SGP and ChristenUnie are high on plans to always hold European elections on May 9 from now on – even if that’s Sunday or, as with the next election in 2024, Ascension Day.
This excludes whole groups of voters. Not a democracy,” says Bert Jan Roesen (SGP), whose party crowds still only go out to church on Sundays. “On Ascension Day, Christ became king over the entire universe,” adds Peter van Dalen (ChristenUnie). And the memory goes beyond infinity in any election.”
Elections, including European elections, are still organized nationwide. Member states vote on Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday (mostly), with results announced on Sunday evening. But Parliament, which will vote on this tomorrow, now has proposals to hold elections on a single day, May 9, Europe’s holiday (Schumann Day).
Another world
Initiator Dominic Ruiz Devisa, a Spanish socialist, believes that this will make the elections more “European”. For the same reason, he wants a cross-border list of 28 elected MEPs Europeans, so voters will vote for two candidates instead of one. Roesen (“A new step toward an undesirable federal superpower”) and Van Dalen (“Unworldly”) are vehemently opposed.
It remains to be seen whether the 2024 elections will indeed be on Ascension Day, so southern member states are ready to move away from the usual Sunday: they must also agree after Parliament.
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