At the meeting, chaired by PES Secretary General Achim Post, the Candidate-designate told the campaign leaders that in the next steps of the campaign, coordination will be high so that the PES can best help its member parties. Schulz underlined the importance of ensuring high turnout in the elections and emphasised the importance of the national and local dimension in the campaign as well as grassroots mobilisation.
“Today it is only 82 days until the first Europeans start voting. Our grassroots have been re-energised and are growing in force every single day. We are the first political party to harness an innovative pan-European grassroots campaign called ‘knock the vote’. I believe that this is a turning point for European democracy, but we will only succeed if we work together,” Martin Schulz stated.
The Secretaries General gave updates of their election strategies and campaign preparations at a national level, with several excellent presentations given on national campaign plans.
Marije Laffeber, PES Deputy General Secretary, updated the Secretaries General on the PES coordinated campaign “Already we are seeing massive grassroots mobilisation across Europe. The #knockthevote campaign is gaining momentum and we will make sure it will keep doing so until the elections.”
