Voices of Democracy from the Streets of Europe

Little did we know in 2019 when inaugurating the think tank that in the spring of 2022 Russia would wage war on Ukraine, and that the Supreme Court of the United States would abolish women’s rights to abortion. On March 7 stood our Youth Fellows with Ukraine by undersigning an open letter drafted by the two Youth Fellows living in Moscow, Russian-Ukrainian Victoria Portnaya and Russian Valeria Lavrentyeva.

Another way to stand up for democracy and empower people is our Youth Fellows tireless Open Chair Democracy Talks. The method was inagurated by the Youth Fellows when the IYTT contributed to the Athens Democracy Forum on September 29-October 1 in 2021. Youth Fellows have by now run Open Chair Democracy Talks on 24 places. Passers-by in the following countries have thus been given the chance to air their longings and ideas as citizens: Albania, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, USA.

One of think the tank’s great experiences during the spring was participation in ACT NOW! Mayors’ Conference 2022, which was arranged super professionally in Stuttgart by our partner The Innovation in Politics Institute. We look forward to contributing to the institute’s brilliant innovation ECoD-The European Capital of Democray, not least by letting the inaugural European Capital of Democracy host the think tank’s fifth youth conference in November 2022!

We are currently welcoming applicants to our fourth youth conference to be held on November 21-24. Deadline for applications is August 16.

Looking ahead to other activities of the autumn, we are launching, on the one hand, a Youth Fellow’s Policy Brief focused on how to widen recruitment to higher education, and on the other hand, a handbook of innovative democracy.

Time to end today’s words by presenting to you the new issue of our newsletter The Loop, which gives you a review of recent and upcoming events, activities and publications.