Through Europe’s North

The idea of a referendum on the new European constitutional treaty is gaining support in other countries. As a result, the Omnibus für Direkte Demokratie received an invitation to Europe’s far north, to Sweden and Finland.

British model

The activists we met on our earlier tour through the UK were highly motivated. The tour through England served as a model: the bus and our highly visible inflatable display of the EU Constitution were to be used to help put the topic of a referendum on the political agenda. In April, barely two weeks after we had left the island, Tony Blair made his famous “U Turn” and, to great surprise, announced the decision to submit the Constitution to a referendum.

For our trip though Northern Europe, we planned a side trip to the Baltic states, since groups in Latvia and Estonia had supported us during the European Referendum Campaign (ERC). The tour was preceded by a week of planning: one after the other, dates, locations, ferries, routes and so on were selected and voted on. Finally, on September 1, the tour began. Things got off to a rocky start: the bus broke down several times, causing us to miss the first scheduled stop, in Malmö. However, after some initial difficulties, the bus decided to cooperate, and the rest of the tour proceeded without any major problems.

next: away win in Sweden