Why voting matters
After endless TV debates, slogans, and grand promises, you spend a few minutes at the polls to cast your vote, and then it’s over. Is this what “democracy” means today?
A voice for the voiceless
A recent poll showed nearly half of young people believe their vote doesn’t matter, and fewer than one in five 18 to 24-year-olds trust politicians. But votes do have an impact. In fact, winning even this limited form of electoral democracy was a hard-fought victory for the working class, and access to the polls remains crucial.
Industrial workers and trade unions played a significant role in pushing for broader electoral rights. They organised strikes, protests, and campaigns demanding political representation and the extension of voting rights to working people. Across Europe, women’s suffrage movements were instrumental in securing voting rights for women. In several countries, farmer movements also played a role in demanding voting rights, especially in societies where rural populations were significant and often disenfranchised.
Why your voice matters
Elections are a critical arena of struggle, reflecting deeper societal shifts.
Parliament enacts laws that materially impact people and planet, potentially improving or worsening wages and conditions and enhancing or degrading living standards through housing policy and climate action. It can decide to democratise the economy – or protect monopolies and leave the wealthy untouched.
It matters whether a parliament passes laws that serve the rich, racists, and reactionaries or those that serve the common good. Your vote alone may not change everything, but together with many others, you can influence the balance of power. The Left brings the struggle from the streets and the workplaces to parliament because your voice does matter.
How it’s been….
Since 2015, we’ve seen a pronounced rightward shift across the European political spectrum. We are living in an era of global disorder, marked by profound crises. Many of which stem from the convergence of the neoliberal economic downturn and its authoritarian tendencies with the ecological crisis and the resulting logic of scarcity.
The European Union, which swiftly enacts ambitious plans to rescue private banks or punish governments that stray from neoliberal austerity, responds to these challenges with empty declarations and recycled, failed policies.
Racism, xenophobia, and closed borders—old fantasies—are once again knocking at Europe’s doors. In an attempt to counter the rise of the radical right and co-opt the politics of fear and hatred, most parties and institutions are implementing similar repressive policies across the continent.
…how it’s going…
Things might not look great, but there is resistance. Workers and communities across Europe are fighting back: the feminist struggles to ensure access to safe and legal abortion, the battle of platform workers for decent working conditions and the mobilisation of millions calling for a ceasefire in Palestine are just few examples of inspiring people power.
For the past five years The Left in the European Parliament has brought the voice of the streets in the European institutions. We have joined millions of people demanding another Europe where workers rights, climate justice, transparency, feminism and human rights matter.
We have won some important battles: from protecting workers from asbestos, to banning Amazon lobbyists from entering the European Parliament. Together with civil society we continue to resist and denounce Fortress Europe and the EU’s capitulation to racist and xenophobic narratives. We managed to secure the resignation of the disgraced Director of EU border agency FRONTEX. We were the first group to call for an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Palestine, denouncing the EU’s complicity with a genocide unfolding before our eyes.
While the current landscape may seem bleak, the struggles and victories of the past remind us that every voice matters and every vote counts. The Left in the European Parliament will continue fighting for workers’ rights, climate justice, feminism, and human rights. Together, we can challenge the status quo and build a Europe that puts people and the planet before profit.
We all have a voice, we need to use it. Together.
What we stand for… is you.
We are ready to keep fighting. In parliament, on the streets, and in workplaces. We can only succeed together. We will not allow people to be pitted against each other—it doesn’t matter who you love, where you come from, what you believe, or how you look. We fight together for social justice, solidarity, and peace.
The Left stands up for workers, the environment, feminism, peace & human rights. What unites us is the vision of a European Union that defends people and the planet, a Europe of equality, sustainability and solidarity. The major policies of the EU and its member states have yet to reflect this vision. Instead, a radically market-oriented logic of competition both within the EU and towards the rest of the world has meant that this current project is one of the elites, not the people. We’re committed to reversing that, bursting the Brussels bubble, and bringing the voice of the streets to the European Parliament.
Struggle is how we can really change politics.