You asked for it (12)
Jun. 11th, 2005 09:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gerbieYou need to write about the "no" vote in your country (requested by ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lorelei_aisling)
The Dutch followed the French in rejecting the European constitution. According to a lot of media around the world this was a big event. Yet a week and a half later, nothing has happened to my life yet. There has been not a single moment that this no affected day to day life. I did write about the referendum before, as I am not a big fan of a referendum: http://www.livejournal.com/users/gerbie/395065.html
Obviously the event was bigger than I want it to be.
In April I wrote about my dilemma. What should I do?
http://www.livejournal.com/users/gerbie/392693.html
I didn’t vote myself. My arguments against the referendum were strong. My arguments in favour of the constitution were weak. Hence I didn’t go.
What surprised me most was the turnout. The yes/no predictions were accurate. The turnout was almost 20% higher than predicted. It does say something. Easy explanation: people finally had the chance to have a vote. Most important decisions have been taken without any influence by the people. The Euro had an impact, mostly negative according to the man in the street. Suddenly he forgot that inflation makes prices rise anyway, everything bad: blame it on the euro. Next to that, 10 new countries have entered the union last year. People were afraid Polish or other Eastern Europeans would take their jobs. Nothing like that happened. Negotiations have started with Turkey for their entry in 10 years time. With the world wide fear of the Islam, this point has been made very important. Fear is an important factor, as Michael Moore already pointed out very delicately in his last movies. It became known that the Dutch are biggest contributors (per capita) in the EU. Solidarity is not a very strong point in a western economy, especially not in times of recession.
As some analyst correctly said: there were at least 20 different referendums. ‘No’ because one doesn’t like the government. ‘Yes’, because we’ll tell the French how it works. ‘No’ because of the desperate and weak campaign the Dutch government spent millions on in the last months. Many other non arguments were used. This was not a referendum on the European constitution. It was a chance to have a go at the powers. 63% showed up, 63% voted ‘No’.
I dare state that less than 1% actually knew what they were voting for. It was impossible anyway. Thousands of pages of bureaucratic language. Even the brochures and summaries were unreadable. I consider myself fairly intelligent, I am interested; even I couldn’t manage to get a good idea about what I had to vote for.
The referendum was a fiasco. The Dutch government, disappointed, immediately used the result to discuss the Dutch payments to the EU. An opportunist is a weak qualification. The constitution is at risk with 2 countries that cannot ratify it now. Europe will continue to grow regardless. The countries still have to discuss a bit more though. As ever. It’s what they like doing.
My life doesn’t change a bit I guess.
(You asked for it, a series I started to give anyone the opportunity to tell me what to write. You want to tell me as well: leave a comment or mail me (E-mail in user info). This was part 12, no request waiting at the moment. Looking forward to the next request.)
lorelei_aisling)The Dutch followed the French in rejecting the European constitution. According to a lot of media around the world this was a big event. Yet a week and a half later, nothing has happened to my life yet. There has been not a single moment that this no affected day to day life. I did write about the referendum before, as I am not a big fan of a referendum: http://www.livejournal.com/users/gerbie/395065.html
Obviously the event was bigger than I want it to be.
In April I wrote about my dilemma. What should I do?
http://www.livejournal.com/users/gerbie/392693.html
I didn’t vote myself. My arguments against the referendum were strong. My arguments in favour of the constitution were weak. Hence I didn’t go.
What surprised me most was the turnout. The yes/no predictions were accurate. The turnout was almost 20% higher than predicted. It does say something. Easy explanation: people finally had the chance to have a vote. Most important decisions have been taken without any influence by the people. The Euro had an impact, mostly negative according to the man in the street. Suddenly he forgot that inflation makes prices rise anyway, everything bad: blame it on the euro. Next to that, 10 new countries have entered the union last year. People were afraid Polish or other Eastern Europeans would take their jobs. Nothing like that happened. Negotiations have started with Turkey for their entry in 10 years time. With the world wide fear of the Islam, this point has been made very important. Fear is an important factor, as Michael Moore already pointed out very delicately in his last movies. It became known that the Dutch are biggest contributors (per capita) in the EU. Solidarity is not a very strong point in a western economy, especially not in times of recession.
As some analyst correctly said: there were at least 20 different referendums. ‘No’ because one doesn’t like the government. ‘Yes’, because we’ll tell the French how it works. ‘No’ because of the desperate and weak campaign the Dutch government spent millions on in the last months. Many other non arguments were used. This was not a referendum on the European constitution. It was a chance to have a go at the powers. 63% showed up, 63% voted ‘No’.
I dare state that less than 1% actually knew what they were voting for. It was impossible anyway. Thousands of pages of bureaucratic language. Even the brochures and summaries were unreadable. I consider myself fairly intelligent, I am interested; even I couldn’t manage to get a good idea about what I had to vote for.
The referendum was a fiasco. The Dutch government, disappointed, immediately used the result to discuss the Dutch payments to the EU. An opportunist is a weak qualification. The constitution is at risk with 2 countries that cannot ratify it now. Europe will continue to grow regardless. The countries still have to discuss a bit more though. As ever. It’s what they like doing.
My life doesn’t change a bit I guess.
(You asked for it, a series I started to give anyone the opportunity to tell me what to write. You want to tell me as well: leave a comment or mail me (E-mail in user info). This was part 12, no request waiting at the moment. Looking forward to the next request.)
