Between the 4th to the 7th of June, EU citizens are called to the ballot box to elect the European Parliament. By voting, they take their destiny as European citizens into their own hands – they elect a parliament that is co-responsible for up to 70% of the legislation that affects our daily lives, the lives of 500 million EU citizens.
Aloys Rigaut, President of European Liberal Youth (LYMEC) states: 'Even if some national politicians have not understood yet: we all for a long time already live in the European Union, and not only in our respective home countries. The reality is even that European politics quite often determine our real lives much more than national politics would do. This is why making a political choice in European Parliament elections influences everybody’s personal future more than one would imagine and therefore why it is so important to go out and win these elections if we want to have a more liberal future'.
Alexander Plahr, Vice President of the European Liberal Youth (LYMEC) and candidate for Germany’s FDP party, adds: 'Will the socialists and their protectionist, state-centred view prevail? That would mean more interventionism on the market, less entrepreneur-ship and more state as well as planned economy. Or will the conservatives win these elections by a huge margin? The result would be more surveillance and less civil liberties, effectively putting Europe on the track to a 1984-style surveillance society. What if the greens win large gains? An ideological eco- and do-gooder paternalism that intervenes in the way people live their lives, trying to dictate even the smallest details, would be the result. That’s why it is so important that we, the liberals, win these elections: We know how to ensure the framework for growth and economic strength, we protect our freedoms and civil liberties instead of abolishing them and we use market-oriented, rational ecologic policies with measurable results instead of ideological approaches. Europe is at a crossroads – let’s make sure it takes the right turn! Vote liberal!'
http://www.cli.gs/1Y5uLJ - Election issue of New Libertas, our LYMEC magazine
http://www.voteliberal2009.eu - ELDR election website with an overview of liberal candidates across the continent
