Tourists were stopped and asked their opinion
Credit: EWN Media Group
From June 6 to 9, citizens from all over Europe participated in the European elections to select the 720 members of the European Parliament.
Elections took place in 27 countries, with the preliminary results emerging every hour through live counting.
We asked a number of Europeans living in Spain for their thoughts on the elections.
Swedish thoughts
Julia Lager, a 27-year-old from Sweden, highlights the bureaucratic hurdles that immigrants face when voting outside their home country. “For the elections, I usually don t vote at all, it s because I need to go to Sweden, I m pretty sure, or to the consulate, or something like that,” said Lager.
“At least there should be some kind of information on how to vote and where can you vote,” she added.
Anna, 29, from Denmark, came to Fuengirola to work and hopes to learn Spanish to understand the local political landscape. “I left Denmark three years ago, so I don t really follow Danish politics anymore,” Anna explained. “But I am going to follow Spanish politics. I just need to learn Spanish.”
View from Germany
Juan, who lived in Germany before coming to Spain, shares his frustrations with trying to vote outside his home country. “I heard that this vote doesn t count because I m not voting in the country, I m voting in another country, but for another country. So for me, I m a little bit disappointed,” he said.
I just don t trust anybody anymore
This sentiment is shared by Tommy, a 73-year-old from Hungary, who opted not to vote. “I know it s my choice. I just don t trust anybody anymore. I ve seen too much in my life. And then you don t know really the person, it s just what they say,”
Kimmy, a lawyer from Denmark, questions the relevance of the European elections for the population. “The European election is not going to matter so much for the ordinary people,” he stated. However, he acknowledges that some aspects of governance might work better in Spain compared to Denmark, and for this reason, he decided to work in Fuengirola.
A Swedish expatriate, who preferred to remain anonymous, expressed that political situations in their home country also influenced their decision to move to Spain. “That s why I moved to Spain, to be honest. I didn t want my kids to grow up in Sweden where the right wings were kind of taking over. But we see that all over Europe now,” said the 39-year-old expatriate.
The mixed reactions of foreigners in Fuengirola highlight the broader challenges faced by European voters. While bureaucratic hurdles, language barriers, and distrust in the political system obstruct participation, the significance of these elections ca not be overlooked.
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I think that the general shift to the right is because many people are sick of oppressive green policies (agenda 30), governments making farmers go out of business (and therefore fear of food shortages) and mass immigration from outside of Europe. When politicians march forward with unpopular policies then they get ousted, eventually.
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