Euro Elections and fsfe

[Florian Snow]

Hi Vitaly,


Vitaly Repin <vitaly_repin at fsfe.org> writes:
> Strong assiociation with any political movement (eurosceptics,
> liberals, social democrats etc) is a mistake in my opinion.

I agree.  That is why the FSFE does not associate itself with a
political movement.  We want to be able to talk to any politician.



> Why can't FSFE monitor how each and every MEP voted for the matters
> regarding free software dyring the current and previous election term
> and present this statistics at FSFE web site (searchable web pages +
> json/xml)?

I like the idea, but I also worry about its effect.  Other groups have
similar lists, for instance the NRA about gun control in the US, and
there's a guy who makes US politicians sign a pledge to never raise
taxes and he tracks that.  It creates a problem when people take this
lists about singular issues as the sole basis for their vote.  Politics
is more complicated than that and I personally feel that while Free
Software is important, there are clearly more existential issues out
there that should take precedence.  Some politicians will be more
knowledgable about those than about Free Software and when it comes to
technology, they will vote with their trusted colleagues.  I would not
want to fault them for that.

That being said, if you think, if you think this is an important matter,
would you be able to compile and maintaint the data?

Happy hacking!
Florian