*[Enwl-eng] Europe wins
ENWLine
Hi,
Today, we wake up with hope. Not only because of the results of the EU election, known last night. But because of all of us who voted, took to the streets, and rallied others online. You are amazing. And together we will overcome the most difficult challenges of our time: our climate emergency, our democracy and rule of law, a broken asylum system, and so many others.
I want to acknowledge the power of what we just did together at this EU election. We came out in droves - voter turnout was the highest for a European Union election in 20 years. We said no to hate, and yes to change - and that’s what we got! The far-right haters did not get the meteoric rise they were expecting. And many new politicians will enter parliament who could take action on the big existential questions like fighting climate change and inequality - especially if we hold them to account! That's the kind of change we want, not Salvini’s divisive version of it.
This was our first EU election together. WeMove did not even exist five years ago when the last EU election took place. And I am proud of what we’ve done. By taking action online and offline, we made the movement visible throughout Europe. We showed Europe that is not only the far-right that can make noise. While they can rally their bases with hate, we rallied our friends and families with hope.
There is so much to be inspired by from this election. The surge in youth voting, the hundreds of thousands who joined us on the streets to kick off election week, the multitudes more who supported the climate strikes last Friday, and every single one of you who rallied someone else to vote.
Together, we collected pledges to vote from tens of thousands of Europeans, encouraged our friends and families to vote, and coordinated massive elections events across the EU just over a week ago. Even in the face of face of far-right hate and disinformation, 200,000 of us came out to say “no to hate, yes to change!” Thousands of media outlets around the world – from the New York Times to CNN – reported on our events. [1]
One of our EU election events in Romania on 19 May
It’s well worth taking a moment to sit back and think about what we’ve managed to achieve together in such a short time. But new Commissioners will be decided by Members of European Parliament (MEPs) and EU countries already in the coming weeks. New MEPs will soon be sitting their first legislative sessions. And we will be ready.
Over the last European Parliament, we achieved greater things than we could even imagine: we got the EU to ban some single-use plastics and make producers pay for plastic pollution [2], and we ran a successful European Citizens’ Initiative which overhauled the rules on transparency for potentially toxic pesticides, additives, and other food products. [3] We even got MEPs to strengthen rules on their own transparency! [4] And we’ve done so much more.
But we can’t be complacent. This election was only one moment in the story of our movement. So, please keep an eye out for our upcoming actions – together we’ve made a real difference in this election, and together we’ll help to shape the course of our next five years.
In solidarity,
Olga (Bologna), Jörg (Lübeck), Giulio (Rome) and the
entire WeMove team
P.S. If you are able, please consider joining the thousands of other WeMove donors by making a donation to fund our vital shared work. Everything we‘ve managed to do up to now is thanks to the generosity of our movement.
References:
[1]
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/european-union-elections-far-right_n_5ceb375be4b00e036571026d
https://www.economist.com/charlemagnes-notebook/2019/05/26/populists-fall-short-of-expectations-in-the-european-elections
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-26/europe-s-mainstream-holds-as-populists-fail-to-break-through
[2]
https://act.wemove.eu/campaigns/EP-single-use-plastics
[3]
https://act.wemove.eu/campaigns/protect-food-safety
[4]
https://act.wemove.eu/campaigns/lobby-transparency
WeMove.EU is a citizens’ movement, campaigning for a better Europe; for a European Union committed to social and economic justice, environmental sustainability and citizen-led democracy. We are people from all walks of life, who call Europe our home whether we were born in Europe or elsewhere.
WeMove.EU is funded by donations from our community across Europe. Can you chip in with a few euros a month and help make sure we can move fast to win the campaigns that matter to all of us? Donate
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