Even if the Campaign for a PES Primary is directed at socialist, social democratic and labour party activists right now, the call for action by Desmond O’Toole and José Reis Santos challenges the leadership of the Party of European Socialists (PES) - in French Parti Socialiste européen (PSE) – and especially the leaders of the national parties.
On the campaign blog Neil Warner of Irish Labour Youth argues that the Campaign for a PES Primary is an absolute necessity; for Europe, democracy and progressive politics.
This is hardly an exaggeration with regard to the future of the PES-PSE. The reformist left parties have been beaten in most parliamentary elections in the member states of the European Union.
Paralysis or renewal?
In the 2009 elections to the European Parliament a paralysed PES failed to field a candidate for the Presidency of the European Commission, and the socialists predictably fell far behind the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP).
The Wikipedia article on the Party of European Socialists was last modified on 16 August 2010, but even this entry seems to share the melancholy feeling by presenting outdated information about the PES in the European institutions (as of 2007).
Is the PES a spent force or a renewable resource in the political landscape of Europe?
The Campaign for a PES Primary is the most concrete and imaginative initiative for the Party of European Socialists to reconnect with activists and engage EU citizens ahead of the EP elections in 2014.
Growing Facebook group
Last Friday morning the Facebook campaign page had gathered 590 supporters, and the following morning, Saturday 14 August 2010, they were 650.
In less than four days the number of campaign group members on Facebook has grown by 118 (to 768), so the initiative is making headway and for once the PES activists are seen to be on the offensive in a positive sense.
Euroblogs supportive
In addition to Jon Worth, The European Citizen and Grahnlaw (here and here), new Euroblogs have taken up the PES campaign in a positive light.
Joël Cordier had already published the campaign call in French on his blog, but Jean-Sébastien Lefebvre on the Europa451.fr blog seems to be the first to analyse the proposal in French: Primaires européennes, le réveil des leaders socialistes pour 2014 ?
Peter Sain ley Berry’s View from the Outfield (EUobserver blog) calls the PES campaign An Encouraging Proposal.
Other Europarties?
The campaign challenges the leadership of the PES and the national socialist parties, but it has also left the activists of the other Europarties (political parties at European level) in the starting blocks: the European People’s Party (EPP), the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party (ELDR) and the European Green Party.
Are they going to stay crouched until the race is over?
Ralf Grahn
P.S. Comments relevant to the topic discussed in each Grahnlaw blog post are most welcome. However, the number of spam comments has skyrocketed. This is the sad reason for comment moderation, so it may take a while before your pertinent comment appears.
It is easier to understand a language than to use it correctly. As Eurobloggers we could and should promote interaction among Europeans across borders and between linguistic communities. Grahnlaw has adopted a multilingual comment policy:
I do my best to read comments in Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish, even if the Grahnlaw blog and my possible replies are in English.
The European Commission in the UK arranges a Day of Multilingual Blogging on 26 September 2010, joined by the multilingual aggregator Bloggingportal.eu and individual Eurobloggers. Please, spread the word and start preparing for the event.
Showing posts with label President of the European Commission. Show all posts
Showing posts with label President of the European Commission. Show all posts
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Saturday, 14 August 2010
EU Commission President: Campaign for a PES-PSE Primary growing by the day
Social media are a wonderful thing. Online you can make contacts and campaign for good causes across borders, such as the Campaign for a PES Primary we looked at yesterday. Check for updates on the active blog, which gets today’s #bkaeb recommendation (the Twitter tag for Better Know A EuroBlog, a #FF or #followfriday for Euroblogs).
In less than 24 hours the online media campaign on Facebook has grown by 60 persons (from 590 to 650). I hope that all members of the social democratic, socialist and labour parties in Europe, especially the activists of the Party of European Socialists (PES; Parti socialiste européen, PSE), join the demand to hold primary elections, involving PES party members across Europe, to select their candidate for the Presidency of the European Commission.
Naturally, I am going to be even more impressed if the PES-PSE shows the way, although as an independent citizen of the EU and Finland I am not included in the target group - party members – but see the campaign in the wider context of developing European level representative democracy.
Since PES-PSE activists were the first off the blocks, my thoughts turn to people active in other constructive national political parties and Europarties. Are they ready to take up the challenge in their own political party at European level, and do they have enough drive to make their Europarty commit to democratic primaries ahead of the European Parliament election in 2014?
There are two parts to the challenge. First of all, each Europarty should clearly and visibly field its candidate for the presidency of the European Commission ahead of the European Parliament election in 2014. Second, the nomination of the candidate should be decided through a democratic primary election in each political party.
A President of the European Commission with a stronger mandate from voters is not enough to turn the European Union into a parliamentary democracy, and it would not by itself institute politically accountable government at EU level, but it is a step in the right direction, well worth campaigning for and deciding on.
In the Euroblogosphere, Jon Worth and The European Citizen wrote about the campaign for a PES primary before the first entry appeared here on Grahnlaw. Follow the stream of new posts on Bloggingportal.eu to see when other Euroblogs take up the challenge by spreading the word.
The European public online space keeps growing. Multilingual Bloggingportal.eu now aggregates the posts of 648 blogs related to EU affairs (Euroblogs).
Ralf Grahn
P.S. It is easier to understand a language than to use it correctly. As Eurobloggers we could and should promote interaction among Europeans across borders and between linguistic communities. Grahnlaw has adopted a multilingual comment policy:
I do my best to read comments in Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish, even if the Grahnlaw blog and my possible replies are in English.
In less than 24 hours the online media campaign on Facebook has grown by 60 persons (from 590 to 650). I hope that all members of the social democratic, socialist and labour parties in Europe, especially the activists of the Party of European Socialists (PES; Parti socialiste européen, PSE), join the demand to hold primary elections, involving PES party members across Europe, to select their candidate for the Presidency of the European Commission.
Naturally, I am going to be even more impressed if the PES-PSE shows the way, although as an independent citizen of the EU and Finland I am not included in the target group - party members – but see the campaign in the wider context of developing European level representative democracy.
Since PES-PSE activists were the first off the blocks, my thoughts turn to people active in other constructive national political parties and Europarties. Are they ready to take up the challenge in their own political party at European level, and do they have enough drive to make their Europarty commit to democratic primaries ahead of the European Parliament election in 2014?
There are two parts to the challenge. First of all, each Europarty should clearly and visibly field its candidate for the presidency of the European Commission ahead of the European Parliament election in 2014. Second, the nomination of the candidate should be decided through a democratic primary election in each political party.
A President of the European Commission with a stronger mandate from voters is not enough to turn the European Union into a parliamentary democracy, and it would not by itself institute politically accountable government at EU level, but it is a step in the right direction, well worth campaigning for and deciding on.
In the Euroblogosphere, Jon Worth and The European Citizen wrote about the campaign for a PES primary before the first entry appeared here on Grahnlaw. Follow the stream of new posts on Bloggingportal.eu to see when other Euroblogs take up the challenge by spreading the word.
The European public online space keeps growing. Multilingual Bloggingportal.eu now aggregates the posts of 648 blogs related to EU affairs (Euroblogs).
Ralf Grahn
P.S. It is easier to understand a language than to use it correctly. As Eurobloggers we could and should promote interaction among Europeans across borders and between linguistic communities. Grahnlaw has adopted a multilingual comment policy:
I do my best to read comments in Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish, even if the Grahnlaw blog and my possible replies are in English.
Friday, 13 August 2010
Europarties: Yes to primaries for EU Commission President 2014
Conor Slowey (Eurocentric) drew my attention to the campaign for the Party of European Socialists (PES), to which he dedicated a thoughtful post on The European Citizen blog: PES primaries and a Parliamentary EU.
This made me reread the blog entry by Jon Worth as well: Campaigning for a PES primary.
This time around, I went a little bit further. I checked the Campaign for a PES Primary website, launched by Desmond O’Toole, as well as the Facebook campaign page.
A short while ago, the Facebook Campaign for a PES Primary group had already gathered 590 members, among them a number of top Eurobloggers and citizens keen to build a more democratic European Union, such as Jon Worth, Valéry-Xavier Lentz, Laurence Modrego, Martin T. Teubner and Conor Slowey.
The campaigners make the following demands:
I hope that all the activists of PES and members of the national social democratic and socialist parties join the Facebook group, and that the campaign is successful.
However, the party loyalists who framed the call limited the scope to members (“our party”).
As an independent outsider I hope that all constructive Europarties field candidates for the presidency of the European Commission ahead of the European Parliament election in 2014, and that they nominate their candidate through primaries.
I still value my independence to treat the political parties without second thoughts, while waiting for one Europarty (and its political foundation) to show enough leadership in EU affairs and interaction with citizens.
Although I do nothing to hide my belief in the need for a democratic and federal European Union, as a lawyer I serve entrepreneurs and individuals of all persuasions, so a party political label is not necessarily on the top of my personal agenda.
The invitation to join the campaign was one of my first experiences on Facebook, where I have taken my first tentative steps, having participated actively on Twitter for a few months before that.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. It is easier to understand a language than to use it correctly. As Eurobloggers we could and should promote interaction among Europeans across borders and between linguistic communities. Grahnlaw has adopted a multilingual comment policy:
I do my best to read comments in Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish, even if the Grahnlaw blog and my possible replies are in English.
This made me reread the blog entry by Jon Worth as well: Campaigning for a PES primary.
This time around, I went a little bit further. I checked the Campaign for a PES Primary website, launched by Desmond O’Toole, as well as the Facebook campaign page.
A short while ago, the Facebook Campaign for a PES Primary group had already gathered 590 members, among them a number of top Eurobloggers and citizens keen to build a more democratic European Union, such as Jon Worth, Valéry-Xavier Lentz, Laurence Modrego, Martin T. Teubner and Conor Slowey.
The campaigners make the following demands:
WE want to be involved in selecting the candidate who will lead our party in 2014.
WE want to make European democracy a reality for ordinary citizens.
WE demand the holding of primary elections, involving PES party members across Europe, to select our candidate for the Presidency of the European Commission.
I hope that all the activists of PES and members of the national social democratic and socialist parties join the Facebook group, and that the campaign is successful.
However, the party loyalists who framed the call limited the scope to members (“our party”).
As an independent outsider I hope that all constructive Europarties field candidates for the presidency of the European Commission ahead of the European Parliament election in 2014, and that they nominate their candidate through primaries.
I still value my independence to treat the political parties without second thoughts, while waiting for one Europarty (and its political foundation) to show enough leadership in EU affairs and interaction with citizens.
Although I do nothing to hide my belief in the need for a democratic and federal European Union, as a lawyer I serve entrepreneurs and individuals of all persuasions, so a party political label is not necessarily on the top of my personal agenda.
The invitation to join the campaign was one of my first experiences on Facebook, where I have taken my first tentative steps, having participated actively on Twitter for a few months before that.
Ralf Grahn
P.S. It is easier to understand a language than to use it correctly. As Eurobloggers we could and should promote interaction among Europeans across borders and between linguistic communities. Grahnlaw has adopted a multilingual comment policy:
I do my best to read comments in Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish, even if the Grahnlaw blog and my possible replies are in English.
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