Within 18 months the European Union citizens will be called to participate in the elections for the European Parliament. The paper ballots and the voting ceremony is perceived as the biggest expression of democracy. And yes, it does have a symbolic power and it is a very necessary part of the system of representative democracy towards which many countries have turned in the past. But democracy goes much beyond. In a true democratic culture, the citizens have the opportunity to participate in the process on a regular basis, establishing a dialogue with their representatives in parliament, in order to really have their opinion voiced there. And with elections coming closer, this dialogue really intensifies, and the citizens receive clear information about their options, so they can ask questions (and get answers) in order to have all the necessary data that will allow them to make an informed decision at the moment of voting.
We all know our current system is far from perfect. Citizens lose confidence in democratic institutions because they feel an immense gap between them and their representatives. Clear symptoms are the low participation rates in the elections, the perception of politicians as a cause of problems when they should be there to solve those problems, and the apparition of movements which question the current political system (like the Indignados in Spain, Occupy Wall Street in the USA).
Youth nowadays disregard politics, they do not consider it their business. Why should we care, when they do not care about us? This is the beginning of many problems. In AEGEE we have to think differently. If politicians do not want to listen to us, we are going to shout louder, we are going to learn how the politicians’ world works, so we can chase them and make them hear our ideas. Because if we do not, they will only listen to the vision of young people from their own political parties, who will to a large part tell them what they want to hear.
Y vote results booklet
As mentioned before, in 18 months we will celebrate elections to the European Parliament. It is the period when politicians are more approachable, as they need to convince the citizens to cast their votes. We will once again take this opportunity and shape it into a project which aims to encourage young people to vote in the EP elections. Yes, our project will do that, but why not have youth participation in a broader sense included? Why restrict ourselves to the framework of the elections? Why not take EU politicians beyond their comfort zone? The results of European Parliament elections will affect every citizen of every country in Europe for at least 5 years, therefore we should have a broad project present in all our network. The Y Vote project 2009 was a great success and we will take it as an inspiration, but we can aspire to have a more inclusive project. We have the expertise and we have the ideas, and soon we will have the right people to shape an impactful project. There is no time to lose.
The Comité Directeur has launched an open call for members interested in creating this project. You can still join this initiative by sending an email to miguel.gallardo@aegee.org with the subject “team elections” and including your name, antenna and a short description of how you see yourself participate in the project. Deadline November 4th.
If you are at the Agora, approach us any time, maybe during the AEGEE Fair. We are happy to receive feedback or ideas on this topic.
There will be a meeting of all interested people on Saturday after the closing of the last plenary, at dinner time.
Written by Miguel Gallardo Albajar, Comite Directeur & AEGEE-Alicante