A personal encounter with voting”, comments on Richard Corbett’s (MEP) article “Why the 2009 European elections matter

I am a second generation immigrant from Germany. When I grew up in Germany immigrants did not have the right to vote, not even in the local elections. At university we campaigned for full citizenship rights, including the right to vote. The process of accepting us as equal members of the society took too long and foreigners were granted the right to vote only after decades of discussions, campaigns and protest. It was a decision that came too late for me. By then I had developed antipathy against party politics and parliament. Now, living in Britain, I have the right to vote at local and European elections. Yet, I can’t be motivated to vote at all, something that seems like a contradiction, as I regard myself as a politically interested and active person. Even more embarrassing, I am doing my PhD thesis about political participation in Europe.Where did it go wrong? I feel alien to the language used by politicians. I don’t see people like me in the political field. Their language is foreign to me, their ethnic and cultural background is different. But I am not a hopeless case! Reading an article about the youngest prospective parliamentary candidate standing in Britain, made me excited about voting again. She spoke from her own world, in her own teenage language. I liked it, it felt real and enthusiastic. Being from a working class immigrant background, identity and representations are very important to me. It seems to me that politics needs more ‘normal’ people, more young people, and more people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds that reflect the diversity of our society. Will I vote at the next European elections? I might have a look at the candidates and the parties, after all I ought to know about it, but I can’t promise anything.