European Election Party

Elections were held on Sunday the 13th of June across Europe for the European Parliament. My English student is a lobbyist and had invited me to go to a party thrown by the Heinz Schwarzkopf Foundation which concerns itself with promoting understanding among young adults in the different European countries.

The ambassadors to Germany from Croatia and Ireland were there as well as a handful of German Members of Parliament and European Parliament. The most high-profile guest and nevertheless also the most interesting was Gesine Schwan who was the governing party's candidate for President. She lost the election a few weeks ago to Horst Koehler, the former head of the IMF. She had some interesting things to say about Turkey's bid to join the EU, but unfortunately I can't remember the chain of argument. It was difficult for me to understand because everyone around was loudly carrying on conversations amongst themselves and not paying much attention to her speaking.

This inattention is ironic becuase the party and its speakers were supposed to be in part addressing the question of why there was so much voter apathy in the European Parliament elections (German participation was about 40%) and all the while the people were just carrying on amongst themselves and waiting for the soccer game to come on the big screen tv's set up for that purpose (the European soccer championship is underway). Doctor, heal thyself.