Aktuelles > EBD Häppchen | Standing up for Europe: The silent majority gets going

Artikel Details:

EBD Häppchen | Standing up for Europe: The silent majority gets going

An ocean in blue and gold: All of a sudden the friends of Europe are taking to the streets and the social media channels: Brexit, Trump and neo-nationalism were shocks that get private citizens going to organise demonstrations and marches for the EU. “You won’t get our Europe”, young people strike back at backward looking exiteers. In Poland and Romania as well as in Great Britain the European flag is being carried more and more as a symbol of democracy and an open society. European Movement Germany, working towards European integration since 1949, takes a look at the variety of new grassroots initiatives and the general pro-European mood in the country – read more in our latest „EBD Haeppchen“ (EM Germany news bites):

1 |  The largest part has confidence in Europe: „In the light of Trump’s politics, 88 percent of  the Germans think that EU countries must pull together more strongly, only 9 percent don’t consider this necessary.” (Politbarometer). EM Germany’s member organisation Bertelsmann Foundation conducts regular surveys on a broader European scale – in their “eupinions” poll, the approval rates are similarly high: 62 percent of the EU citizens welcome their country’s EU membership, in Germany 69 percent do. Only every fifth German wants Germany to leave the EU.

2 | The silent majority is slowly starting to move. Blue flags with golden stars everywhere. Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Warsaw, Bucharest, London (“surprise!”), and of course Edinburgh show their colors for Europe. “New grassroots movements like ‚Stand up for Europe‘ or ‚Pulse of Europe‘ create convincing alternatives to the hollow protests of enraged citizens and their illiberal enticers”, write the Secretary-General of the Europa-Union Deutschland, Christian Moos, and the Federal Chairman of the Young European Federalists, Manuel Gath, in their joint joint appeal to participate at the “Outcry for Europe”.

3 | Unite, don‘t divide: The two largest and oldest citizen initiatives of Europe (the nonpartisan Europa-Union was founded in 1946, its youth organization JEF in 1949) didn’t see the spontaneous Europeans of heart as their rivals: “Convinced Europeans have to stick together now. As established associations of the pro-European civil society, it is our task to support these new movements and to contribute to their success. We want to use, pool and reinforce this energy for a sustainable Europe.” The support arrives just in time for the upcoming Sunday demonstration: This Sunday, too, at 2 p.m., thePulse of Europe“ will take place once more in many German and European cities – among others in Berlin on the Gendarmenmarkt and in Amsterdam at the Museumsplein. The Sunday demos will continue at least until March 12, a few days before the Netherlands elect a new parliament.

4 | Return to “Go“? “The idea of uniting Europe found such far reaching resonance with such influential symathisers that the activists gained the impression the movement would grow into a European peoples’ movement. Their optimism to reach a United Europe soon was already running high.” This doesn’t sound quite like Europe 2017, does it? Well, these words (by historian Gerhard Brunn) are from 2002 and they describe the European movements exactly 70 years ago. Special caution is needed – in the streets as on the internet. Especially in Germany people seem to be torn and twisted between European pathos, revolutionary spirit and practical politics Biedermeyer style. EM Germany and its member organisations count on realiable sustainability, a wide-ranging discourse and a broad variety of proposed solutions: In the face of those many Trumpist arsonists, we can’t afford monodimensional philistines anymore.

5 | Which values count? The European system of rule of law, freedom of opinion and balance of interests is undergoing a sudden change in public perception: Especially in contrast to autocratic and centralistic ideas, this model is turning from a much maligned monster of bureaucracy into a lighthouse of democracy. Thousands who are currently demonstrating at various locations in Europe – against governmental corruption (Romania), but also against the erosion of the state of law by governments (Poland) or the audacious lies of Brexit supporters – are marching under the blue flag with the golden stars. They don’t see a crisis of Europe, they see a crisis of national democracies as a safety hazard for peaceful coexistence. Public welfare and individual interests are no contradiction for EM Germany and its 246 member organisations, among others the Europa-Union and the Young European Federalists: The key to achieving this is a pluralistic democracy. This is where citizens become bearers of responsibility and vice-versa, preferably in changing constellations. It was no different in 1948: While representatives of politics, trade unions, economy and the arts debated about the democratic future of a Europe torn apart by war in the Ridderzaal in The Hague, 40.000 people showed their support outside the building. All of them were fed up with national egoism and longed for European solutions. Nine years later, the Treaty of Rome casted into a mold of law what it is now the root of a young and yet-to-be-completed European democracy.

6 | Celebrate the Treaty of Rome: This March, on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome on March 25, a “March for Europe” will be organized – in Rome, of course, but also at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin as well as a dozen other European cities: … the first few meters on the way to even larger 60-year-celebrations and demonstrations in Rome. The organisers behind this are the “Union of European Federalists” (the Europa Union Deutschland is their German subsidiary), who in turn is already experienced in pro-European demonstrations since World War II. Helmut Kohl, too, already got to grips with the French-German border barriers in the Fifties, as he told his biographer Hans-Peter Schwarz. So it is clear to the EBD: Spontaneous citizen initiatives in favor of large democratic solidarity are a positive sign. They need to be supported just as the democratic competition for individual interests, the fight for citizens’ rights, the protection of minorities. EM Germany plans events with many partners in light of “Europe: 60 years”.

7 | Europe at the crossroads: Peace project or all power to the populist machos? European social market economy or neoliberal paradise for capitalist grasshoppers? Build bridges or build walls? Clean bathing lakes or nitrate in the groundwater? Protection of minorities or the rule of the strong? Europe or national solo action? For 60 years, a unified Europe has been the answer to war and injustice. For the EU to become even better, we want to let the societal forces speak and pool them to make the value of European conciliation visible to as many people as possible. The convinced Europeans have to stand united – no matter where they get involved.

Our survey of current pro-European initiatives* 

Europa braucht Dich jetzt! (Europe needs you now!)
Website | Facebook

EUrope-together
Facebook

Laute Europäer (Loud Europeans)
Website | Facebook

March for Europe | Rom
Website | Facebook

March for Europe | Berlin and elsewhere in Germany
Website | Facebook

Pulse of Europe
Website | Facebook

Stand up for Europe
Website | Facebook

We are Europe | Düsseldorf
Website | Facebook

Who if not us
Website | Facebook

The European Moment
Website | Facebook

* with no claim to completeness
An initiative is missing? Let us know – we’ll keep updating the list.


Ahead of or alongside important European events, EBD-Häppchen (EM Germany’s news bites) offers background information, political correlations and expertise insight from our network of 246 member organisations. Usually our bites are served in German – maybe you want to get them nevertheless? Sign up to EBD Häppchen