Thanks to Pedro Sánchez for the Party of European Socialists initiative in Barcelona GPM.
Together with ESO – European Senior Organisation, we organized an exchange of ideas on democracy and solidarity, and the role of the elderly and civil society in politics. We asked Magda De Meyer to give an introduction on how we bring together and support senior organizations in Flanders today, and on how our generation engaged in politics.
40 years ago, our generation said “no to war” and “no to dictatorship,” just like Sánchez does now: war in Indochina, Mozambique, Apartheid in Africa, dictatorship in Chile, Argentina, Spain, Portugal, Greece, the Cold War, and nuclear missiles. Bringing millions of people onto the streets via civil society… and they were proven right. Thanks to leaders like Willy Brandt, Francois Mitterand, Filipe González, Mario Soares, and Karel Van Miert, we managed to set things in motion.
If we want to make Pedro Sánchez’s call for peace and solidarity a reality, then we, as socialists and democrats, must win elections. That is also our responsibility as activists. That is why we must once again fully invest in civil society today: rebuilding, shaping people, mobilizing, developing strength, against ‘anti-social’ media and hate preachers.
Socialists must return to what they were strong in, back to our roots, back to civil society.
Thanks to Anthony DeGiovanni for steering the conversation in the right direction.
Jos Bertrand
President ESO (European Senior Organisation) – PES-seniors