General Elections in Spain: Twitter organises the first digital debate to empower young people.

Tomorrow (26th November), Twitter, with the support of the European Youth Forum and the Spanish Youth Council, will host the first digital debate in Spain focusing on young people and with the participation of the six leading political parties.

https://twitter.com/TwitterSpain?lang=es

¿Why a #DebateEn140?

Twitter connects young people with politics. More than one million young people are called to the polls to vote for their first time in the upcoming General Elections in Spain in an exceptional political context.

According to a research commissioned by Twitter Spain the political debate has shifted to Twitter, especially among young citizens. During regional elections in Madrid, Barcelona and Andalusia, the group aged between 18 and 34 years participated to a greater extent in the political conversation on Twitter (making up 72%, 63% and 54% of the electoral conversation repectively). Young voters, aged between 18 and 34, value direct and bidirectional communication, clarity and access to updated information in real time on the proposals of the different parties. Twitter is the platform on which to communicate, talk and participate differently.

#DebateEn140 is the first digital political debate taking place in Spain and dedicated to youth issues. During the debate the participants will have a unique political opportunity to address young people and their concerns.

Joan Conca Domenech, Vice President of the European Youth Forum, said:

"Young people are shut out of decision making and not represented in traditional politics. The younger generation is, however, passionate and will fight for their future but through different means, such as social media. That is why the European Youth Forum is delighted to co-host this Twitter debate and welcomes initiatives like this which truly include young people in the political debate!"

¿Who Debates #DebateEn140?

The journalist Angel Carmona (@carmouna ) will moderate the debate. The representatives of the six main competing parties in the general elections that will discuss the issues decided by young people are:

Ciudadanos: Fernando de Páramo (@ferdeparamo)

IU- Unidad Popular: Sol Sánchez (@abrazopartio)

Podemos: Íñigo Errejón (@ierrejon)

PP: Javier Maroto (@javiermaroto)

PSOE: María González Veracruz (@mariagv)

UPyD: Andrés Herzog (@herzogoff)

They will all respond in real time to the questions of young users of the platform, both live and via Twitter.

¿How to take part of #DebateEn140?

All the action will be centralised and accessible at www.debateen140.com . From this website users can:

Watch and share videos of the candidates and their proposals, tweets and manifestos of the different parties about their strategy for youth

Vote on topics that they want to see reflected in the debate: employment, education, corruption - transparency , health, economy or environment among others.

Participate by submitting questions and comments to participants interact, talk

Follow the debate in real time and meet with different groups of friends, using the hashtag #quedada, and share images and comments of those meetings.

¿How to follow #DebateEn140?

On November 26th prior to the debate from 19h exclusive content will be broadcast live via www.debateen140.com including live connections and innovative formats with @MaryRuiz_es and @darioemehache.

At 20h the debate will start and will last one hour in which there will be three sections differentiated by thematic blocks, according to the themes chosen and voted on by the young users on the platform the days before the debate.

You can also follow @TwitterSpain for live updates about the debate.

Twitter

Twitter is a global platform for public self-expression and conversation in real time. By developing a fundamentally new way for people to consume, create, distribute and discover content, Twitter enables any voice to echo around the world instantly and unfiltered. The service can be accessed at Twitter.com, on a variety of mobile devices, and via SMS. Available in more than 35 languages, Twitter has 316 million monthly active users. For more information, visit about.twitter.com or follow @twitter.

European Youth Forum

The European Youth Forum (YFJ) is the platform of youth organisations in Europe. Representing 99 youth organisations, both National Youth Councils and International Non-Governmental Youth Organisations, we believe youth organisations are the tool through which we empower, encourage, involve, represent, reach out and support young people. The Youth Forum brings together tens of millions of young people from all over Europe, organised in order to represent their common interests.

The Youth Forum works to empower young people to participate actively in society to improve their own lives by representing and advocating their needs and interest and those of their organisations. In the current uncertain political and social context that affects young people, they can be powerful catalysts for positive change and contributors of innovative solutions to Europe’s problems.

Spanish Youth Council

The Spanish Youth Council (Consejo de la Juventud de España, CJE) is a platform of youth organisations formally set up by law in1983. Its members are the regional youth councils operating in Spain as well as other national youth organisations. Our main goal is to promote youth participation in the political, social, economic and cultural development of Spain within the global context, as provided by in article 48 of Spain’s Constitution. Currently, there are 76 youth organisations involved in this joint project.

We strive towards achieving a plural platform so that the various ideologies and sensitivities which make up the Spanish youth organisation movement can work together and exchange ideas and experiences. Furthermore, we want to channel all the proposals, vindications or claims made by our member organisations to the Authorities, the social partners and mass media. Ultimately, our work is aimed at finding an answer to the problems, concerns and aspirations of the Spanish youth and improving our quality of life.