EFP Newsletter – October 2013. Local meetings in Italy, Portugal and Greece and new sections!

Until Wednesday October 2nd we are receiving yet another round of contributions and comments from members and field experts on the drafting of our electoral programme. Feel free to contribute by writing to your national coordinators (their details are on our website under the “local sections” tab). The final compiled draft will be voted on at the convention in November.

European elections – Our membership and support base has grown tremendously throughout Greece, and although a lot of work remains ahead to spread the word about the EFP, a lot has already been initiated, with top media channels releasing interviews with EFP representatives. We participated in a political forum to establish a Greek Alliance for Federalism, organised by the NGO “European Expression” (Ευρωπαϊκή Έκφραση, headed by Professor Nicos Yiannis), which could lead to a common participation in the 2014 European Paliament elections. Participating parties included Creation again! (Δημιουργία Ξανά!), Ecologists Greens (Οικολόγοι Πράσινοι), Democrats (Δημοκρατικοί), Society of Values (Κοινωνία Αξιών), and the Liberal Alliance (Φιλελεύθερη Συμμαχία). We will also be holding a meeting in the coming weeks with the Swedish Community in Athens, as part of our efforts to garner support amongst Europeans living in Greece.

New regional sections – Four new regional sections have been created over the summer by the Greek chapter of the EFP in the Peloponnese, Macedonia, Thessaly and central Greece. The local coordinators for the new sections are Vasileios Mamaloukas, Stamatia Galiatsatou, Dimitrios Patsiouras, and Petroula Soldatou, respectively. We also had an official presentation of the party in Corinth on September 22nd, with over 60 attendees. We are currently working to set up a new section in Crete as well.

On the occasion of the creation of the Peloponnese section, the Greek national coordinator Harry Stamelos met San Jose State University Professor Periklis Papadopoulos in Kalamata to give him an award in honor of his contribution to mankind as one of the leaders of the project Curiosity in Mars.

Lille – On the weekend of August 31st, the EFP took part in a two-day huge open market in Lille called ‘Braderie’, which presented us to thousands of people. A lot of people showed interest in our vision of Europe – a European Union fully committed to the welfare of its citizens. In this picture our militants stand with the ‘Radicalement lillois’ team, which the EFP supports for the forthcoming municipal elections in Lille – a warm moment, which ended with a traditional dinner of mussels and French fries!

EFP to challenge the French President in 2014 – In a recent interview, French President François Hollande said he doesn’t believe in the ‘United States of Europe’. Next year, the EFP will show that French voters are more ambitious than him, by presenting lists of candidates in eight constituencies. Our object is to persuade voters they can trust a strong and protective Europe.

Italy

Stefania Schipani and Marco Marazzi, president and vice-president of the Italian chapter, respectively, have been interviewed widely by the national press, including appearances in DI-TV, Rete Oro, Rete Sole. The chapter has also hosted multiple presentations of the EFP to citizens in Rome, Pavia, and Turin (this month), and is working on opening local sections in Sicily, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and Emilia Romagna.

Alongside participation as guest speakers at political and economic debate seminars over the summer, the chapter has created its own think tank ” RiFare l’Europa“, which aims at gathering area specialists to propose a reformulation of the European institutional structure. Marco Marazzi and Alessandro Politi (NATO Defense College Foundation) published an article in Sole 24 Ore (a major Italian newspaper) on the benefits of a unified defense system in Europe.

Portugal

The Portuguese chapter is formally registered as Associação PFE Portugal, the first step in the legalization of the chapter as an official political party in the country. We are currently collecting the 7500 signatures required to submit a petition to the Constitutional Court to be recognized as a political party. There are regular meetings of the national council in Lisbon, with current efforts to establish local sections in the center and northern regions of the country. To the left, two council members met in Luxembourg in June to discuss potential collaboration of the EFP with other political forces and communications strategy.

As with several of our non-English pages, our Portuguese Facebook page is a very active center of discussion and civil engagement, particularly on topics of national relevance, so check it out!

Belgium

On July 17th the EFP held a meeting with the most active members of the Belgian section. Several friends from like-minded organizations also joined in to discuss about how to move forward ahead of the next European elecctions. The meeting was well attended and continued long after the scheduled time in company of a couple of glasses of typical Belgian beer.

Scandinavia

Ivan Vikalo is our new coordinator for the Scandinavian chapter. If you wish to get involved in our activities in the region, please contact him at ivan.vikalo@live.com or get in touch with us via our Scandinavian Facebook page!

In person

The co-President of the EFP Pietro De Matteis was invited to speak at the Council of Europe on occasion of the “Strasbourg Meetings” (29 July – 4 August 2013). Hundreds of young people from the EU and neighbouring countries joined to discuss together about the future of “greater Europe”.

The EFP has been increasingly present in the press, publishing several opinion articles and interviews of party representatives. The latest article by our co-President Pietro De Matteis entitled “How Europe exited its crises” appeared on Capital Finance International. Amongst other recent articles of particularly high relevance, see our piece in Italian reflecting on the choices facing German voters in the latest legislative elections this past September 22nd.