Brussels, my love? What's on voters' minds, one month before mammoth elections
In this edition, we zoom in on the spike in violent attacks against politicians and check what topics will get Europeans out voting this June.
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00:00 [Music]
00:12 Hello there and welcome to Brussels My Love, Euronews' weekly talk show
00:17 about the news here in Brussels and beyond. I'm Maeve McMahon, thanks for joining us.
00:22 Coming up this week, it is one month to go until European Parliament elections
00:27 kick off across the continent. 720 seats are up for grabs determining who gets to set laws
00:34 for the next five years. With domestic woes dominating most news cycles, we're asking
00:40 whether these elections could turn into one big giant protest vote and if people will vote with
00:45 their heads or with their hearts. And with elections around the corner, political campaigns are in full
00:51 swing. The faces of those hoping to become lawmakers are pasted all across the continent. The
00:57 rhetoric is heating up and sadly in some cases it's boiling over. A German MEP has been hospitalised
01:05 after a brutal beating whilst out campaigning. What has gone wrong in society for this to happen
01:11 and with the climate so bitter and so divided, who would even consider running for public office
01:17 at all? A warm welcome to our panel this weekend, Els Bruggemann, the Head of Policy at Euro Consumers,
01:23 Roger Keferputz, Director at the Heinrich Böll Stiftung and Alva Finn from the European Liberal
01:29 Forum. So lovely to have you all with us. But as usual, before we get your analysis,
01:34 let's just hear why there's so much nervous excitement in Brussels lately. Take a listen.
01:38 After months of prep, it is now just one month to go.
01:46 From the 6th to the 9th of June, 400 million Europeans will have the chance to choose who
01:52 should sit in this plenary chamber, if they're registered of course.
01:56 For the first time ever, 16-year-olds in Belgium and Germany can vote too.
02:02 Polls predict the centre-right will hold, but voices on both extremes could also get louder.
02:13 With Europe's importance dwindling in the world stage and most people more concerned
02:17 about local issues, what kind of parliament are the people of Europe set to pick?
02:22 So that's the question we're asking ourselves with just one month to go.
02:28 And Roderick, are German voters interested in these elections?
02:31 Increasingly so, absolutely. I mean, if you look at the Eurobarometer and all the polling,
02:36 it shows that there's an uptick in interest of the European Parliament election. And in fact,
02:41 there's more interest than there used to be. So if you compare it to 2019,
02:44 there is definitely more interest. And that's also because there's a lot at stake right now.
02:49 We have the war in Ukraine, we have the green and the digital transformation. So
02:54 these elections really matter.
02:55 Well, there's a lot at stake, but for people back home,
02:57 are they really worried about those big issues? And I guess the question is why we're asking
03:01 ourselves, is this really a European election? Is it not more 27 national elections, Alba?
03:05 I think it's definitely the most European election we have ever had,
03:10 actually. I think that many people have seen, for example, what the EU has managed to do over
03:15 the last five years, the response to the COVID crisis. We have war on our doorstep. I think
03:21 what's happened in Ukraine will actually make a lot of people go to the polls. Maybe it's not the
03:25 reason or the issue that they will vote for. I think we'll talk about that in a second.
03:31 But I think it will be a European election. Unfortunately, we don't have transnational
03:35 lists, which I think would be a way of making the European debate even stronger.
03:41 But I think it is a European election, actually. One thing I think now is that it can always be
03:48 a protest vote. Any election can turn into a protest vote. And I think it's forcing
03:52 the political establishment, more political groups to really look at their political ideologies
03:58 and reimagine them for the moment that people are facing. So, for example, I work for the
04:03 European Liberal Forum and we've had a project called New European Liberalism. And what we've
04:07 found is people are feeling insecure and we need to respond to that, make them feel secure,
04:13 but also provide hope, a hopeful narrative against the fear that they're facing.
04:17 People definitely need hope. There's just so many bad, grim headlines constantly.
04:21 And there is things to be hopeful about, I think.
04:24 Would you agree with that? And what's at stake for an organisation like yours here with these
04:28 elections? Well, actually, to know what consumers really want and think, we ran a big survey
04:34 and for Euro consumers countries, so in Italy, Belgium, Spain and Portugal. And, you know,
04:40 Europe and its citizens, it remains a bit of a funny relationship, a bit strained. If I would
04:45 need to put a Facebook status on it, I would say it's complicated because they love and they hate
04:50 it at the same time. But when we look back at the last five years, I mean, there's, let's say,
04:58 little satisfaction with consumers, with citizens on how you handled some things. They are satisfied,
05:05 they're happy about how the pandemic was handled. But when it comes to the cost of living and
05:10 inflation, migration, it's way, way less. But here's the funny thing, like you said, when we
05:17 then also, you know, we presented them with some very concrete consumer measures, better protection
05:24 of miners on social media, better cyber security, better protection against energy providers. They
05:29 love it. They like it. So there was huge support for that. And you see the same thing. Despite,
05:35 you know, you know, this a bit of a cranky relationship, they still have high expectations
05:40 for Europe. By far, our number one is cost of living and inflation, but also energy prices,
05:47 the wars, climate change. Very similar, in fact, because Euronews, as you can imagine,
05:51 we've also been taking the temperature of potential voters across the content to hear
05:55 what topics they'll be thinking about on voting day. We did a survey with Ipsos and indeed,
06:00 unsurprisingly, it was fighting rising prices. That was number one, followed by reducing social
06:05 inequality, supporting economic growth. And another big issue was tackling irregular immigration
06:11 and indeed tackling climate change. But I guess it's no surprise there that really,
06:16 the economy is what people will be thinking of as well when they go to these elections.
06:20 Yeah, I think when we look at what liberal voters want, that's exactly it. Economic security. I think
06:27 we need to focus back, for example, on the single market, which is kind of like the crime jewel of
06:31 the European Union. We've let it, I think, be a bit neglected. But now is the time to really close
06:37 the single market. We have good, as you were saying, there are good things happening at European
06:42 level. I think, are they communicated properly? Probably not. But we have things like the Capital
06:46 Markets Union, the Banking Union, all of the things we did to help with the digital single
06:51 market. All of those things will make us more competitive during the next mandate. So I think
06:55 people can be hopeful for that. Yeah. What about addressing social inequality? That is a major
07:01 issue across Europe. And one UN expert said the EU really needs to reduce poverty by 50% by 2030.
07:08 But there's no plan in place really, Roger, to address this. I think this is the main issue
07:12 right now. Basically, it's bread and butter issues that people care about. It's the cost of living
07:17 crisis. It's can I afford my rent? And this is also the issues that a lot of young voters
07:22 care about. But to come back to the point of climate change, actually, if you look at the
07:27 Eurobarometer polls, a lot of citizens also say they do have concerns for climate change. And
07:33 this is also on the ballot this time. The question is, how do we move on? How do we move forward
07:38 with the Green Deal? The Green Deal has been stalling a little bit. And they're not as concerned
07:42 as they were back in 2019. Remember, we had the Friday for Future marches out every single week.
07:46 They've kind of disappeared. I think we need a balance between competitiveness. We call this a
07:53 trilemma, basically, how to keep Europe competitive, sustainable and secure. And sometimes if you go
07:59 too far into one, then something else is going to have to be left behind. Now, I think we have
08:07 the Green Deal. Let's put it in place, but also make sure that we have the economic policies that
08:13 allow, particularly SMEs, which are the backbone of the European economy, to become more sustainable.
08:19 I do think sustainability is the future. We see it in China, for example, they're investing in
08:24 electric vehicles. We need to have that same approach. What is going to give us the cutting
08:30 edge, basically? And I don't think we found that yet. And we're still decades away from that as
08:33 well, because of course, the infrastructure is not even in place. You wanted to add a point there?
08:37 Yeah, no, I really wanted to. I'm not so pessimistic about climate change either,
08:41 because consumers really express like this is important and European policy is important. But
08:46 when we make it concrete, we see affordability as the red line going through it. Like,
08:51 please give us access. Yeah, please give us access to affordable, sustainable food, to affordable
08:57 cooling and heating that is sustainable, to affordable mobility measures. So basically,
09:02 they're sending a clear message to Europe, like we count on you and make it happen for us.
09:07 And we do have the new reform of the EU fiscal rules that's in place,
09:10 Roderick, do you think that is the medicine that the doctors ordered? Or will it just be a straight
09:15 jacket around government? Look, I think this is one of the big issues that we're facing right now,
09:19 we have massive challenges, the green transition, digital transition, defence, we need to invest a
09:24 lot of money. And the problem is, is that the financial environment is changing. We have the
09:28 new fiscal rules come in place. We have the state aid exemptions that the Commission has allowed,
09:34 they're running out 2026. We have the recovery and resilience facility, this massive historic
09:41 investment programme is also coming to an end 2026. So where is the money coming from? And I think one
09:47 of the points, one of the areas where it can come from is indeed the single market. There's a lot of
09:52 scaling effects that we can use from the single market. But I also think we need to think about
09:57 defence bonds or kind of joint European investment facility for these big challenges.
10:03 Well, you mentioned that point as well. We had an extensive discussion a couple of weeks ago on
10:07 Enrico Letta's report, we'll see if any of that does get implemented in the near future. But just
10:12 on these elections, we wanted to check in with one member state and we thought about Portugal,
10:17 who just had general elections, because many there told us that these European elections could just
10:21 be like a second round really of the general elections. In fact, they told us some of the
10:25 posters are still left over from the general election. So a lot of people are not even
10:29 informed yet that there are European elections taking place in Portugal on the 9th of June. But
10:34 for his sake, we caught up with the mayor of Braga, he is Ricardo Rio to hear if locals in his town
10:39 were motivated to vote. It's always difficult, I would say to disconnect the European elections
10:45 from the national situation in the national politics. We have a lot of social difficulties.
10:50 We have not yet recovered from the inflation impact that we had in the power of the shares of
10:56 many, many families. We had some big and worrying issues concerning the response of public services.
11:04 We had a lot of problems in terms of education, in terms of health, in terms of justice as well.
11:10 And on top of that, as just like in all the rest of Europe, we have a major crisis in terms of
11:15 inhabitation, which is obviously a major issue because people aren't able to buy new houses or
11:21 to pay the rent levels that we have here in Portugal. So the mayor of Braga there, Ricardo Rio,
11:26 putting his finger on probably one of the biggest challenges in Europe today for many young people
11:32 as well. And that is, of course, the housing crisis. Young people in Portugal, Greece, Ireland,
11:38 Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium as well. Prices and rents have been spiking and housing is a
11:44 serious political issue. And I'm sure people will be thinking of this as well when they vote in June.
11:50 Yeah, for sure. I think in, I'm from Ireland and the housing crisis is probably one of the worst.
11:56 It also, I think, has led us down a path of maybe anti-migration sentiment. I'm not surprised by
12:06 that. I've worked on migration in many different fields for a number of different years, but I also
12:11 represented, for example, asylum seekers and refugees in Cairo during the Arab Spring. So I
12:15 know what it feels like to have a large kind of influx of migration when you're not necessarily
12:22 prepared for it. However, what I do think is it's being used by the far right. Now we're seeing a
12:28 nascent far right growing in Ireland and we need to be really careful about that. One of the things
12:33 I think that people feel did not happen was local conversation around integration and an honest and
12:42 frank conversation. I think free speech, freedom assembly, they've been under threat in some places,
12:48 not necessarily in Ireland, but for example, we saw it recently in Brussels where a far right
12:52 event was cancelled by the police. We cannot allow that to happen because you know what that means?
12:56 It's that people will then be forced onto online spaces where there are other nefarious actors
13:02 from, you know, we have a group of authoritarian, illiberal countries that are taking over places
13:10 in the internet and giving, allowing people to vent through that. That social media polarisation
13:16 is, we are allowing people to do that to our citizens because we are not allowing the debate
13:24 to happen in public. And even though we do have a Digital Services Act that's meant to address that
13:28 issue, but of course it will need some time, but Eurostat has said that property prices have gone
13:32 up by 47% in all EU countries except for Italy and Cyprus. You mentioned Ireland, I believe 39%
13:40 is the average age of a home owner, anyone who can finally own a home. And in Germany,
13:45 where everyone thinks everything is perfect, the situation is pretty grim too with the
13:49 deficit of I think 800,000 apartments are currently needed. Absolutely. We're a massive
13:53 housing crisis also in Germany. And I think the main issue that's at stake for the youth is that
13:58 they don't see necessarily perspective. What do they have to look forward to? A lot of them are
14:04 probably still living at home with their parents and they're wondering how can I stand on my own
14:09 two feet? And that's the point that really worries me that they suddenly then we see an uptick in
14:15 youth voting for the far right. In the Netherlands, in Germany, youth studies have shown that there
14:20 is an increase. It's also caused the far right's obviously very good at using social media,
14:24 is good at using TikTok. But also because Marine Le Pen in France as well, where the youth, a lot
14:30 of young people like to vote for her party, she's promised to scrap taxes for the under 30. I mean,
14:35 that is a great idea. That's of course, if you can announce such a brilliant idea, whether or
14:40 not she can implement of course, is another situation. But you see this kind of polarization
14:46 also in the numbers. When you look at Europe, you know, we had like 43% of consumers saying,
14:51 okay, Europe is positive for us. And same time you have like 48 saying the opposite, it's negative,
14:56 or it doesn't have an impact at all. But when you look behind the numbers, actually, there is a lot
15:02 of communality, there's a lot of consensus, you know, we know that migration is a main factor to
15:07 determine the negativity towards Europe, but also, you know, financial possibilities, you know,
15:12 the affordability comes back and back. But they have the same fears, but they also have the same
15:18 goals, they really want Europe to deliver on affordable medicines, for example, on affordable
15:23 food, on affordable mobility alternatives, I want to renovate my home, I want to make it sustainable,
15:29 make it happen. So taking away, I mean, basically, I think what we need to do to I mean, there's no
15:35 magic magical solution for this opposition. But you know, really listen to the concerns and make
15:41 it happen for them that and taking away the knowledge gap, because many people are not
15:46 aware what is happening in Europe. I mean, I'm talking concretely about consumer rights,
15:51 but even many of them don't know that compensation in case of flight delays or sending back a product
15:57 when you buy online is actually Europe. There was a report as well this week in France saying
16:02 the French public lacks information about these upcoming elections, they have no clue about the
16:06 role of the European Parliament. And also they have pessimistic attitudes towards the European
16:10 Union. So it's interesting to see every day as we stride towards those elections, new data and new
16:15 polls being out. But just wanted to go back to that topic you mentioned migration, because it's
16:19 pretty poisonous, that debate in Ireland at the moment. Do you think this will play a big role
16:24 in the elections when people vote? I think it will have an influence for sure. What we need to do,
16:31 I think, is have a balanced discussion about migration. Ireland is a country that has outward
16:39 migration for many centuries. I'm a migrant from the financial crisis, actually. And I would hate
16:46 to see Ireland become an inhospitable place, given the hospitality that we've received in other
16:52 places. I think that we can fix the debate. I think that we need to be honest about the types
16:57 of housing that migrants and refugees are using versus the open housing market, which is really
17:03 the problem and social housing, which is lacking. I mean, Ireland also is an island, it's quite
17:09 difficult to get products there. So we face kind of unique challenges. It's not going to be fixed
17:14 overnight. I think also the government needs to be honest about the reforms and how much
17:18 they're able to do. But there are new houses, thousands of new houses being created every year.
17:24 That's not a lot of solace for people who are still living at home or are really struggling
17:29 to buy their first home. But we can't let migration be scapegoated for that.
17:36 I completely agree. That's the point, because that's the problem if you suddenly talk about
17:40 migration and then you talk about the housing crisis, because it makes it look like the
17:43 migrants are responsible for our housing. No, it's decades in the making.
17:46 That's not the case. This has been very long in the making, absolutely. But I also think
17:51 there are legitimate concerns with regards to migration. But the debate has become so poisonous
17:57 that it's become really difficult to just have a normal discussion on it. And if you look at the
18:02 latest Eurobarometer figures and polls, migration is actually not in the top three, not even in the
18:09 top five. So I think some of these concerns for migration might also be overblown because
18:14 the far right likes to work on this issue and get sentiment up and mobilize its voters via this
18:21 issue. That's the same thing we see also in the numbers. OK, migration is in there for sure. And
18:26 people who have a negative view tend to have a stronger opinion about migration and tend to be in
18:31 a more vulnerable financial position. But when we look at number one, it is inflation, it's energy
18:37 prices, it's climate change, it's the wars as well. Which have nothing to do with migration.
18:42 And what about the war in Gaza? Do you think the way the EU has handled that will play a role at
18:46 all? I mean, we took the survey in March, which was still before the escalation with Iran. And I
18:54 have to say back then, you know, satisfaction rate was really low. I think it was around 10%.
18:59 So they're not really satisfied about how Europe is positioning themselves. So I think it might
19:04 really have a play a role as well. EU staffers haven't been too satisfied either. They were
19:09 out protesting, playing dead on the streets of the EU quarter to raise awareness as well
19:14 on that issue. But on that conclusion, we can bring this conversation to an end. Thank you so
19:21 much to our panellists. But do stay with us. Because after the break, we'll be taking a look
19:25 at another issue. And that is what it's like in today's world to actually be in public office
19:30 with so much hate both online and off. See you soon here on Euronews.
19:34 Welcome back to Brussels, my love with me Maeve Magman. We're taking a look back at the news of
19:49 the week. And one story that deeply troubled us was that of the German MEP Matthias Ecke getting
19:54 beaten to a pulp while out campaigning and putting up posters in the eastern German city of Dresden.
20:00 He had to undergo surgery. This comes a week after thugs disguised in balaclavas showed up at the
20:06 home of an Irish minister, Roderick O'Gorman, putting up posters calling him a child hater
20:11 outside his private home. So Roderick, serious political tension there in Germany. He was running
20:18 for the socialists, Matthias. Was he in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or was this very much
20:22 politically motivated this attack? The problem is that we're seeing more and more of those attacks.
20:27 I mean, first of all, I'm very happy that Matthias has now been released from hospital and is doing
20:32 better again. But just yesterday, a couple of days ago, we had another attack in Germany against a
20:38 minister in Berlin, Franziska Giffey. She was in the library, for God's sake, and she got attacked
20:44 there. Last year alone, Germany, 2,800 attacks against politicians and a lot of them actually
20:51 also against the Green Party. So this isn't just necessarily against one party. This affects
20:56 everybody. It's a very, very, very bad situation. And in Ireland, of a similar situation, a number
21:03 of investigative files have been sent to the director of public prosecutions on threats from
21:08 far-right individuals to politicians. Because this minister that I mentioned, Roderick O'Gorman, he
21:12 was under direct attack, I understand, from the far right in Ireland for a long time.
21:16 Yeah, I think we have seen this kind of normalization of violence against politicians.
21:23 We work a lot on violence against women in politics in the European Liberal Forum. We've
21:28 done research on it. It's even more so against women and minorities who are in politics. And it
21:34 is a normalization, I think, from, yeah, these kind of... We're getting influence from other
21:41 political cultures, including the US, for example, where the far right have been using these kind of
21:47 tactics. And there it's even more dangerous because many people could be armed because of
21:51 the gun laws. And what's the situation like in Belgium? Well, fortunately, we didn't have this
21:57 kind of attacks, but only this weekend, there were some, you know, campaign posters that were
22:02 lit on fire. So it's not a personal attack yet. But I mean, you see it's becoming more grim
22:07 every day. And you could see this polarization also a little bit between the citizens. But again,
22:14 I would like to call, you know, to look behind, you know, the opposition, because actually,
22:18 there's a common fear and a common goal in common on this. And a lot has to do with also, you know,
22:24 having the proper information. For example, what exactly is Europe doing? But how important is
22:29 Europe really? For example, here in Belgium, we host European institutions, 80% still think that
22:37 the European Parliament is appointed by the government and is not elected. I mean, people are
22:41 really, you know, quite ignorant about what is happening and why also this European elections
22:48 are so important to us. Interesting, isn't it considering this is the heart of the EU institutions,
22:52 but yet no engagement really, on national level of the role of the institutions. And of course,
22:58 it doesn't help that there's not enough information in national media, although it's getting better,
23:03 but it doesn't help that, for example, also national politicians, they blame Europe whenever
23:08 something goes wrong, but they claim it for themselves whenever something good happens.
23:12 So that doesn't, you know, add to the to the solution either. That's why it's always fascinating,
23:17 isn't it to have a discussion about what goes on here in Brussels. And that is why we are here
23:21 for you. But just back to that topic, Alva, that you mentioned about women particularly being
23:25 targeted offline and also online where the situation is dire. For more on that, I spoke to
23:32 Asha Allen, she works for the Centre for Democracy and Technology, and she's really concerned about
23:36 the situation. Take a listen. Women politicians are disproportionately at a higher significant risk
23:43 of experiencing online harm, online gender based violence, and gender disinformation in particular,
23:48 which is targeted and aims to silence their voices, remove them from the political space.
23:53 And so what we are seeing is a direct impact on our march towards gender equity in politics.
23:59 We're seeing a lot of women politicians leaving the space and we're seeing a lot of young women
24:03 being hesitant to even engage or chase a political career because of the reality of the online
24:09 ecosystem being unsafe for women politicians. Asha Allen there. I'm thinking as well, Alva,
24:14 of Sigrid Kuyk who had to step down, the liberal Dutch politician due to months and months of
24:20 attacks and even one man holding a burning torch outside her house. I mean, would this put you off
24:24 ever going into politics? Yes, it would. We, with the Alde Party, we run a programme for
24:31 empowering women in politics. And this is a common thing that many women say, what we're trying to do
24:36 is develop a toolbox. So how you can deal with online hate, but also people canvassing are often
24:42 attacked. You wouldn't believe the kind of stuff that I've heard that have been said to women. So
24:48 yeah, we absolutely need to provide them with a toolbox. But I think in general, we also need
24:52 a kind of an alliance across the party political spectrum, bipartisan initiative that roots out
24:59 violence against politics. Whenever things like that happen, for example, Sigrid Kuyk,
25:03 I can't believe that she had to leave politics for this reason. It should have been called out
25:09 across the board over and over again, every single act of violence against women. But any politician
25:15 is a threat against democracy. But that's the problem, perhaps, Roderick, that politicians
25:20 are not calling it out when they see it. If you look at Spain as well, a couple of months ago,
25:24 Pedro Santis, there was a puppet of his whole body being beaten to a pulp again in a public
25:30 demonstration. And a number of politicians just let that happen in front of their eyes.
25:33 Absolutely. And I completely agree that this is an attack on everybody. This is an attack on
25:38 society, on democracy, and how we actually work together, live together, discuss together,
25:44 how we are together in a democracy. And the problem is, I think, that this is a long-going
25:50 trend already. And it started with a lot of the hate speech that also came online and on social
25:56 media. And what we're seeing is that some of this hate speech is now moving into action. And I think
26:00 we need to start treating these things seriously. This is an attack on everybody. And it means that
26:06 we need to have some of the tools that we have, that the EU has had, such as the Digital Services
26:10 Act, needs to be used to combat disinformation and hate speech on social media. Are you confident
26:18 that it can work, this Digital Services Act? It needs to work. I mean, there's no other option,
26:22 I think. It's like you said, it's a boundary that has been moving and moving over for years already.
26:29 And we find that it has become the new normal. And it's up to all of us to say, stop, now it's
26:34 enough. And it's not only on social media. It's also the narrative that, you know, in debates,
26:38 people use, politicians use, we need to lead by example. And so it's also, I mean, the world is
26:44 not black and white. And very often, there are no black and white solutions. And let's be honest
26:49 with people. Let's be honest with consumers. We will do our best, we need to do our best.
26:53 But it's sometimes difficult. And we need to listen to each other. And more, even more,
26:57 we need to work to each other. That's not an easy message to convey. But it's absolutely necessary.
27:02 On that conclusion, we will bring this panel to an end. Thank you so much for being with us. And
27:07 thank you so much for watching. Take care and see you soon here on Euronews.
27:10 Welcome back to Brussels, my love. I'm Maeve MacMahon and along with Els Bruggeman,
27:24 Roger Keverputs and Ava Finn, we're taking a look back at the news of the week. And one that got us
27:30 talking was Palumba, a new app to get young people interested in the upcoming European elections.
27:36 Modelled on a dating app like Tinder, the idea is that by swiping to the right or left on their
27:42 political views, users can find out what political party they would lean towards most in Brussels and
27:49 Strasbourg. It was launched on Europe Day on Thursday. Was it a good idea, Els?
27:53 Well, an EU election Tinder, I love it. Finally, I get to swipe. I was already married when Tinder
28:00 came on the market. So jokes apart. Jokes apart. No, when you see that, I mean, when we took the
28:08 election survey in March, you know, half of the people were not even informed about what political
28:13 parties were putting on the agenda in Europe. And, you know, a significant part which only vote for,
28:18 you know, I vote for the same candidate, I vote nationally and I don't take a look at Europe.
28:23 And it's not doing it really right. So it's not a second rated election. It matters. It has an
28:29 impact on our lives. We want it to have an impact. So if we want Europe to guide, then we need to
28:34 show the direction. And an app can be very helpful for that.
28:37 Well, Paul Bileberde thinks that. That is a graduate in political science and he's also the
28:41 founder of this app. He took a few minutes out of his busy week to tell me why he thinks this is the
28:47 missing link. Take a listen. In essence, our app translates the complex language of the Brussels
28:53 bubble into young citizens' everyday lives, packed with references to Taylor Swift and a bit of
28:58 irony here and there to just allow users to swipe on political statements with proposals, whether
29:04 they agree or disagree, they swipe right or swipe left. We have all done this Harry Potter test,
29:09 this personality test that are really viral and move a lot around social media. We are doing a
29:14 bit the same thing. We are showing some very cool screenshots of the results of the political groups
29:20 matches, but also of the topics that matter the most for each individual. And then we hope that
29:26 those can be screenshotted and shared with friends to spark those political conversations
29:29 and to really go viral. Why not? Well, I mean, a Harry Potter app could go viral,
29:35 but could anything related to the European Union go quite as viral, Alfa?
29:38 I love that idea of like you're sorting out, deciding who you're going to vote for.
29:43 No, I think gamification of democracy is nothing new. It's been used as a tool to try and engage
29:50 people in European politics for many years. We have a whole stream in the European Liberal Forum
29:55 on Technopolitics, so the interaction of technology and politics, and it comes with risks and benefits
30:01 all technologies do. What I hope that this app does, because we haven't actually seen how it
30:05 works, is you have to think critically, including about like things that you read, anything that you
30:09 read online, even things that are AI generated. You need to know the source, who funds it, all of
30:15 these kind of critical questions that you should be asking yourself. It should be a tool to get you
30:20 to think further about who you want to vote for. And how could you even fit on an app all the
30:24 information about the EU, various legislations? You can't, and that's the point. But you know,
30:29 this is the election where for the first time in several member states, 16-year-olds can go to vote.
30:34 And I think in this context, this is great to raise awareness, to get you to start thinking
30:39 about how you might want to vote. And this is just the first step. The other steps are, of course,
30:44 you want to see which politician do you want to vote for. It's also about people. And those are
30:49 the things, the finer details also, that you can't put in such an app. But it's a great first step
30:53 to raise awareness. And has the EU failed miserably in communicating? I mean, going back to what you
30:58 said earlier about Belgians who have no information really about how these institutions work?
31:02 Yes, there's a huge information gap. I wouldn't put it all on the EU. I mean, because most news
31:09 comes from national news outlets. So there's also a responsibility for national news outlets to bring
31:14 the news more. For example, they have all put this kind of apps on the market in Belgium,
31:19 but it's mainly on the national, on the regional elections, not so much on the European ones. It's
31:24 always, you know, the one coming in the back. But it's also up to the politicians to really,
31:29 you know, explain what Europe does. And if something good comes from Europe, show it to
31:34 the people. In that conclusion, we can bring this show to an end. Thank you so much, Els Bruggemann,
31:39 for being with us. And also Roderick Hefferpootz and Alfa Finn. And thank you so much for watching.
31:44 If you do download that app, let us know how you get on. Or if you have any other comments on
31:49 anything related to the European elections or any other topics, reach out our email is
31:53 brusselsmylove@euronews.com. You can also direct messages on social media. Take care and see you
31:59 soon.