New
#431
Today my beloved Finland went to polls, to elect a new Parliament for the next 4 year period. As an ex-pat, I gave my vote last week in Finnish consulate (advanced voting for Finns living abroad was 6th to 9th of April). Following the election ATM live from Finnish TV I can see my candidate went through. A young, liberal woman. First time for me to vote a woman, first time not to vote Republicans. Congratulations, Tuija!
Also first time I really feel afraid for my country of origin. The ultra right party, which had 5 seats out of 200 in old Parliament, is now the biggest winner. When 60% of votes are counted, it looks they are getting 42 seats. Their slogans: send foreigners home, no more asylum seekers and other foreigners, Finland out from European Union, no more Euro, instead they want Finnish Mark (old currency) back. All arguments which I disagree.
Anyway, that's democracy. The people have spoken.
For those interested, European election system in nutshell: Within European union, the people vote in their country of origin in Parliament and President elections, and in their country of residence in local and European Parliament elections. So, I vote (as a citizen of an EU country living in another EU country) in Finnish Parliament and President elections, and in German local (town / district / state) elections and Eurepean Parliament elections.
If I would like to participate as a candidate, I could be a candidate for Parliament of Finland in Finland, President of Finland, town council in Leipzig, Germany, state parliament in state Saxony in Germany, or as a German candidate to European Parliament.
Kari
Official election 2011 site of Ministry of the Interior of Finland (in English): Elections - Vaalit
Wikipedia, Finnish parliamentary election 2011: Finnish parliamentary election, 2011 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Today I came with a PC and a notebook to fix. The PC needs formatting - lots of virus, and configuration errors (old age users, that start to use the new tool without first make a training) :)
The notebook is of a friend family. Windows Live Messenger don´t connect, don´t uninstall, and don´t give me a chance to do all in a good way. Time to try a system restore.
And I´m still sad... the brazilian recent tragedy still make a havoc in many of us... to the ones that are not aware of our recent sorrow: Why?
I'm really afraid now, the results are official. (re: Today [7]).
These neo-nazis got 39 of 200 seats in Parliament, which makes it almost impossible to form a government without giving them some cabinet seats. I fear my native Finland is going to a direction I would have never wanted to see.
Mods, please, I know this is politics and per se forbidden, according to forum rules. Please remove this post if you feel so.
Kari