[Music] Hello and welcome to today's episode of FAPStalks, the official podcast of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies. I'm Matteo Dressler, a policy analyst here for democracy and participation in youth and I'm going to be your host today. And I'm delighted to welcome Sabrina Repp, who is a member of the European Parliament, with us today for our podcast. Hello, Sabrina. Hi, nice to see you. Nice to meet you.
And I think there's many good reasons to talk to you today. First of all, Sabrina is a newly elected first time member of the European Parliament, also one of the youngest ones in the European Parliament and to my knowledge, also the youngest one of the S&D group. You may correct me if I'm... No, no, no. Let's go right. ...if I'm wrong. And yeah, so I'm hopeful to also learn a bit about her perspective on bringing young people's issue also into European policymaking.
And the second more current issue I would like to talk to you is that we most recently had three state elections in Germany, regions, state elections in Brandenburg, Saxony and Turinger, where we saw a further problematic of more and more people voting far right and mainstream parties not doing so well. And it's great to have you with us here because you're also from the region, from Brandenburg, Western Pomerania to be exact, which didn't vote,
but still you're very familiar with the region. And we would also... I would also like to not talk about these elections only in German perspective, but also see a bit what they mean for Europe. So you've now been a member of the European
Parliament for more than 100 days, 107 to be exact. I've counted them. So I'm wondering how has your summer been as a member of European Parliament, where there may be also some very surprising things you didn't think you would encounter in your work here in the Parliament in Brussels? Yeah, first of all I'm very happy to be a new member of the Parliament. I think I'm the second youngest member in the whole Parliament and also as you mentioned
the youngest member of the S&D group. So my summer, there are lots of things I have to organize, many new things I have to organize and also many things I have to do, many meetings during the summer. And also maybe it is very important to get involved into many processes like in my committee. So I'm in the committee of regional development and also in the committee of education and culture. And yeah, you have to get involved into the processes,
into the content. And so my time I've spent on summer was only to get involved into these processes and also you talked about elections in the eastern part of Germany. And also I was there in Saxony and Brandenburg and also in Turing and met many people and support their campaign for getting elected. And this was very, very important to be there and to share the perspectives of the social
democratic future visions there. And maybe something that surprises me during the first months or days in the European Parliament was the debate on the election of Ursula von der Leyen. Because in that debate, for me it was a surprise that the behavior of the far wide, because in the debate they screamed, they spread fake news, they attacked our democracy. And yeah, for me it was a big freak show. It was maybe for someone, it was not really a surprise, but for me
it was okay, they are very, very harsh on the debate. And yeah, for me it was a freak show and for me they show that they will do nothing for the voters. They only want to attack our democracy. They are not on a constructive way there.
And yeah, this was very hard to see. That's interesting that you say it, because connecting the dots a little bit, on the one hand you say that it becomes quickly clear when you are in those debates that they don't seem to actually represent the voter necessarily actually doing things for them, doing policy for them that actually helps them in their daily life. Yet as we've seen in the elections where you said you also campaigned yourself, they've done
extraordinary well. Of course this is the east of Germany, it's a particular region in Germany and as surprising and as shocking as some of the results were and just to give a perspective, the FDA became the strongest party in Thuringia and became a close second, always around 30% in Brandenburg and Saxony. So despite all of that, people vote for them. So and being in the campaign involved and also being from the region, of course, my question then is why do you think
people actually do vote for them the way they do? So turn out for them and on the other hand as important for social democrats as well, why don't they perhaps vote other alternatives which arguably would be much better for their daily lives and improving what they are their day-to-day life? Well I think often people
there are disappointed and maybe also disillusionated. For me it is important that especially the politicians are in the conversation with the people from that regions and being really present in that local areas but I think in the last years that don't happen and so we have to do politics that includes everyone and especially the people who are most affected by processes like transformation and yeah as I said in the last years that not really happened in
their region and you also have a lack of representation because often politicians are from the Western elite if you want to say that so and in so many areas like in administration, in universities, in business so this is a big problem for them because we don't have that much people who are from the Eastern Germany in that fields so a big lack of representation and I think we should make politics with them and not about them and this is a feeling that
many people from these areas show us so that we have to involve them more into our political processes to talk to them to be there as politicians also as politicians from the European Parliament because for them Europe is so far away and but Europe is a guarantee to democracy, to peace, to freedom and to all that things and we need to do to bring these topics to the people in this local areas and to explain what we are doing all the time
and then we can take their trust. Yeah these are many things to work on then to bring European topics to improve representation also of Eastern Germany, Eastern German voices from the region to politics and to also make people feel like they're hurt this is what you're saying you also mentioned they're disappointed I think I guess one dimension is indeed not feeling hurt perhaps that this one level of disappointment from your experience
during the campaigns I guess you also talk to a lot of people what are some other dimensions of disappointment because I guess figuring out what exactly it is that people are disappointed about will help maybe also addressing these issues.
Well I think during the 1990s so there was a big movement in Germany to say okay we change something we want democracy we want to get involved in into political process but I think that's not that not really happens so far in the last 30 years it is not only every time representation but when you look at that often people said okay in the in the Eastern part of Germany there are the poorest one they are not the great jobs and they had some other
expectations during the unification is it right?
That's the term. Unification and yeah and this expectations not already happened to them and also for my generation so when I talked to people on the streets they say okay what you are talking about the 1990s and something like that but my parents were affected by these processes and it is also a topic for my generation to do something that we have really equality between the Western and the Eastern part of Germany and to get really unified and this is
I think a big topic we have to work on also to construct a really really strong future vision because yeah there are lots of processes in transformation and in jobs and in industry and it is important that we have their good jobs we have a good education that people for example my generation who want there that they can be there in the future and don't have to leave these regions and areas I
think that is very very important. Indeed so I take from what you say especially that yeah there's a wish to to participate more and that apparently there is a feeling that is not always provided by the parties which are there so there's something to kind of mental note to work on and also on what you say to provide a future vision for a region for a new generation as well where may it's also a region which is a huge demographic decline actually one of
the regions hardest hit in Europe probably by it's an aging population which brings me to another bigger question what we've seen during these last elections which is also a broader European trend but was very prominent here in the last regional elections which happened in the last couple of weeks is that young people very strongly voted for far-right parties it was the strongest party again in the youngest age group from 16 to 24 and two of the states and
was kind of still the first party also in Saxony where it scored equal with the with the city also the center-right parties so my question is what do young people see in a party that coming back to to what we discussed before but especially the the young generation what do they see in a in a party which really promotes a kind of nostalgic past which never has been there and if you look even a little bit closer doesn't really promise to change anything for good so
what in your conversations with with your peers perhaps also during the campaign what do young people see in this party I think often people I've met and we are also talking about why young people vote for the AFD for example often people say okay it is only tiktok because the AFD has a very strong campaign on on tiktok but I think that is too simple to say why they are vote for that party I think they're today and in the last years there were lots of
crisis that affects lots of young people for example how to get good education a job and maybe a very or maybe how to get involved in two studies into politics and that where crisis or questions young people have and also that our future questions we have to answer and well in the in the last years I think we do some politics not only but often for the older generations not only not that much for for young people and also when we talk about education
so since 30 years we are talking about that we have to change our education system but nothing happens I think that is also a question of expectations we young people have and I think they are also like as as I said before they are also disappointed and at sometimes also disillusionated to the politics because often politicians say okay this is your perspective this is important but they do nothing after that because there are some some issues some some perspectives
that we have to bring into politics and some some topics like education we have to change something but in the in the last years it it doesn't happen and another thing maybe is that young people yeah see that and they are thinking oh okay but which parties for which parties can I vote so that some something happens maybe the social democratic parties all know they are in the they are so-called establishment because they are in the governments also the
Christian Democrats were in the government and also other parties were in the government in the last years so the only party who were not in that governments not only but the the party who is the strongest party under that round is the AFD so they think the AFD is the anti-establishment party who can change something for them and they have very very simple answers to all that's big questions for the future and
And for us, it is a big, big topic to say, okay, we build a strong future vision for the young generation, especially in all regions of Germany, especially that young people can be in that area, as I mentioned, where they are born so that they have a good education, good jobs and can be there in this area to build that strong future vision is very important for them. And I think if we don't challenge that, we lose the young people. And also, it is also a question of representation.
So as we mentioned in the beginning, I am the second youngest member with 25 years old in the European Parliament. And young people say, okay, who can we present me in the political structure? Yeah, the kind of DFD is like an anti-establishment choice. Next to, we haven't really mentioned it and talked about it. Also, the new party, interesting mix of nationalist and leftist politics, the Bündnis für Sarah Wagenknecht, which now came up in the East lot and we'll see
what it all means for national politics as well. I want to kind of take a step back because now we talked a lot about Germany. One thing that is often said about the Eastern region was in Germany by observers, scholars looking, analyzing it is that often you see trends that emerged in Eastern Germany come there first. So they're kind of a forerunner for what happens in the rest of Germany. And I would maybe even take a step further to Europe as well without kind of oversimplifying
things. Regions are different, but things like a weakened party system, I guess this is around since the early 1990s in the East. Now we see this increasingly also in the rest of Germany and of
course also in other regions across Europe. So I'm wondering what are a couple of the things that you take from these particular from the region, the region, the problems the region in the East has, but as European politicians that make you also think about political dynamics in the rest of Europe that you think we really need to look out for in the next five years, I choose next five years
because this is kind of the institutional mandate you're currently in. What are a couple of things maybe from the region that might be a problem or challenge for the whole of Europe as well? Yeah, well as we can see in the eastern part of Germany, it is very similar to the whole European Union because in the last 30 years the politics in Europe were western politics and especially when we look to our eastern Europe countries, then we can see okay we have some questions about
jobs, we have some questions about how they live there, migration and so on. And as we can see what we have in Germany during the unification has also happened in the whole European Union and we share a similar history in the eastern part of Germany with these countries like Poland and Czech and Hungary and so on. And it's very important that we are connected to this history because then we can see that also the European Union is not that the standards are not in every
region on the same level. And in the last years, in the next years, we have to face on that different standards they have there. And I think this will be a very big issue and also that is something I can bring from the eastern part of Germany into European level because there are questions like transformation processes like good jobs, they are often in the western part of Europe, not in the
eastern part. It is also a question of trust in democracy and democracy structures. And there we can see there are many problems on trust in democracy that are similar in maybe Hungary and Poland, maybe also in the eastern part of Germany. And I think we need to bring that perspectives on a level so we can say okay maybe this is different, maybe this is similar.
And then we can face that problem but often it is so okay also a German perspective what have we to do with this part of Europe are with our but they are our neighbors and we share a similar history. So we and we face similar problems so we have to work on together according to challenge it. I think this is very, very important. And so Europe guarantees democracy,
Europe guarantees prosperity for all regions and also peace and freedom. And it is important that when you have regional governments like in Poland or in the eastern part of Germany that the European Union shows that there is the institution that protects you from the far right, that protects you from autocratic systems because you have rights, because you have human rights and we protect you for the people who wants to attack them. So I think that's very important
what we can learn according to these perspectives on a European level. So but also the European Union must realize that there is a big responsibility to that. I really don't know if this is very, that this is in the head of the commissioners and so on, that they have a big, big responsibility according to the national states that if there are far right governments that the European Union have to protect their rights in the national states.
Yeah, that is actually also the kind of perfect connection to your personal work, let's say in the committees here in the parliament you already mentioned, and that we have to see maybe also the similarities between some regions, eastern Germany being a region, but also kind of the living standards or cultures and other more eastern member states like in
Poland, Hungary, and you do indeed work for the Committee on Regional Development. So making some of the things you mentioned like the European Union has to do something, we can all agree and
rights and so on and this is very important and let's work on that. But for you particularly working in this very committee, like what is the type of concrete work you will, you think you will be working on in the next five years that can actually help alleviate some of these challenges, maybe work towards more equal living standards between different regions, what are some of the concrete things that people can also expect?
I think it is equal living standards, it is also, well in the last you asked me at the beginning what are some learnings in my 107 days. But one learning is that it is very important that people in the regi committee not only are talking about their special regions and areas, it is important that we bring these problems or challenges we have to face on a next level. So it is important that we build up their good jobs everywhere in the European Union, a good education
standard, especially for young people, that is very important. And also when we are talking about facing the challenges of the transformation, it is important that no region fall from the desk. So it is important that everyone and politics includes everyone in these processes. So no one is left behind. I think that is very important according to the work on a regi committee. But also I don't know if you saw the commissioners or the round table.
Osla von der Leyen is sharing with us. So as you can see there is Fito from the interesting counterpart from the Fratelli in Italy. And there we can see there are many problems with him, not only because he is from the postfishist party, the Fratelli. It is also a topic on, he maybe will be the commissioner who has to bring Europe, the European Union together. Well, I think he will divide the European country and split it. And this will be very
hard. And I think there we can see that the topic on regional development is not in the priorities that high as it has to be. It has to be on a very, very high level because one third of the money we can share in the European Union is cohesion policy. And this is much money we have to bring, especially in that areas, especially in the region where it is most needed. And if we have the commissioner who, well, I really don't know what he is thinking about the
European Union, but the Fratelli is very sceptic about the European Union. And I think this is not good. So we have to build a very strong alliance to protect the cohesion policy for people like him. And this will be a big, big challenge in the next days and also months, I think.
Indeed, I guess the S&D and other progressives have their work cut out for them to also prepare the most critical questions in the hearing of the commissioner designate Fito to kind of see if he is at least willing to do a little bit of a vision of a common Europe rather than kind of this far right vision of maybe a European Union, but with much stronger nation states.
I have one last question because we are already getting towards the end. I was wondering if you perhaps can recommend us three books, podcasts, films that have helped you, inspired you in recent months to understand a bit better the context of Eastern Germany or also regional development, anything that you're kind of working on at the moment also for our listeners to maybe dive deeper than we could in these 30 minutes. Yeah, so in the last months and days I had not that much time
to read something. I'm sorry for that. But one book I read was a German book from Stefan Mao and he mentioned the perspective of the Eastern part of Germany so that he says, okay, maybe there is another political culture and we have to accept it and we have to find how we can face it. So it is not really every time, okay, the view of democracy, maybe it is different from the Eastern part of Germany and maybe when we get the next step to accept that,
we can see how we can face on it, how we can challenge with that. This was very interesting for me and also maybe podcasts, maybe you see that podcast, you can have a look at the FEPPS podcast because you definitely should and you probably are when you're listening to that. And this is very interesting for me because you faced on so many topics and so different decision makers and so different perspectives of the national states of the European Union.
And yeah, I think that's very, that are maybe two things, but I hope it's okay. Yeah, definitely. And I can highly recommend for those listeners that are able to read German, the book of Stefan Mao, which is called Ungleich vereint. It is very hard to translate anyway. It has some good suggestions also to go more towards participatory democracy and kind of linking that with the party democracy. We have four regions like the East where party
democracy to a large extent is struggling. And I can also recommend of course, some of the FEPPS publications we have on young people, our series, Builders of Progress, where we recently have looked into what connects disadvantaged young people to democracy or what also maybe keeps them from a democracy. And we are also currently looking into how young people have voted in the European elections. So keep your eyes peeled for that. And with that, I'll say goodbye. Thank you for being
with us Sabrina and hope to talk soon again. And good luck with all the important work you have in front of you. Yeah, and thank you for your work. Thank you. Goodbye.