Rome, 28/02/2014 (Agence Europe) - In the May 2014 elections, the Party of European Socialists (PES), will be seeking inspiration from the successful French and US election campaigns, which mobilised thousands of voluntary workers on the ground and led to the victories of François Hollande and Barack Obama.
The PES is now being advised by the team that provided advice for François Hollande in 2012. But what is its secret weapon? According to the spokesperson, in France, this consisted of 6,000 organisers coordinating the action of 80,000 volunteers. These volunteers knocked on the doors of 5 million voters in an effort to convince them to vote for them. According to Guillaume Liegey, who headed François Hollande's door-to-door campaign, direct contact with the voters has the most impact, more than e-mails, telephone calls or posters. The goal is not to “steal” voters from the other parties but to convince those who are not voting and already have certain affinities with the Socialists, to go and vote.
On Friday 28 February, young socialist supporters gave their candidate in the European elections, the current president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz from Germany, a standing ovation. Schulz called on them to get out and knock on the doors during the “Knock the vote” campaign and tell European citizens that they needed to “change Europe”. He explained that his personal experience in 1972 had shown him that knocking on doors had a real impact. (EL)