Independence Days #4 Youth participation in European politics

The second panel session of the conference was dedicated to ‘Youth participation in European politics’. At the beginning, Evein Obulor, Director of the European Coalition of Cities against Racism (ECCAR), pointed out that the term youth is not a one-way street, nor is youth political participation. In particular, she stressed that not all young people face the same structural barriers and that at the same time there is a lack of meaningful participation in political processes. Furthermore, she assessed that courage for participation is needed to bring about changes within institutions. These changes can happen if there is confidence in young people to bring in the difference but also to understand how institutions work. Olga Daskali, lawyer and candidate for mayor of Messolonghi, presented her journey that led her to get involved in local politics and the way in which she gradually participated in the creation of a new community that tries to meet local needs, starting from the neighbourhoods. Although her gender and her relatively young age prevented people from voting for her combination, the participatory process followed helped both to activate young people of Messolonghi so that they are not afraid of institutions, and to explore a creative space where new local narratives are built. She was followed by Emil Schenkyr, treasurer of the Federation of Young European Greens, who criticised institutional policy for not focusing on the right issues and not representing youth, and suggested community building as a way to overcome these problems. Finally, Tomaž Deželan, Professor of Political Science at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Ljubljana, presented his research on the evolution of the ways in which young people participate in politics. Some of these important facts include the declining participation of young people in institutional politics but their increasing participation in other forms of politics, the role of new technologies and social media, and the general decrease of civic space for youth. Afterwards, people from the audience asked questions about ways to participate in institutions, about the fueling of far-right rhetoric even from the right and the centre, but also about how a young person can remain authentic while running in an electoral process. Among the different responses from the panel, it is worth mentioning that of Evein Obulor, who inter alia urged young people to choose their battles, to aim for specific goals, not to be afraid of ambiguity and not to have a vision of themselves that they have to be perfect.