The latest edition of Delano Live asked what the EU needs to do to reconnect with voters and regain their trust in the face of rising Euroscepticism and populism.
During the event, three candidates for member of the European Parliament identified the weak spots in the European project, before speaking about their platform and their motivations to get involved in politics.
Fiona Godfrey, standing for MEP with Volt Luxembourg, a new political party, said:
“I’ve found that the EU has perhaps become too distant from the citizen and I think that the EU needs to put the individual citizen back at the heart of the EU project. Because we focus a lot on the big technocratic projects, but they don’t really mean very much to your average man or woman in the streets anymore.”
Joanne Goebbels, MEP candidate with the LSAP, part of the European Parliament’s S&D bloc, said:
“In the past 10 years, maybe 15 years, the benefits of the EU have gone to those who were already quite well off. But we’ve forgotten that there are people in the EU who are not as well off as the happy ones, the happy few ones”.
Christophe Hansen, currently an MEP with the CSV party, part of the EPP bloc, said:
“Why is it growing? Because it’s very easy to make politics on a populist basis, because these people deal and work with lies. That’s very sure. For example, in France, Marine Le Pen is saying, ‘do you agree that a person that is retired gets less money than an immigrant coming to France?’ She just says this, but she doesn’t really care about the facts and figures. Actually a retirement allowance in France is almost double [than the allowance for] migrants or refugees, so she’s dealing with lies.”
Listen to the full discussion:
Watch video highlights:
Each edition of Delano Live features live on-stage interviews with people and on topics covered by Delano magazine, but with a fresh perspective. That’s followed by an open-bar and a bit of networking.
Delano Live is organised by the Paperjam Club and sponsored by ING Luxembourg.