German & Austrian voters support Swiss-style immigration quotas for EU-residents

[Antonio the Sixth]

I strongly oppose any further direct democratic elements.

Yeah. People are just too stupid.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I fully support mandatory voting everywhere.

I see no contradiction here, may you enlighten me?

[Antonio the Sixth]

I fail to see how the two issues are in any way related. There's no need to have a high opinion of voters' intelligence or to believe that they would enact good laws to support mandatory voting. Supporting direct democracy, however, requires at least some degree of the above considerations.

[Antonio the Sixth]

The point is that non-voters are not significantly dumber than voters. In fact, in certain cases (especially very politically oriented referendums like this one) the opposite might be true.

[Antonio the Sixth]

non-voters are probably more ignorant on the "issues"

Nope. You'd be surprised by how ignorant voters can be.

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And the solution is to force them stop being apathetic.

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I seriously doubt it.[/quote]

Referendums like these mobilize nutjobs much more easily than regular people with balanced views. Nutjobs are very passionate about their nutty beliefs, and will turn out in droves when they have a chance to affirm them.

[Antonio the Sixth]

If the Germans and Austrians can feel free to violate the Schengen agreements, they'd better shut up if Italy or Greece does the same regarding the austerity treaties.

[Antonio the Sixth]

If the Germans and Austrians can feel free to violate the Schengen agreements, they'd better shut up if Italy or Greece does the same regarding the austerity treaties.

Which examples do you mean with "violating the Schengen agreement" ?

I'm pretty sure immigration quotas would violate it.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Oh, that's too bad. Looks like as most things Europe does, Schengen doesn't go far enough.