An image likened to that of America’s 45th President, Donald Trump, has popped up around the French city of Strasbourg ahead of the European Parliamentary polls, with an aim to remind voters of the consequences of sitting out elections.
The posters, according to Agence France-Presse, feature an image of President Trump with a star shaped yellow and blue European flag overlaying it. Appearing on billboards and placards across the northeastern city, the poster is noted to feature the tagline: “This time I will register and I will vote.”
The use of the spectre of Donald Trump comes on the heels of images of Italy’s nationalist Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini, and Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, in a PSA video released last month, urging voters to vote for European Union or division. Trump’s image around Strasbourg is expected to motivate voter registration and engender active participation in the upcoming elections to prevent a 2016 US election scenario.
While speaking on the posters, the Head of Communications for Strasbourg, Jean-Francois Lanneluc noted that he stood behind the image saying: “When you launch a campaign you want it to be noticed, there has to be an element of surprise. Here, you have that and it has not gone unnoticed.”
Lanneluc also revealed that other neighbouring French towns have reached out for permission to use the image in what is gearing up to be a showdown between European moderates and populists.
With the 2014 European Parliament polls recording a low turn-out of 42.43% and 42.61% in France and across the bloc, respectively, it is yet to be seen if this new tactic will have an effect on the European Parliament elections in May 2019.
