European Parliamentary elections: Parties fear mass abstention in Spain
Sunday, May 25, 2014 @ 7:46 PM
MEMBERS of European Parliament, or MEPs spend four days a week away from home as part of their normal duties – but in compensation, they receive a salary totalling around 8,000 euros a month.
But despite their sizeable pay packets, they have failed to win over the Spanish public as yet – so widespread is 'abstention fever' that the central government has forbidden any parties from 'inviting' residents to vote on their campaign posters, considering that every citizen has the right to choose not to vote.
And although anti-Europe independent party UKIP has won an unprecedented number of votes in the British local elections this week, with a referendum on EU membership due to be held in the autumn of 2017, Spanish citizens are said to be even more Euro-sceptic – only 41 per cent said in surveys that they trusted the European Union and felt it was a good idea to be part of it, compared to nearly 50 per cent of Britons.
Also, according to the last EuroBarometer, 81 per cent of Spaniards say they know little or nothing about what goes on within the EU.
Today's elections are marked by the threat of abstention, by an influx of new, minority independent parties – including Vox, led by former PP member of Parliament Alejo Vidal-Quadras - as well as the PP attempting to repair the damage caused by its candidate, Miguel Arias Cañete's remark about men's intellectual superiority and the rival PSOE milking this comment for all it is worth
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com