European Parliament – how to make your choice? / Script

There is no one right answer or recipe for how to do it, however, as we approach June 8, the day when we have to go to the polling stations, we can look at some of the scenarios of how voters usually make their political decisions and what results we can expect from it.

This time we will have 16 lists of candidates for deputies of different parties in front of us.

How to recognize the risk of “bright packaging” in elections?

The first tool that we unconsciously (or consciously) use to deal with this wide range of parties is the emotional filter. And regardless of whether we are erudite political analysts or realists of life far removed from politics, first of all we classify all parties emotionally – parties that seem acceptable to us, we have some emotional connection with them (for example, similar values, goals, vision of development) and those that do not appeal to us at all are emotionally completely alien to us.

And often the selection process ends with that – we vote for the most emotionally understandable political force.

But we cannot be sure whether it will always give the expected result. It is almost like buying a product in a store, choosing only by the packaging – the prettiest box, the brightest paper. But does this favorite box also have the tastiest and highest quality content – we haven’t thought about that at the moment and are often disappointed. How to recognize this risk of “bright packaging” in elections?

Usually, this manifests itself as recognizable, respectable, but at the same time not connected with politics, persons who are promoted as the leaders of the lists. With their recognition, these persons instill confidence in the voters and they forget that, in order to professionally perform the duties of a deputy, knowledge and experience in the relevant sector is as necessary as in any other profession.

And even if you cannot train to become a deputy, you can acquire these skills by starting your career in local government institutions, then moving to the level of national administration (Parliament and ministries), and only then applying for the position of a deputy in the European Parliament.

What does the 2024 EP election proposal look like – do the parties use this strategy?

The answer is yes – the several parties choosing such a strategy, for example the “United List” – the Green Party of Latvia, the Union of Regions of Latvia, the Liepāja Party”, have included Reini Pozņak, who is widely known and respected as one of the “Twitter Convoy ” founders – a volunteer who drives cars for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as in 2022 received the award “European person in Latvia”, however, is without any practical political experience.

The same strategy has been chosen by the movement “Par!”, which is promoting Ivanna Volochija as the leader of its list, who is advertised using the designation “Ukrainian European” or a candidate of Ukrainian nationality, who promises to stand up for the common interests of Latvia and Ukraine in the EP, despite the fact that she also has no political experience.

To some extent, the same “bright packaging” strategy is also used by the “Progressives” party, only in a slightly modified form, by announcing Elina Pinto as the leader of its list – a candidate who was previously promoted by the party as a candidate for the position of president, but who has no actual political experience in the elections. there are no administrative institutions.

Finally, the social democratic party “Saskaņa” is also mentioned here, one of the leaders of which is Olga Petkeviča – known as an active representative of Russian-speaking interests in Daugavpils, but in fact she is a public relations specialist of the municipal joint-stock company “Daugavpils siltumtīkli”, a person without political experience and understanding based on it for work in the European Parliament.

There are also several other parties, such as “Stability!”, whose leaders have no political experience, but these leaders are so little recognizable that they cannot appeal to the masses of the public and cannot be considered as a tool for influencing the voters emotionally.

Experience and education

So, when we make a decision on who to vote for, of course, we cannot distance ourselves from our emotions, but we can critically assess whether they allow us to be sure of the candidate’s professionalism and ability to effectively fulfill the duties of an MEP.

If the answer is no, then we can add another tool to the decision-making process – knowledge.

The knowledge component requires that, before we decide which party to vote for, we first remind ourselves what the European Parliament really does. If we keep this in mind, then we will not be deceived by party pre-election promises that the EP cannot fulfill at all (more on this in the next column).

But this time about the knowledge of the parties’ candidates for the position of MEP – their education and political experience at the regional, national and European Union level.

The greater the candidate’s experience in the political sector and, in particular, in the European Parliament, the more reasonable we can hope that this person could fulfill the pre-election promises made by his party.

If we look at the lists of candidates submitted for the 2024 EP elections, four parties stand out, which have chosen candidates with long-term experience in the EP as their leaders – they are: National Union, “Latvijas vytivėnai”, “Jaunā Vienotība” and “Saskaņa”.

The next category consists of parties whose leaders (one or more) have experience in national-level politics (parliament, government): New conservative party, “Latvia in the first place”, “United list”, “Sovereign power”, “People. Land. Statehood” .”, Union of Greens and Farmers.

The third category consists of parties whose leaders mostly have experience in regional-level administrative structures (municipalities) – “Centra Party”, “Progressives”, Movement “For!”. On the other hand, in the last group there are parties whose leaders have no significant political experience – this category includes the list of candidates “Apiviëna Jaunlatvieši”, “Tautas varas saks” and “Stability!”.

Of course, parallel attention can also be paid to the candidates’ education, for example, several parties have chosen to include persons with basic education in their lists – they are “Saskaņa”, “Apiviņa Jaunlatvieši”, “Tautas varas saks”, Movement “For!” and “Sovereign Power”. On the other hand, the two lists of candidates – “Latvijas tīvādas” and “Jaunā Vienotība” are quite the opposite, only persons with higher education are included.

It should also be mentioned, as if it goes without saying, but a very important aspect in the context of knowledge – the English language skills of the candidate for the post of EP.

In order to communicate on a formal and informal level with colleagues – members of parliament from other EU countries and to convince them about decisions relevant to Latvia, the English language is an essential working tool. Therefore, it is definitely worth asking how high a candidate’s language skills are.

Of course, language skills, experience or higher education are not always a guarantee of the quality of work of an MEP. We are reminded of this by the 2014 EP elections, in which ZZS representative Iveta Grigule was elected as one of Latvia’s deputies (she left the party in February 2017). In the European Parliament elections, she ran as number three, but after an intense pre-election campaign, she came to the top of the list and was elected. Her later activity in the EP was marked by various vicissitudes, however, the most scandalous of them was the November 2016 vote, when I. Grigule, together with two other EP members from Latvia – Andreja Mamikina and Tatjana Ždanokas, voted against the European Parliament’s resolution in connection with the fight against Russia and propaganda of terrorist organizations.

Therefore, education, knowledge and experience are an important aspect when thinking about your choice in the EP elections, however, it would be useful to supplement it with other parameters.

Evaluation of successes and failures

If we continue the previously started analogy with the purchase, then getting to know the candidates’ experiences is like reading the composition of the products on the boxes – what is inside one or another neat package – where there is more sugar, where there are flavor enhancers, but where there is only palm oil.

Reading the composition of the product allows us to make an informed choice, based not only on emotions about the beautiful packaging, but also on knowledge about the contents of this packaging. But it must be said that even this second tool is not enough to be able to say that we have done everything we could to make the most thoughtful decision in the elections. Therefore, we come to the third choice-making tool – the evaluation of the political achievements so far – successes and failures.

This means that when thinking about our choice in the elections, we systematically look back at what the politicians and the party have done so far – both in the institutions of the European Union, in the Saeima, in the government and also in local governments.

The more we can find the good deeds done by the party and the candidates, the more likely it is that the promises made in the future will be fulfilled.

Comparing this tool to the consumer market of goods, it can be called the search for reviews.

When we buy a product or service, we often look for past experiences because it gives us security about the quality of a particular product.

It is exactly the same when making a decision in elections – we look at the performance of parties and politicians so far. Here, the information available in the mass media about the activities of each member of parliament, as well as the annual official reports on the member’s work and contribution to the people of Latvia, for example, how often the member has performed the function of a reporter (was appointed by the responsible EP committee as the head of a regulation, directive or promoter of an EP resolution in the EU legislative corridors), how often has he performed the function of an opinion drafter (each bill requires an opinion from other EP committees related to the specific topic), or has he performed the function of a shadow reporter/ shadow opinion drafter (a member of parliament who represents the interests of his political group in the EP committee and follows the progress of the bill or the preparation of the opinion, communicates with the responsible member, tries to find a compromise and achieve important amendments for his political group). Here is an overview of the current MPs’ performance in 2024.

Source: Table prepared by the author, using information from the EP office: “Accomplished in the fifth year of work of the EP deputies elected from Latvia”

The further evaluation process should be up to each voter, the main thing is not to be confused by loud slogans in pre-election rhetoric, to remember that words and promises are not always followed by equally energetic actions and, not always aggressive criticism directed against competitors, is indeed an objective basis.

In conclusion, a road map – six steps that can help to make a rational and possibly successful decision in the European Parliament elections: