European elections: What unemployed people think

The BBC's Patrick Jackson is travelling across southern Europe to report on voters' concerns ahead of the European elections

Ask what voters in the European elections care about most, and you could be told "the one in 10".

That's the average unemployment across all 28 states and, according to a Eurobarometer poll published in December, it's the top concern for voters.

I want to meet some of the people who don't have jobs right now, or have to work way below their qualifications.

Over two weeks, I am visiting Spain, France, Italy and Greece. On my route are unemployment "blackspots" like the Spanish region of Andalucia, where general unemployment reached 36.3% last year and youth unemployment was 66.1%, but really I'm going where the stories take me.

Follow my blog on Tumblr (or my Twitter account for alerts) as I travel around the Mediterranean. Join in the conversation with questions if you see me live-tweeting discussions.

Here are some issues as I see them

• Are the children of life-long party members turning away from their family allegiances in a new world without work?

• Are there people who refuse to vote again for the party they happily supported just a few years back? Or, on the contrary, will they stick with it, through the lean times too?

• Are there some so needy that politics has become a meaningless luxury? Some too disillusioned to vote?

Whatever people's politics - left, right or alternative - I want to find out how being out of the labour market colours their vote.

And, of course, I'll be reporting, too, on how people live without work in these countries.