Highlights, takeaways and about what’s next:
- Got the EU perspective of Ukraine into the programme in 2014, making them the only major German party to offer it explicitly in their election programme of 2014.
- I not only made sure that Ukraine’s EU perspective remained in the programme for the European elections in 2019,but also managed to add Moldova & Georgia.
By the 2021 Bundestag elections, this had become the party’s default position & was included in the 1st draft. - Attempted to protect Joschka Fischer’s legacy of humanitarian military interventions without a UN mandate in the German Greens’ New Basic Programme at the Party Convention in 2020, but lost the vote after debating heavyweight MP Omid Nouripour (now party leader).
- Gathered enough support for a motion to enable weapons deliveries to victims of aggression such as Ukraine, and instead stop delivering to dictators and authoritarians regimes to bring to a vote at the Party Convention on the election programme in June 2021 and only withdrew it for tactical reasons at the direct request of then party leader and now Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck.
- Was part of the top tandem in the European Parliamentary elections in Bavaria in 2014 – after clinching 22nd place on the federal list as a dark horse candidate with a speech at the Federal Party Assembly on 8 Feb 2014 while Maidan was still going on,which culminated in me saying “Ukraine is Europe!” -and then choosing “Energy Transition instead of Gazprom” as the main motto of my campaign on- & offline.
- Ran for mayor in 2020 and finished in 2nd place with 22.5 %
- Was able to successfully bring my own ideas into electoral programmes at the municipal, state, federal & European level.
- Enjoyed being part of the statewide and federal working groups on Europe, International Affairs and Migration.
- Met & built relationships with some very good people in the party, including members of parliament & government.
- I also ran twice as a candidate in the Croatian Parliamentary elections of 2015 & 2016 as No. 1 of the diaspora list of ORaH (Croatian Greens)
- Consistently have been a proponent of a strong European foreign & security policy, a tough line on authoritarians everywhere e. g. Syria & Russia and for stronger, more consistent support for Ukraine and its Euro-Atlantic integration – not least in the past year!
- Now I am working on the launch of a new pro-European party, which will offer bold and innovative solutions and strategies to solve major crises and issues we are facing and to increase the pressure to support Ukraine through to victory & membership in NATO and the EU!
A new type of party for a renewed liberal democracy based on humanism and focused on the dimensions of security, climate/sustainability and lifting people out of poverty.
Follow me, sign-up for my newsletter and check out the link to my linktree in the first comment to stay posted on all the developments around this new political force:
https://linktr.ee/europeanidealist
