Read the original article at the Financial Times here.
On paper, the European election should matter greatly to the hundreds of thousands of Britons living in Spain. They are in many ways exemplary Europeans, the embodiment of what the EU has been trying to achieve over nearly six decades: peaceful, good-natured coexistence between former antagonists and the free flow of people, capital, goods and services across European borders.
The Costa expats are also far more likely than their compatriots back home to benefit – and suffer – from changes in pan-European laws dealing with issues such as the portability of pensions and access to foreign health services.
Such factors, however, are often outweighed by the strange sense that they never quite left their home country in the first place. “Many people haven’t really moved to Spain. They have moved part of England to Spain. It’s like England, but with better weather,” says Ben Harris-Quinney, president of the Madrid branch of Conservatives Abroad.
Could interest in European affairs perk up as concern rises about a possible British exit from the EU? For many in the UK, this month’s poll is a test case for a possible future referendum on UK membership of the 28-nation bloc. The anti-Europe UK Independence party is predicted to emerge strongly, highlighting a broad backlash against Brussels.
If the UK one day decided to leave the EU, some of the EU-backed rights and protections enjoyed by its citizens living elsewhere in Europe are likely to face tough scrutiny. Yet that prospect is largely waved away by the carefree Britons of southern Spain. “The attitude is: the Spanish won’t chuck us out [if the UK quits the EU] because we bring money into the country,” says Dilip Kuner, editor of Euro Weekly News, an English-language newspaper aimed at expats in Spain.
It is with much the same reasoning that many British expats reject the comparison between their status in Spain and that of eastern European immigrants arriving in the UK. Some openly bemoan the influx of foreigners into Britain, while strongly defending their own right to remain in Spain.
“We financed this coast,” says Derek Anderson, a British resident of Torremolinos. England, by contrast, is “full up”, he says. “We have millions of unemployed Brits, they are letting in hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Europe – so therefore there are no jobs for the English.”
For Ukip, the stoutly nationalist views held by at least part of the expat community present an opportunity. “If you think about the expat demographic, it’s not surprising that quite a few are sympathetic to us,” says Gawain Towler, Ukip candidate for South West England and Gibraltar. “In many cases they are retirees, which is where we are especially strong. Then you have the community of small business people, often targeting British holiday-makers. These people are tattooed red-white-and-blue,” he says.
The description captures part of expat reality, but will be rejected with horror by those expats who take pains to blend into Spanish society, learn the language and – in some cases – stand as candidates for local office.
The key challenge for political activists eyeing the expat vote, however, is how to mobilise an important but largely unwilling slice of the electorate.
According to recent data, there are 300,000 Britons registered as living in Spain, though diplomats believe twice as many again may be in the country without being formally recorded. Yet the official number of overseas Britons in Spain registered to vote in the UK stands at less than 16,000.
To Mr Harris-Quinney, the discrepancy is a source of intense frustration: “The 800,000 voters are enough to change the course of any elections,” he says. He says the low turnout is at least partly explained by the fact that Britain makes it harder than other countries to vote from abroad – and bars anyone from voting who has lived outside the country for more than 15 years. “Britain, under any government, has not done enough to reach out and engage with them,” he says.
The other explanation, of course, is that the vast majority of expats simply do not care much about politics, whether UK or European. As one British patron in Annie’s Irish Pub in Nerja says: “Most people down here just want to get together and have a laugh.”