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Of Lithuania’s three countrywide polls that may happen this 12 months, the European Parliament (EP) election often receives the least consideration. Vladas Gaidys, a sociologist and head of pollster Vilmors, is even somewhat misplaced for phrases about them.
“To let you know the reality, I have not given [the EP election] a lot consideration”, he says. “Everyone seems to be extra within the presidential ones. My first response could be that individuals right here do not actually differentiate between the roles [of the elections].” Of the 12 months’s three elections, he too finds the EP contest to be the least fascinating.
“Probably the most fascinating, in fact, is the presidential election. There you’ll be able to look a candidate within the eye, like in athletics, or a horse race. It’s tougher to look their events within the eye, besides, there may be nonetheless pleasure there. However right here [the EP] is one thing very far-off. Your pursuits are being represented, but it surely takes a specialist to grasp the topic.”
Mr Gaidys says that one will search laborious to search out any particular European Parliament election marketing campaign occurring in Lithuania.
“In case you searched, you would discover it. These already within the European Parliament, I feel, wish to keep for one more time period. It takes 5 years to grasp the way it works. [Social Democrat leader] Vilija Blinkevičiūtė is the apparent instance right here. Clearly she is just not drawn to this nation, the place she is on the mercy of journalists. Over there, you’re coping with heads of state and authorities…”
A European wage
Vytautas Dumbliauskas, a political scientist at Mykolas Romeris College (MRU), says solely half-jokingly that the EP election is just of curiosity to those that are on occasion lists.
“The EP doesn’t decide the lifetime of an odd particular person very a lot. It’s considerably powerless. The European Fee, which isn’t elected by anybody, has extra energy than a parliament elected by residents”, he argues.
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