What would happen if on April 28th the party furthest from your ideological positions achieved a relevant position in Parliament? What would you do? Would you take to the streets to destroy public property, to protest the presence of a radical, lying, or corrupt party in the chamber? Nothing influences the constitution of the Congress of Deputies and the Government of the nation more than votes. Your vote. But remember, the result must always be respected because those who vote for other parties are not convinced with force but with arguments.
Political participation through the democratic act of voting, however boring, insignificant, or insufficient it may seem, is important. So important that, as we can see in the European Parliament's advertisements for its elections, your opinion ends up in the trash if you don't participate. Furthermore, it is useless to spend all day complaining or attacking those parties democratically elected when you have been unable to take the car and go to the corresponding polling station to vote. And in this aspect, it seems that the people of Lanzarote are professionals.
In the 2016 general elections, abstention in Lanzarote reached 41.67%. That is, 39,906 citizens did not attend the polls. A figure that becomes very relevant if we combine it with the 55,860 citizens who voted, as it means that only a little more than half of the people of Lanzarote have expressed their opinion at the polls. Then came the complaints, the tears, etc., because the ruling party was not to the liking of many "conejeros" (people from Lanzarote), but as we cannot know who has exercised their right to vote and who has not (because it is secret), we cannot know who is complaining with the right to do so and who is doing it from "the sofa".
Therefore, I insist that you go to vote. It doesn't matter who you vote for if you do it freely, but go vote. Participate and then complain. Participate and then demand. But participate. Democracy is built from the bottom up by punishing or rewarding those at the top through your vote. If you do not agree with their proposals, change to the party that is closest to your ideas. It doesn't matter if yesterday you voted for the PP and tomorrow you vote for the PSOE. Just as parties change their ideological principles, voters can change parties, and even ideas. Do not vote for a party by tradition, by automatism, because your friends or neighbors do. Be interested, get informed, but be careful with misinformation, with fake news and hoaxes circulating on the networks. Be objective, maybe you don't like a party, but they are right on some specific issue. And, above all, respect the result.
Alejandro Pérez O'pray, Political Science and Administration from the UNED.
*Data taken from El País.
