Böll Lunch Debate: What is at Stake in the 2019 European Election?

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The upcoming European election in 2019 might bring about an unprecedented political earthquake, already foreshadowed four years ago, blowing away the political centre altogether. Right-wing populism and nationalism are clearly on the rise, mainstream parties generally have failed to act on the message they should have understood quite a while ago. Instead, they continued business as usual or, even worse, took over parts of the populist discourse. New movements and parties have seen the light during the last years and months. Macron’s ‘En Marche’ convincingly won the French elections, but seems to be losing popularity already and is under serious pressure by the French nationalist Right. Will ‘En Marche’ recover and even inspire other movements in Europe? How successful can they be? Do new trans-national movements like Volt, stand a chance or are they rather taking votes away from other pro-European parties and, therefore, play in the hands of nationalists? Can the Greens repeat their recent spectacular wins in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands?  What is the chance of the next European Parliament actually moving the European project forward or will it rather bury it deeper into the mud? With five months to go anything can still happen, as long as the pro-Europeans do not give up. So, what are we likely to see in the end: the feared come-back of nationalism or is there still hope for a pro-European revival?

Date                

Wednesday, 5 December 2018

Time               

13:00 – 14:30

(light lunch 12:30-13:00)

Location         

Hotel Leopold

Rue du Luxembourg 35

1050 Brussels

Speakers        

• Bas Eickhout, Member of the European Parliament, Greens/EFA and European Greens 'Spitzenkandidat' 2019
• Shada Islam, Director of Europe and Geopolitics, Friends of Europe
• Philippe Legrain, Senior Visiting Fellow, European Institute, London School of Economics & Political Science and author of ‘European Spring: Why Our Economies and Politics are in a Mess - and How to Put Them Right’
• Sophia in’t Veld,  Member of the European Parliament, ALDE

Moderator: Klaus Linsenmeier, Head of Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union

Working language: English

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