European Parliament Election: May 23-26, 2019

[Middle-aged Europe]

Julia Reda, the sole MEP for the Pirate Party and currently sitting with the Green group, has announced that she has left her party and urged her supporters not to vote Pirate on May 26.

Her reason: The no. 2 candidate on the German Pirate Party list, Gilles Bordelais, who also happens to be Reda's former chief of staff, is facing sexual harassment allegations.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Early voting in Germany started this week, so I already cast my ballot yesterday (for the Greens).

[Middle-aged Europe]

Early voting in Germany started this week, so I already cast my ballot yesterday (for the Greens).

By „early voting“ you mean that postal ballots have been sent to voters ?

As far as I know, there is no early voting in the US sense in Germany ...

I picked up a "postal" ballot at the respective district office, made a cross on it, and stuffed it into the "postal" ballot box standing there.

In a strict legal sense that was a postal vote too, although in Germany you have the option to personally retrieve your ballot during office hours and cast your vote with it on location, which is de facto a form of early voting.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Early voting in Germany started this week, so I already cast my ballot yesterday (for the Greens).

By „early voting“ you mean that postal ballots have been sent to voters ?

As far as I know, there is no early voting in the US sense in Germany ...

I picked up a "postal" ballot at the respective district office, made a cross on it, and stuffed it into the "postal" ballot box standing there.

In a strict legal sense that was a postal vote too, although in Germany you have the option to personally retrieve your ballot during office hours and cast your vote with it on location, which is de facto a form of early voting.

Yeah, same like here.

Technically, it is still "postal voting", because you request a "postal ballot" - even though you can fill it out right there and drop it into the box.

I wonder how many people mail it back and how many just fill it out in their municipal office ...

A total of 29% of all ballots were cast via "postal vote" in the 2017 Bundestag election, a significant increase from the 9% we had back in 1990.

Official numbers regarding the share of ballots which are actually mailed in versus the ballots which are filled out on location don't exist.

An analysis of voting behavior in the 2002 Bundestag election (at that point 18% of all voters used a postal ballot one way or the other) came to the conclusion that in 42% of these cases the postal ballot was used as a form of early voting on location at the respective municipal office. I would expect that this share has increased since then, especially since the legal requirement to provide a formal reason why you have to vote prior to election day in order to obtain a postal ballot was abolished in 2008.

[Middle-aged Europe]

https://twitter.com/EuropeElects/status/1132784126757613569

Bunga, bunga, I guess.

[Middle-aged Europe]

The results of my precinct in Berlin-Friedrichshain:

Left 26.7% (-2.5)
Greens 19.2% (+4.3)
SPD 16.8% (-7.3)
AfD 10.7% (+3.8 )
CDU 8.8% (-4.6)
Die PARTEI 4.9% (+3.4)
FDP 2.8% (+0.9)
Pirates 1.3% (-2.5)
DiEM25 1.3% (+1.3)

Turnout: 58.7% (684 out of 1666 eligible voters)

[Middle-aged Europe]

Why did Die Partei's 2 MEPs split?

Because Semsrott can accomplish more when being a member of a parliamentary group.

https://twitter.com/nicosemsrott/status/1135901134869147649?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%...

"As a single MEP, you can accomplish little. As a member of the "realo" wing of DIE PARTEI I'm therefore accommodating the Green faction with me. Welcome, dear Greens!"

Which also means that Sonneborn - unlike Semsrott - doesn't want to accomplish anything. Sonneborn wants to continue his role as court jester which means he doesn't have to be a member of a parliamentary group... maybe it would even be detrimental to that goal.

[Middle-aged Europe]

URSULA VON DER LEYEN?

Eyperience tells us that this attempt to install her as Commission President will fail, since Merkel's previous attempts to make VdL a) her own heir apparent and b) President of Germany (the job went instead to Christian Wulff who turned out a dud and was replaced by Gauck after two years) had failed. And that meant only going up against the CDU and not Viktor Orban and Matteo Salvini. That being said, the aforementioned creatures seem to remain pretty silent on the VdL nomination issue so far. Is it because they're already tired of this sh**t and consider successfully vetoing Timmermans and Vestager as a win they should better take home now? Still somewhat ironic if we end up with a 100% Merkel loyalist as Commission President. To bad it's also someone way past her (political) prime.

[Middle-aged Europe]

When the European Council formally nominated Von der Leyen for the post, Germany abstained due to the SPD's opposition to her. *LOL*


So, will the SPD rally the Socialist & Democrats Group to block VdL in the EP now?

[Middle-aged Europe]

As it is summarized by Politico:

The Council’s choice of von der Leyen may face stiff resistance in the European Parliament. To take effect, the nomination requires approval by an absolute majority of the Parliament's 751 members.

Von der Leyen is under a cloud of allegations of misspending and mismanagement of contracts back home, tied to the hiring of two consulting firms, McKinsey and Accenture.

She may also face questions about her overall job performance at the defense ministry, given widespread criticism of the German military as being in relatively poor shape compared to other NATO allies.

Mathematically, she could make it through the EP with the support of the EPP, "Renew Europe" (turning their group's name in a bit of a misnomer), and about half of the S&D (assuming that the SPD will vote "no").

[Middle-aged Europe]

Also is this just a way to open the defence ministry for AKK?

AKK has already declined.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Former SPD chairman and vice-chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has demanded that his party should leave Merkel's coalition over the Von der Leyen nomination.

[Middle-aged Europe]

Von der Leyen is trying very hard to sway S&D/Green votes in her favour by announcing a "Green deal", supporting more efforts to save refugees from the Mediterranean Sea, and attacking Nigel Farage.

Could potentially backfire if this scares away ECR/Fidesz MEPs she has to depend on. The Green group had already voted last week to oppose VdL. Maybe it will convince some social dems though.

[Middle-aged Europe]

"Most social democrats" are reported to back von der Leyen now, which probably means she'll win the vote IMO.

[Middle-aged Europe]

At least she's not Orban.