Out of the whole of Spain, the Province of Alicante has the largest number of EU citizens with the option to vote in the European elections on the 7th of June.
The total of 52,426 means that one in four registered voters in the province were born in the EU outside of Spain. In some areas the percentage is even higher e.g. Las Marinas (Alta y Baixa) and the Vega Baja where the proportion of EU non Spaniards is about 45%.
In 2004 there were 123,642 residents of countries of the EU registered to vote in Spain. By 1999 that figure had risen to 55,098. As of February of this year, 275,732 EU citizens had registered to vote. The remainder have until the 27th of this month to register.
Top of the list is the United Kingdom with 75,623 registered voters, followed by Rumania and Germany (33,632). Following them are the Italians (29,502), the French (25,056), the Portuguese (15.965) and the Dutch (11.056). At the bottom of the list are Estonia (108), Malta (30) and Cyprus (18).
You can't help but feel that this must be disconcerting for some Spaniards who see their country being taken over by people from other countries. They must have the same sense of anguish that the British express about immigration there.
Cultural diversity is all well and good but not when a country starts to loose its own unique identity. I just hope this doesn't happen here in Spain. As a relatively young democracy, it needs to be wary of absorbing some of the worst aspects of its older democratic neighbours.
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