BRUSSELS—The European Union has an election problem: Voters don't know or care enough to go to the polls and elect their direct representatives in Brussels. In an effort to woo them back, politicians are trying some new moves.
In the run-up to European elections this week, members of the European Parliament have tested their policies in a rap battle and joined in with the latest Internet craze—creating their own version of Pharrell Williams's "Happy" music video. The politicians' version, which also features professional dancers and a nudist, is aimed at getting young people to vote.
The Party of European Socialists wants supporters to tweet "selfies" with its top candidate Martin Schulz, a bearded bespectacled German, coining the hashtag #schulzie. The Alliance of Liberals & Democrats in Europe promised a day with its top candidate, former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, for the best "EU selfie."
Meanwhile, in a separate effort, a Brussels youth group staged a fake online campaign calling for an increase in the voting age to 25.
Since the EU's first parliamentary elections in 1979, turnout has been dropping off. In the most recent vote in 2009, just 43% of potential voters cast ballots. Of those under 25, a mere 29% turned up at the polls.
That's why on a recent Wednesday night delegates from all four major parties decided to add another language to the institution's 24 official ones—the language of hip hop.
"Some will laugh, some will make fun, but maybe some will think these people really tried to do something to convince us," said Lara Comi, a 31-year-old lawmaker from the center-right European People's Party who participated in the rap battle.
