I am in Caracas for a few days. One of the reason is that I was allowed to vote at the French embassy to chose the three delegates from the Andean region for the representation of the French living overseas. Yes, that is right, French people registered to vote in an embassy are allowed to elect folks to represent them and their problems when you do not live on French grounds.
It was such a nice moment. Paper ballots that we had to slip in envelope. Casting the actual vote by inserting your envelope in a transparent ballot box instead of having to push a button. The knowledge that actually my vote will be counted as intended; and that in addition if I were to go back to the French embassy at 6PM I could assist to the vote count, without any restriction besides the maximum amount of people that could be allowed in that hall.
There were also election in Europe and I was pissed because we have lost the right to vote for them in embassies. We can do it but we must delegate our vote to someone in France. Since I tend to vote either right or left or even protest vote, depending of the political moment, there is simply no one in France I trust enough where I am registered to vote. So I did not vote.
However I am pleased that the right has progressed significantly and the left experienced a serious setback, even in Spain where they are in office and not doing too bad of a government. No, not because I am a right wing or not: because this result is going to piss off Chavez. Chavismo has criticized the European Parliament more out of sheer ignorance of its role and function than any other reason. They love to mention "la derecha" sometime accompanied with "reaccionaria" or some other choice adjective. Apparently the 700+ representatives are so stupid that they can be manipulated by a dozen folks from the Spanish PP. I cannot wait to see their next reaction to future adverse votes in Strasbourg, and when someone points to them that this right wing that should be shot has actually a solid majority, across the continent.
-The end-