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I would love to see a European Union where other EU countries have a say in the main election of each country. Say, all EU countries can vote for the chancellor
by jknz 9y ago
I would love to see a European Union where other EU countries have a say in the main election of each country. Say, all EU countries can vote for the chancellor election in Germany and these votes weight 5% of the final results, while the German votes weight 95%. Same for the French presidential election, other EU countries could vote for a weight of 5%, and 95% of the weight is given the French votes.
This could happen slowly, countries joining one by one the system: when a country joins, it offers 5% of its main election(s) to other EU countries, and in exchange it can vote for other EU countries main elections.
This would oblige national politicians to address the concerns of European citizens outside of their country. This would be very welcome since the choices of national politicians do not just affect the lives of the nationals, but if affects the lives of other Europeans too.
As the national economies are all strongly intertwined and the economic choices of one EU country very affects others, two solutions come to mind: (a) a strong federal government like in the US, where the decisions of state politicians barely affect other states; (b) to keep the current system where national politicians can make choices that affect all Europeans, but let all Europeans have a say in their election.
- jopsen 9y agoForget it. It would be an administrative nightmare. You would have to vote 28 / 4 times per year!!! It would have little effect, but MASSIVE push back. These years the EU needs to lay low, and focus on doing good without drawing more people to support the extreme right-wing/neo-nazis. This is not the time for bold moves in western Europe; this could back-fire. There are some wiggle room for playing hard ball in eastern Europe, like getting Romanian prisons into ECHR compliance.
- ivan_gammel 9y agoTechnically, election cycles may be aligned or foreign vote may be indirect - there are ways to improve voter experience. But I would agree: public opinion will be strongly against it, because these 5% of votes would for example play definitive role in last German election.
- ivan_gammel 9y agoVery interesting idea. Totally unrealistic in modern Europe, but I'd love to see some EU members testing it within some inner bloc (e.g. Baltic states?)
- cJ0th 9y ago> Say, all EU countries can vote for the chancellor election in Germany Technically speaking, not even the Germans are allowed to vote a chancellor. ;)
- rayiner 9y agoSounds like it solves exactly the opposite problem of what people have. People want more local control, not more supra-national control. (Although, if you want to see the EU fail, pushing for diluting peoples' self determination even more would be a great way to do it.)
- YouAreGreat 9y agoI'd love to see that, too. Great accelerationist tactics :-)
- gozur88 9y agoThe first time a putative national leader was picked by people outside a country's borders, that country would leave the union. And who could blame them?