At the end of the 29th Congress of the European Green Party, which elected Ska Keller (Germany) and Bas Eickhout (Netherlands) as co-Spitzenkandidates of environmentalists for the May 2019 European elections (see other news), EUROPE was able to meet with Katri Ylinen, co-spokesperson of the Federation of Young European Greens. The opportunity for the latter to share the political priorities of her movement (words collected by Lucas Tripoteau).
Agence Europe - What have been your thoughts about this Council?
Katri Ylinen - From a youth perspective, the Council has been very successful for us. When we came here, we had very strong expectations on having the Spitzenkandidat that we wanted to win. It was Ska Kelller, so the outcome is a strong success.
We also wanted to table a motion on ‘unpaid internships’ in Europe for Green parties. We indeed wanted all the Green parties to decide they wouldn’t take unpaid internships anymore. It is very important to the younger generations facing precarious situations. And this amendment has passed.
We have also passed a motion on the copyright reforms (article 13). Also, we succeeded to get an amendment on free-abortion. So, it was a success for us.
The atmosphere was also very good, we’ve had very good debates that many people were interested in.
Are you happy about the election of the two co-Spitzenkandidaten?
Ska is one of our alumni, as she was co-spokesperson for the Federation of Young European Greens. She has been our ally for several years. We are therefore absolutely happy to continue working with her. Ska has always been supporting the values that are very important to us, such as human rights and defence of minorities.
We are also very happy about Bas. I personally think Bas is our strongest expert on climate and energy transition. And we are proud to have him as co-Spitzenkandidat.
Both Ska and Bas are very good at mobilising people. So, this is all good news.
I am also happy we had Petra [de Sutter, who ran for Spitzenkandidat in the European elections] running. She supports some ideas that are not yet so mainstream in European politics. Although she is not Spitzenkandidat, she has talked about important issues: gender issues, sexual minorities and their rights.
What do you expect from the next European Parliament and the next European Commission?
We have divided our political priorities into three categories: a Welcoming Europe, a Social Europe and a Sustainable Europe.
We want to build a Europe where the people are welcomed and can benefit from dignity and protecting values, which unfortunately does not always happen in Europe.
We also want the society to be more feminist and our cities to be safe for women, with a feminist architecture. We aim to obtain gender balance and more representation of women at the European Parliament. This is very important for young people.
If you look at the European Parliament, it’s very white, very privileged, with not so many different models, different types of politicians. We want to see more diversity, and young people, so as to make the people more interested in politics.
And we of course stand for a more sustainable Europe, more ambitious climate policies. We are looking forward to next COP, and we hope that the next multi-year financial framework will be in line with the aim to decrease carbon emissions.
We have high expectations. I know very well it’s not going to happen in the next European Parliament, but you have to keep ambitious hopes.
Could you please share your views on the Green wave?
I come from Finland, where support for the Green movement now represents 11.4% of the public opinion, which is very good.
What we saw in Belgium, in Germany and in Luxembourg is just the beginning. I really hope we can feed the wave, not only for the European elections but also after that.
I also hope the Green wave will inspire more young people to be more interested in politics. Today, they are very up to defend some causes, and to take part in movements, but they do not try too much to be involved in political parties. Maybe they have lost faith. But I hope many young people will be elected in the near future.