#VOTEINMAY

Over the last few months, there have been many campaigns targeting young people to raise awareness of the upcoming European elections and to help bring them to the ballot box this weekend.

In 2009, youth absenteeism at the European elections was very high – almost 71 per cent (18 to 24 years old). Recent polls still suggest that a large share of young people still do not know if they will vote this weekend. At the same time, the far right and the various anti-EU nationalist parties across Europe are achieving worrying scores in the polls. It is therefore crucial that young people, who are proven to be more supportive of Europe and more likely to recognize its value than any other generation, also have the opportunity to have their say on key issues in Europe.

Against this backdrop, many campaigns have emerged in Europe and at member state level to push young people to use the power of the ballot box and to exercise their rights to be represented in the next European Parliament.

Firstly, big campaigns have been launched by the European Parliament, such as “Act, React, Impact” or “Why I vote”. These have been followed by less institutional campaigns from the Parliament such as “And then come a lot of sheep” or the storychangers.eu to illustrate that, by voting, they can create a different story in Europe.

Other initiatives are also pushing young people to the ballot box. This is the case of “We are not sexy and we know it” made by the producers of the Eurobubble web series. After the Eurovision song contest many montages using the picture of Conchita Wurst, the winner of the competition, were calling people to vote again, this time to shape the future of Europe.

Some youth organisations such as the European Student’s Forum (AEGEE) and the Young European Federalists (JEF) have organised bus tours in order to raise awareness about the elections in several cities in Europe by directly getting in touch with young people in Europe.

In the Czech Republic, more than 3,000 young people participated in the Czech campaign ‘Vím, proč volím’ (Know, why vote), a six week-long touring festival around local towns, where the voter turnout is low. Twenty-seven performers and 45 candidates were involved in public discussions.

In Belgium, the Flemish and French speaking youth councils developed a game to make young people aware of the impact of the EU in their lives: “EuroWat!? EuroQuoi!? which has been played in schools, youth organisations and youth clubs.

In Denmark, the “Voteman” cartoon released by the national government to encourage young people to vote, was quite shocking and explicit. It went viral and eventually after several complaints, was withdrawn. Whether you agree with its content or not, it has certainly had an impact, with 1.5 million views and counting!

The initiative of the European Youth Forum, the League of Young Voters, has also been working hard to encourage young people to vote by creating 27 national branches across the EU. It also co-organised the first EU presidential debate between the candidates to the Commission presidency live on Euronews. The League has also made the idea of voting cool and fun with the remake of Pharrell Williams’ happy video, #HappyVoting, set in key locations around Brussels, including inside the European Parliament and featuring MEPs dancing! The video has already had nearly 75,000 views on Youtube! Another League (fake) campaign which caught the imagination, was “Responsible Democracy” a group which threatened to take the vote from those under the age of 25. Young people and politicians alike were outraged by the proposal which created a backlash, particularly on social media. Proving, in fact, that young people do care about their democratic right to vote!

Some of the national branches of the League of Young Voters did particularly well, such as the UK branch with the rap song movie “Y Vote” explaining what is at stake in the upcoming elections and why young people should vote.

The European Youth Forum really welcomes and values all of these different initiatives aiming at bringing young people to the ballot box and strongly hopes that the European elections are going to be the opportunity for a “European spring”, with more young people participating in the elections.

Remember: if you don’t vote, someone else will vote for you and you will not be represented in the next European Parliament.