The European Parliament elections are tomorrow* and there’s nobody to vote for. (technically e-voting and pre-voting started on monday, but I always vote on the „correct“ day)
The only mainstream party that doesn’t want war with Russia (or says it doesn’t) is EKRE. However, I don’t want to vote for them. Not only are they very conservative but recently their MEP Jaak Madison was accused of sexually harassing someone.
Another option is KOOS. They, too, are socially conservative but they are the only anti-NATO party. Not much point in voting for them though, polls show KOOS will get less than 2% of votes.
I probably shouldn’t vote at all. Not only is my vote worthless but we only have 7 seats in the European Parliament so it doesn’t matter anyway. I know that bourgeois elections are mostly pointless, it just sucks to see how little my opinion matters.
Sorry, this is mostly a vent post with some links to give y’all context (not very good sources), I just feel alone and nobody IRL understands.
Im from Austria. The popular opinion here on many things is just plain stupid.
Telling others that china is not as bad as media wants us to believe, or being anti-zionist, or claiming NATO has fucked up so much in Europe will be met with weird reactions, ignorance, aggression or questioning your sanity…
So our communist party is careful in the way they speak…
By the way, you don’t have to vote for the socdem KPÖ. You have the PdA (Partei der Arbeit) in Austria, which, judging by their publication at least, seems a much more serious and principled ML party. There’s also the ISA (Internationale Sozialistische Alternative), though as the name gives away they are Trotskyists and as such have a lot of bad takes on Russia and China.
I’m just saying, there’s not just the one “communist” party in most European countries. Usually if you look into it you will find that other smaller ones exist too and they may be more principled and more in line with your values.
Now i don’t know whether these two which i mentioned are on the ballot in this EU election given that both of these parties are much smaller than the KPÖ, but you should be aware that usually there are alternatives.
Thank you! They have not been on the ballot, but I’ll check it out.
For now i did vote, but after some studying I’m not so sure anymore if I want to support this system.
I thought: Support the KPÖ, they’re the most left we have on the ballot. The chance that people actually see what the left (although liberal) is about. And maybe they can easier be convinced to read more on socialism/communism.
But after reading that seems reformative and even damaging the revolutionary part of ML.
Ah yes, i know the KPÖ. They are “eurocommunists”. They associate with the “Party of the European Left” at the EU level. This puts them firmly in the camp of pro-EU social democrats. They are fully on board the anti-Russia bandwagon on the Ukraine issue.
So they are opportunists tailing the liberal mainstream consensus.
They have made a conscious choice to fall in line. That is the price many of these kinds of parties believe they have to pay in order to be allowed a seat at the table. They do what they think they have to do in order to be allowed to acquire political power in the bourgeois system.
The only thing i can say about that has already been said by comrade Vladimir Ilyich:
“We are marching in a compact group along a precipitous and difficult path, firmly holding each other by the hand. We are surrounded on all sides by enemies, and we have to advance almost constantly under their fire. We have combined, by a freely adopted decision, for the purpose of fighting the enemy, and not of retreating into the neighbouring marsh, the inhabitants of which, from the very outset, have reproached us with having separated ourselves into an exclusive group and with having chosen the path of struggle instead of the path of conciliation. And now some among us begin to cry out: Let us go into the marsh! And when we begin to shame them, they retort: What backward people you are! Are you not ashamed to deny us the liberty to invite you to take a better road! Oh, yes, gentlemen! You are free not only to invite us, but to go yourselves wherever you will, even into the marsh. In fact, we think that the marsh is your proper place, and we are prepared to render you every assistance to get there. Only let go of our hands, don’t clutch at us, for we too are “free” to go where we please, free to fight not only against the marsh, but also against those who are turning towards the marsh!”