Ségolène Royal
- Thread starter an capall
- Start date
Whaddid I tell ya? They've started already! Odd sort of summation by one of the tv channels (it might've been the Beeb, or ITV - forgotten which I was watching now): 'too right wing for the socialists', 'too left-wing for the traditionalists' or something like that. It left me more confused than usual. (Not that that's at all difficult!)Urm..... thinking about it, I've got a feeling that under UK and European law there's a whole host of nationalities who can stand. But I also stand to be corrected.
David Steel stood for a seat in Italy as an MEP remember, and I recently stood for the Welsh assembly myself off an English address, which is hardly the same but the terms specified any citizen from within the EU or Commonwealth was eligible to stand as a candidate in line with the usual criteria of age etc So strictly speaking anyone from East Europe right across the globe to New Zealand, could have stood.
Now I wouldn't give much to anyone's chances of pulling such a stunt, but could the French socialist party technically field candidates in the UK?, and if the electorate was fed up with Labour and wanted a left wing restoration could they technically form a government subject to getting enough votes? Or could they try some kind of Trotskyist tactic of fielding EU citizens as independents, who upon getting enough votes then decided to declare that they were forming a party of common interest?.
Come to think of it, we don't elect a Prime Minister in this country, unlike America or France who do elect their national leaders. We elect a Member of Parliament to represent us etc even though they are usually affiliated to a particular party. That party then meets to decide/ confirm who its parliamentary leader is, although in reality it's always pretty understood prior to the election of course. Could Labour MP's decide that they want Segolene as their leader, (provided she'd won a parlimentary seat) and we can give Blair to the French? Actually, a peer of the realm can serve in a government so we'd only have to enoble her, she wouldn't need to even win a seat?
I've often wondered why the SNP don't field candidates in South East England too, as I'm sure they'd pick up votes.
Thinking about it, there must be a stipulation for a general election, though I can see the logic behind any EU citizen being allowed to stand in any EU country for a European election, if Europe is the electorate. I can't if the truth were told though, see the logic behind allowing any EU or Commonwealth citizen to stand in an assembly election