :-

[Caid Ivik]

Well, you should check out few Czech candidating parties  ;D

http://www.ostravasebavi.cz/

http://www.korunaceska.org/

[Andoreion]

My Czech is a little rusty. ;) What kind of parties are we talking about?

[Anathema]

I'm going to vote for something leftish in any case, since right now the conservatives and liberals hold the absolute majority.

It will be the first time I get to vote for anything :)

[Wolf]

Who holds the majority, conservatives or liberals?

[Anathema]

The term liberal has a different meaning here. Here, liberals are people who put the most trust in the free market mechanism, hence the term liberal. They're not necessarily conservative because some of them have modern opinions on things like abortion or gay marriage. Both conservatives and liberals are considered to be right wing though.

[Wolf]

I see, so liberal and conservative are mainly economic terms? And, that being said, why are liberals and conservatives seen as being right-wing? And, what does it mean to be left?

[Terror]

i'll choose something central i think.

[Anathema]

Liberals and conservatives are both considered to be right wing because they're generally speaking harsher on immigrants then the socialist and green parties, and helping the poor is usually lower on their priority list.

Keep in mind that what I said applies to the Netherlands, not all European countries.

[Wolf]

Understood. Thank you for clearing that up. I think you're system makes more sense, because in America, we're far too polarized. Left and liberal are considered to be the same thing in the United States, as are right and conservative, when, it seems, an individual can be a right liberal or a left conservative.

[Timenn]

I'm going to vote as well (On a leftist party) And I think everyone should vote, because then Europe will get a profile which fits more to the profile of what people want.

And alot of things that each country handles on its own can better be handled with the European Union. Then I'm talking about things like refugees, migration, enviroment, crime.

And for people who think that Europe will only become some kind of dictatorship: Yea, the system isn't perfect, because it is still new. But when everyone is going to vote, European politics will become more interesting, and then way people are more involved with it. And Europe can do lesser things, without the people noticing, then they can do right now.

[Dude_Doc]

I'm going to vote, if I can manage to figure out just how exactly you're supposed to vote. The "voting-staff"/department send papers about how and what parties there are, but no voting blanket. It's so messy.

Anyways, I'm on the right-wing (not too right, I assure you), and I am going to stay there. I think people will support right-winged parties, mostly because of the recent scandal with the prime-minister (who is left-winged).

Here in Sweden, queus are so big that people must often wait months before they can get any medical attention (like every other country I think). But the thing is, our prime-minister paid big sums of money to get attention right away, and so he got it immediately. The "illness" he was in was nothing serious. I think older people with pain in their spines have a higher priority.

And now you know that...

[Caid Ivik]

In Slovakia we have more normally-looking parties than our western neigbors, but still we have many weird candidates. Peter Stastny, former NHL player, is the no.1 candidate of ruling SDKU party, another, tough rather older, hockey player is Jozef Golonka, going for nationalists. Leader of liberal ANO party is Heriban, maybe the sole male feminist in the world. And we can go further, just it won't be no fun for you as you don't know these people anyway  ;D

[Edric O]

Wolfwiz, the European term "liberal" is mostly synonymous with the American term "libertarian".

The American term "liberal" is mostly synonymous with the European term "social democrat".

[Caid Ivik]

That's a playing with words. "Liberal" is one unbound by traditions, adoring only freedom of choice from various views. We can say it's any reformative movement, if it makes economy or, we can say, civil rights' rule more free.

[Edric O]

Of course it's playing with words! But then again, politicians have been playing with words for the past 200 years.

You can't simply define "liberal" as someone who supports "freedom", because "freedom" means different things to different people. Just about every modern ideology claims to support "freedom" in some way. So you have to define liberalism based on the actual political measures they wish to implement, not based on vague abstract concepts.

[Andoreion]

Who holds the majority, conservatives or liberals?

The Conservatives are the largest party, closely followed by the Socialists. Neither side has an absolute majority, so they often need the Liberals (the nr 3 faction) to push their decisions through. The Greens come in last, I think.

[Caid Ivik]

Of course it's playing with words! But then again, politicians have been playing with words for the past 200 years.

You can't simply define "liberal" as someone who supports "freedom", because "freedom" means different things to different people. Just about every modern ideology claims to support "freedom" in some way. So you have to define liberalism based on the actual political measures they wish to implement, not based on vague abstract concepts.

Well, some Hegel-based philosophies, like fascism or even its materialistic derivate of Marx, teach strong determination of processes. While since Lenin human choice, free will, entered the dialectic process, prussian fascism led to second world war, what was a true fight between freedom and tyranny. Ideology of fascism is extremely modern, based on science and technology. New Atlantis, exactly what Bacon teached. His utopia was nearly fulfilled.

[EWS]

Well this is the first time I am able to vote, and I shall be choosing to vote for the Scottish Nationalist Party!  Although I don't like their views on the European Constitution, I believe they are right in running for Independence.  Plus, why would I want to vote Socialist!

[Edric O]

Caid:

First of all, fascism is based on Nietzche, not Hegel. (does "

[Edric O]

Well this is the first time I am able to vote, and I shall be choosing to vote for the Scottish Nationalist Party!  Although I don't like their views on the European Constitution, I believe they are right in running for Independence.  Plus, why would I want to vote Socialist!

Ummm, because the Scottish Socialist Party is the one most interested in the well-being of all people? That would be a good reason to begin with...

And besides, the nationalists aren't making any sense. Independence would cause the average Scot to be much worse off than before.

[EWS]

They should get at least one seat and they did quite well in the Scottish Elections!  But I wont vote for them.

[Caid Ivik]

Caid:

First of all, fascism is based on Nietzche, not Hegel. (does "

[alejandro]

One party in the left wing. But all them are idiots.

PD: Nice to see you again

[nemafakei]

Newsnight reports that Tony Blair is mysteriously absent from all Labour propaganda. They are appealing to anyone with leaflets showing his name or portrait to inform them. Strange, that the Labour machine couldn't get enough of his annoying smile in the past three Euro and General Elections...