The diabolical chicken and the dog with two tails: The six strangest parties for which voters can vote in the 2024 European elections

There are a lot of political parties vying to win the vote of the voters in the European Parliament elections in June, but others do not seem to take everything so seriously, reports Euronews, which has made an analysis of the formations entering the race for a place in the EU legislature.

The European elections will take place in June, and the established parties are fighting hard to win the vote of the voters, who must appoint the 720 MEPs who will determine the course of EU legislation in the next five years. However, there are also a number of more specialized, if not bizarre, options.

While the countdown is approaching, Euronews analyzed the electoral lists to find the strangest options that Europeans could face at the polls, notes News.ro.

Esperanto Democratic Europe Party

Voters in France can put their stamp on the Esperanto Democratic Europe party. He is waging a single-issue campaign, trying to add this artificial language, invented in 1887, to the list of 24 official languages ​​of the EU bloc.

“The EU bodies operate almost exclusively in English,” the documents on the party’s website state. “The European population feels isolated from its leaders,” the party claims.

Is the lack of Esperanto really the reason why voters feel disconnected from Brussels? In 2019, in the previous European Parliament elections, 18,587 members of the French electorate thought yes, which places the party at 0.08% of the national total.

It became one of the 28 parties that ran in France, but did not obtain any MEP. Other groups that have shared the same fate promote animal rights, revolutionary communism and France’s exit from the EU.

All that remains is to wish “bonchogcon” to the retired civil servant Laure Patas d’Illiers, who leads this year’s Esperanto list, comments Euronews.

The party for millennials

Across Europe, party strategists are trying to determine which arguments resonate with the young or the old. Now, there is a party for millennials: but not for the generation of voters born at the beginning of the last millennium, but for those who hope to reach the next one, in the year 3000.

Alongside the main parties, such as the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats, voters in Germany can choose from a range of options dedicated to vegetarianism, humanism and animal rights.

Or they could opt for a special interest party – dedicated to biomedical research for rejuvenation or even stopping the aging process altogether.

The website of the Partei für schulmedizinische Verjüngungsforschung (Party for Rejuvenation of Conventional Medical Research) says it will invest €40 billion a year in EU money to provide “unlimited healthy life for everyone”, promising Europeans the chance of a lifetime of life for thousands of years.

Who wants to live forever? We’ll find out in June.

“Don’t Vote For Us” Party

If you don’t like voting, you could just… not vote. Indeed, this is the motto of one of the strangest political options for the EU.

In the Czech Republic, there is a “Don’t vote for us” party, and its message could prove extremely popular.

The last European elections in 2019 saw a record turnout, attributed to an increase in interest among young voters.

But nearly half of the electorate chose to stay at home, suggesting lower enthusiasm about EU issues compared to national polls.

The band’s full name “Nechceme Vase Hlasy” directs users to a website that proclaims the benefits of “anarcho-capitalism” — a libertarian political theory that advocates reducing state regulation to aid freedom.

Vote for the devil chicken

The Czech anti-party is not the only one that is running for elections and that is not entirely serious about voting. Sweden’s Ond Kyckling Partiet, or Devil Chicken Party, is one of 114 outstanding groups competing for the country’s 21 MEP seats.

“Initially, the evil chicken was a kind of internal joke,” Svante Strokirk, the founder of the party, who is also at the top of its electoral list, told Euronews. “I don’t know exactly why, but that’s how it evolved,” he says .

While the party has some policy ideas, from copyright reform to electoral rules, Strokirk seems more interested in testing how easy it is to officially register as a candidate.

He hopes to get over 100 votes, which would represent a significant increase over the 39 that the Devil Chicken got in the recent national elections. It would not be enough anyway to be elected as a member of the European Parliament, and he is not afraid that he will distract attention from more serious players. “If you’re someone who wants to vote for the Bad Chicken Party, I think you probably wouldn’t have voted anyway or you don’t care that much who you’re voting for,” he said. He’s not quite sure if he wants to become an MEP, though he admits that “it would be cool”.

“I didn’t go so far as to look at property prices in Brussels,” added the Swede.

Party of the Dog with Two Tails

Sometimes, in politics, what starts with humor can end up extremely serious.

Italy’s Five Star Movement, founded by comedian Beppe Grillo, is predicted by a recent Euronews poll to win 16 of the country’s 76 seats in June this year.

Well, the Party of the Dog with Two Tails, founded in Szeged, Hungary, almost 20 years ago, set out to ironize traditional politics through humor.

But now he says it’s much more than a joke. Although the party maintains its ironic side, leading candidate Marietta Le told Euronews that the party “draws attention to issues in public life and politics” through “long-term, community-based thinking”.

She cited various problems, from broken sidewalks to corruption. And there are certainly plenty of issues to draw attention to. Right-wing leader Viktor Orbán, in power since 2010, has been condemned for sliding towards autocracy, and MEPs have cited concerns about the independence of the judiciary and freedom of the press.

And why not? Hopes are rising for alternatives, such as Péter Magyar, a former close associate of Orbán, who has 12 candidates for the European Parliament and is rising in the polls.

But Marietta Le is confident that her party will get at least one member of the EU and, if so, is in talks to join the Green group in Parliament.

“We don’t need a Messiah, we need thousands of people to stir up the r**** with a shovel to make this country a better place,” she says. “We’re a funny party – but the other parties are jokes”, she concludes jokingly.

The party The party promises to cap the prices of beer and kebabs

Perhaps the most famous – and, by most accounts, successful – protest party is from Germany, simply called: Die Partei (The Party).

Comedian and founder Martin Sonneborn is seeking a third term in the European Parliament this June – with a manifesto that includes promises to rebuild the Berlin Wall and cap the price of beer and kebabs.

According to the European Parliament’s website, in the ten years he has been an MEP, Martin Sonneborn has not drafted a single report – the key tool lawmakers use to amend EU legislation or demand policy change.

Sonneborn told Euronews that he was lifting the veil on the EU’s opaque institutions – and also mentioned interventions into more serious issues, such as how the European Commission negotiated Covid vaccine contracts with Pfizer and the bloc’s troubled relations with Azerbaijan.

“The millions of citizens watching my speeches on the Internet seem to like them so far,” Sonneborn told Euronews in an emailed statement. “It is crucial not to re-elect the parties that have led Europe into war and crisis.” he says.

Why are there so many parties?

For Sophia Russack of the Center for European Policy Studies, it’s no surprise that such diversity will be on display in June. “Elections for the European Parliament are always a very attractive testing ground for new parties,” said Russack, a researcher at the Brussels-based think tank.

In countries like Germany, there is no minimum threshold for a party to gain representation in the EU, she notes, making these elections good preparation before trying to run in national elections, which have a minimum threshold of 5%, much tougher.

“Satire parties bring freshness. I don’t think it’s necessarily unhealthy for democracy to have such parties,” says Russack. But, she added, the European Parliament’s rules mean the odds are stacked against rebels who can’t fit into any of the chamber’s big political families, which are currently seven.

“Power and influence are distributed according to groups and group affiliation,” she reminds—perhaps explaining why the likes of Sonneborn have failed to get involved in legislative activity. “Without a group, you’re nothing.” points out the expert.

While outsiders can offer a fresh and honest perspective, the joke can wear thin, she warns. “If these guys also tend to stay around term after term, then it no longer serves the same purpose. You’re also taking up the space of someone who might want to do a proper job,” says Russack.