When you vote in an election to the Scottish Parliament or UK parliament or even Edinburgh Council you do so with a balance of the candidate you’re voting for, the party they represent and the person they will vote for in parliament or council for First Minister, Prime Minister or Leader of the council.
The same is true at an EU election, you vote for a list balancing the candidates on that list, the parties they represent but also the group in the EU parliament their party works with an a Europe level and who they will vote for as President of the EU Commission (The Commission is the name of the government of the EU). The candidates for President of the EU Commission are called the Spitzenkandidaten which is German for lead candidate.
So just voted for SNP and Alyn Smith? You have just voted for Oriel Junqueras as President of the EU Commission. Oriel is in jail in Spain for being a member of the Catalan government which organised a referendum on independence. Thanks for supporting the cause.
Tree hugging Green voter? You voted for two candidates. These are also the candidates that the SNP votes will fall back on once Oriel is out the way as the Greens and the SNP work together in the EU parliament in a Green/Europe Free Alliance pact.
Maybe you’re a unionist but pro-Europe and voted for the Lib Dems. That means you voted to sit on the fence and have a whole load of potential President candidates as part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe (ALDE)
- Guy Verhofstadt (President of the ALDE group, MEP and former Prime Minister of Belgium
- Margrethe Vestager (Commissioner for Competition, previous Danish Minister for Economy and Interior)
- Nicola Beer, national spitzenkandidat of ALDE party in Germany FDP
- Katalin Cseh, national spitzenkandidat of ALDE party in Hungary Momentum
- Luis Garicano, Vice President of the ALDE Party
- Emma Bonino (Former European Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, former Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs)
- Violeta Bulc (Commissioner for Transport, former Deputy Prime Minister of Slovenia)
Or maybe you want to split the Unionist pro-Europe vote and went with new group Change UK. Despite being made up of mostly former Labour MPs they are actually aligned with the tory grouping EPP. The EPP currently is the largest group in parliament and has their man in the current president position (Jean Claud Junkier).
If you’re for some reason sticking with Labour because you want to leave the EU and destroy your society you just voted for Frans Timmerman who may well win the job.
Of course the Scottish tory party isn’t part of the EPP tory grouping because that would make them pro-EU so they quit and made their own socially right wing group full of nutters like themselves.
There’s a left wing candidate too but we can’t vote for her in Scotland as we have no left wing parties around any more and Colin Fox seems to have given up.
Results come in tonight but it’s the sabbath so in Scotland we don’t count them until tomorrow.
More info on Europe Elects website.