Europe Blog
Our views on the Internet and society
Involving French citizens in the 2014 municipal elections
Thursday, February 13, 2014
In March, French citizens will head to the polls to decide who is best fit to manage their cities. Before they vote, they will engage in a heated debate on issues ranging from housing, to urban planning and local taxes. We believe the Internet can play a central role in facilitating this debate and access to information. This is why we have partnered with France’s public TV network France Televisions - its information website
France TV info
and its regional TV channel
France 3
- to allow French internet users to question candidates via Hangout on Air.
Visit
“Mon Débat 2014”
(My debate 2014) and register for these live debates or organise your own. More than 50 Hangouts are set to take place across the country in the weeks to come. Once they have taken place, the playbacks of the debates will be available to watch.
This week, the two main candidates in the race to become the next mayor of Paris,
+Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet
and
+Anne Hidalgo
, will both answer questions from citizens via Hangout on Air. Sign up now to participate. Below, see an example of an already conducted hangout.
The platform also will serve as a news hub. Users will be able to browse electoral news curated just as the rest of the platform by our partner, France TV info, and discover election search trends to get a sense of what fellow French citizens have on their mind.
Posted by the Election Team, Google France
Enhancing Greek democracy
Monday, October 14, 2013
The timing for the debate was ideal: Greece is fighting against an unprecedented political - as much as economic - crisis. Earlier this month, police arrested several leaders of a far-right, xenophobic, neo-fascist party Golden Dawn, charging it with a variety of serious criminal offenses including murder. At the beginning of next year, the country takes over the six month European Union presidency.
In response, we became a supporter and prime mover behind the first
“Digital Democracy” conference
, held in the original 19th-century
Old Parliament
building in Athens. Participants included the Deputy Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister, the Deputy Foreign Minister, the e-Government Minister and the Minister responsible for public television. The conference explored the ways that digital technologies and the Internet enhance democracy by changing the nature of political communication.
Speakers concluded that a democratic deficit exists in Europe which the Internet can help fill. Politicians need to leverage the web for a two-way dialogue, listening as much as talking to citizens. We need to close the digital literacy gap which leaves certain parts of the population - the less digitally savvy - out of democratic processes. Most important, the Government needs to use Internet tools to increase transparency via the use of open data and of online public consultations.
Other countries face similar challenges. No silver bullet exists. It will take sweat and perseverance for the Greece and the rest of Europe to solidify their democracies.
Posted by Dionisis Kolokotsas, Policy Manager, Athens
Debating the German General Election
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
The Internet allows new and fascinating exchanges between citizens and politics. For Germany’s upcoming September 22 general election, we launched this week
a map
to help German voters find information about the the country's 299 voting districts and learn about the candidates in all of Germany's electoral district. On election night, the map will display official results.
This new feature adds to our recently launched
Election Page
which aims to allow voters to make informed choices. Our motto is "2013+you. It's your election. Take part in the discussion.” The page tracks the campaign’s hottest topics with news, video and other links. It includes a new debating tool on Google+ that allows anybody, with just a few clicks, to participate in discussions and join the German language Google+ Community, "Politics & Elections."
A new series of "Hangouts" with politicians are being held on blogger
Tilo Jung’s "Jung & Naiv"
site. In these video chats, he addresses young, often first-time voters. Tilo already has hosted Pirate party politician
Marina Weisband
and Social Democrat Chancellor Candidate,
Peer Steinbrück
.
Another election partner
politik-digital.de
, provides for the selection of editorial content on
google.de/wahle
n. Much more is planned: we will continue to provide interesting Google search trends. And on election night we will provide fresh election results as they come. Keep coming to our election page and participate!
Posted by Ralf Bremer, Senior Communications and Public Affairs Manager, Berlin
Bringing Italy’s election campaign online
Thursday, January 31, 2013
For the past several years, we’ve worked to engage voters in the electoral process, creating election websites in countries around the globe. A notable recent example was
Kenya
. Now we’re gearing up for the Italian elections scheduled for February 24 and 25.
Our Italian elections project builds on previous
initiatives
in the country to promote dialogue between politicians and the public. We aim to go beyond spreading information about the vote, focusing on promoting the interaction between citizens and politicians through digital tools. Policymakers will be able to use the new electoral platform to reach voters through Google Hangouts and live streaming. Developers will compete in a 1App4democracy contest to improve democratic participation.
This new
Italy Google Elections
campaign was launched at a recent event in Rome. The event featured a debate about “Web and Democracy” between former Minister of Innovation Renato Brunetta, Italia Futura party parliamentarian Andrea Romano, and blogger and parliamentary candidate Giuseppe Civati.
In the coming month, we will work closely with politicians to allow them to discuss directly with voters. Parliament president Gianfranco Fini, Centre-Catholic party leader Pierferdinando Casini and liberal Prime Minister candidate Fare Oscar Giannino already have taken advantage Google tools such as
hangouts
.
This ambitious project is possible thanks to the participation of two important media partners: La7, the second largest private broadcaster, and La Stampa, a leading daily newspaper. We hope this project will help Italians make their choice for their next government.
Posted by Diego Ciulli, Policy Manager, Italy
Keeping Voters Informed Ahead of the Kenyan Elections
Monday, January 14, 2013
Cross-posted with the
Google Africa Blog
The Internet is increasingly playing an important role in transforming the way citizens participate and engage in the elections across Africa, as we saw last year in
Senegal
and
Ghana
.
Next it’s Kenya’s turn. March 4th 2013 will be a pivotal moment as Kenyan voters go to the polls to decide the country’s future. This will be Kenya’s first general election under the
new constitution
and following the post-election violence of 2007-2008. Expectations are high both for a peaceful transition and a deepening of democracy under the new constitution. Voters are already turning to the internet for information: according to
Google Zeitgeist
, the Independent Boundaries and Electoral Commission was the top trending search in Kenya in 2012, and all the major candidates have a strong presence across the various social media outlets.
We want to help empower Kenyans with accessible and useful information during the upcoming elections so we’re launching a number of initiatives to make it easy for voters to find information and make their voices heard. We have
partnered with the Electoral Commission to provide open source technology powering their
online voter tools
, including online registration confirmation and over SMS, mapping the polling stations, and a
developer API
. We are also
training local journalists, civil society and political parties on digital tools for elections, and partnering with local media organizations to support the use of Google+ Hangouts for
interviews with candidates
.
G+Hangout on GhettoFM with MikeSonko who is vying for Senator
Our
Kenya Elections Hub
is a portal where voters, journalists and campaigns can track news and trends about the election.
The Kenyan election will be followed both locally and globally in 2013. As we head to voting day we will continue to work to keep Kenyans more informed about this critical process.
Posted by
Ory Okolloh, Google Policy and Government Relations Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa
A new way of talking politics in Italy
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Traditionally, politics is conducted top down, with politicians speaking to the people. The Internet can help break this mould, allowing the people to question politicians. We have developed a series of tools on
Google+
and
YouTube
to help connect citizens with their leaders.
In Italy, we worked with
La Stampa
, one of Italy’s most prestigious daily newspapers, to enable citizens to question three senior Italian politicians in a
Google+ Hangout
. Under the headline
A New Relation Between Citizens and Politicians
, La Stampa elicited interview questions from Google+ users on how the web can be used to “rebuild the relationships between citizens and politicians and overcome the populism which is damaging our confidence in our members of parliament.”
Citizens submitted their questions via La Stampa’s Google+ page.
Maurizio Lupi
, Vice President of the Italian Parliament and member of the centre-right PDL Party;
Enrico Letta
, Vice-Secretary General of the centre-left Democratic Party; and
Roberto Rao
, Member of Parliament for the centrist UDC party, answered. Topics focused on the economic crisis and youth employment.
“Most MPs use the web only as a showcase,” acknowledged Mr. Rao. “Just a few of us understand the potential of the web to interact with citizens.”
Politicians using the web “is an important experiment,” said Mr. Letta. “If it succeeds it can be used much more as a way to engage citizens,”
We hope that this inaugural Hangout encourages other politicians to engage with voters online in the run up to the Italian elections in spring 2013. Stay tuned.
Posted by Diego Ciulli, Policy Analyst Google Italy
Follow the French elections on Google
Friday, June 8, 2012
After electing a
new President
in May, French citizens head to the polls again on Sunday for Parliamentary elections. Over 6,000 candidates are competing to win just 577 seats in the Parliament. It promises to be an exciting contest and, as with the Presidential election, you can follow all the action on our special politics and elections website,
www.google.fr/elections
.
Built together with French news agency
AFP
(Agence France Presse), the site gives easy access to up-to-the-minute information about the election. You can sort news and videos from Google News and YouTube by political party or specific campaign theme - and interact directly with with political parties via their Google+ pages.
Throughout Sunday evening, a special Google Map will show the results of the first round of voting. The results will be displayed live, as they are published by the Ministry of the Interior, across all of France’s 577 electoral districts.
The French website is the latest edition of our Politics and Election platform, which has so far been rolled out in the
US
,
Mexico
,
Egypt
and
Senegal
in an effort to give internet users easier access to information about elections.
See you Sunday, and as we say in French: bonne navigation!
Posted by Florian Maganza, Policy Analyst
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