BPN 1351 European Elections start in Holland

Today the European elections start in the Netherlands and the UK. In the Netherlands 13 million people can vote; they do not have to vote like in Belgium. The Netherlands is not famous for a record showing of voters. Fourty percent of 13 million is already a lot. It is interesting to see tomorrow morning what the percentage will be. (As we are not using voting machines any longer, as they can be tampered with theoretically, we are again centuries back to the red pencil!).

I have voted already early in the morning. The party choice was not easy. On the one hand we have the Europe haters, who will join the European parliament to frustrate any European initiative. They basically want to collect votes against the present Dutch cabinet, which is pretty weak. On the other hand we have the traditional parties of Christians, socialists and liberals. New parties this time around, are the parties not rooted in the Dutch political system, but parties which profile themselves as European parties such as Newropeans and Libertas. Those parties are not represented in all 27 countries, but in a few countries only. The Newropeans for example are represented in Germany and France. Interestingly enough they also have linked up with the Pirate Party from Sweden, a political party based on intellectual property. The Newropeans agree with the principles of the Pirate Party: disagreement with the present copyright rules, against DRM technologies and elimination of blank media tax.

My vote is clear. I am in favour of Europe and will not vote on the parties which want to frustrate any European initiative. I am not favouring the new European parties as they have hardly presented and promoted themselves. In the Netherlands, only Mr Reinder Rustema was active promoting the Newropeans and as Obama did he did it on internet. He teaches media at Amsterdam University and has indicated to agree with the principles of the Pirate Party. I have resorted to a social liberal party.

After voting, I have set myself to some administrative chores: filling out the financial forms and timesheets of the project Scienar, subsidised by the European Commission. The main objective of Scienar is to stimulate the creativity of artists by means of the creation of innovative scientific scenarios, based on scientific models. In particular, the project intends to create an environment, constituted by three scientific scenarios, concerning: the theory of relativity, symetries and geometry. The project has just opened its website.

Blog Posting Number: 1351

Tags: media policy