May 06, 2009

European parliamentary elections

It's always fun to sort out your electoral preferences and make some online algorithm decide what party your choices mostly agree with - and then be (pleasantly or not) surprised about the outcome.
The EU has set up a political compass site where you can do this - never mind you have to choose a starting country, the system will compare you with all other European parties.
So I started off in Belgium and was somewhat surprised I was closer in profile to the PVDA (a leftist workers party) than the Green Party (which I would probably vote for if I lived in Belgium). In terms of policy points I matched the SP.A by 73%, the highest matching score. Close by, in other country party matches, were the Swiss socialist parties and the Luxembourg Green Parties.
When only using raw figures, without specific emphasis on policy areas, my score more closely matches the Estonian, Dutch and Luxembourg Green parties (over 80% matching scores).
At the other end of the scale, parties I completely do not match with are the ultra-conservative Polish Christian party and, surprisingly, the Dutch Partij voor de Vrijheid. Obviously Geert Wilders' principled stand against Islamo-fascism isn't reflected in his party policies for Europe.

In an earlier similar exercise I did on the Flemish TV political choice site, it recommended I vote for the SLP (Social Liberal Party), a newly formed progressive party. The SLP didn't even come near in the EU format, which only goes to show outcomes depend on the questions and different emphasis laid on subjects.

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