MEPs Orlando and Schilling: Half a century apart in age, united in their ideas
The oldest and youngest members of the European Parliament pledge to fight for environmental sustainability and minority rights, in an interview with Euronews.
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00:0053 years and 5 months separate Leo Luca Orlando and Lene Schilling, the oldest and youngest
00:07members of the European Parliament.
00:10Both are part of the Greens ALE group, where they arrive with very different political
00:15and personal trajectories.
00:17Orlando is 67 years old, he was the mayor of Palermo in southern Italy for 32 years
00:23and was already an MEP from 2004 to 2009.
00:27Schilling is a 23-year-old climate activist who first entered politics after the Fridays
00:32for future demonstrations in her country, Austria.
00:36I stand here not just for myself or for the Green Party, I stand here for a whole generation
00:45that demonstrated and striked on the streets years ago and still is ongoing doing that.
00:51I want to bring more Mediterranean to Europe, to bring in Europe our will for peace.
00:57Enough with this mad race for arms, to finally recognize the State of Palestine, to condemn
01:03the genocide of the Italian government and the damage of the Palestinian people, to send
01:08a message of environmental justice and social justice.
01:18I want to protect nature, I want to fight for climate justice and I want to fight for
01:22the young people that wear on the streets all around the world and the second thing
01:27I want to say is that now we have the rightest parliament ever and I'm also fighting the
01:35far-right.
01:36We need a strong commitment to force climate policies, to go on with these transformations
02:00in the industry, in the energy and also in the transportation and all of this is needed.
02:30Lena Schilling will be part of the Parliament's Environmental Commission, while Leo Luca Orlando
02:41will be part of Foreign Affairs.
02:44Both are ready to fight for environmental sustainability and minority rights.