03 Oct, 2023
On 22 June, ALDE Party hosted a town hall meeting in Sofia to gather inputs for the ALDE Party 2024 Manifesto. The conversation centred around the ideas and concerns of Bulgarian citizens on topics including European enlargement and integration, security and defence and artificial intelligence.
During the town hall, participants asked questions about how liberals can defend their ideas to tackle growing Euroscepticism and populism, measures to deal with the energy crisis and reduce dependencies, threats posed by digitalisation to the job market and the role of artificial intelligence.
Citizens were able to exchange with ALDE Party Co-President Ilhan Kyuchyuk MEP, Manifesto Drafting Committee member Anna Stürgkh and Dr. Haralan Aleksandrov. The town hall was facilitated by Antoaneta Asenova-Bihlmayer, Member of the Board of the European Liberal Forum, and MRF leader Mustafa Karadayi delivered welcome remarks.
“We are setting the big goal to have a discussion in every corner of the EU. We know there are some things we should perhaps be thinking more deeply about. In Bulgaria, we have been thinking about the EU as something external that takes decisions for us: we cannot work towards a European integration of Bulgaria, and aspire for democratic forces to defend themselves against populism and radicalism unless we realise that better understanding Europe is our own issue,” said Co-President Kyuchyuk.
Stürgkh, member of ALDE party member NEOS, shared the manifesto drafting process and encouraged participants to actively participate: “Europe is all of our business, it is our own issue. I’m grateful for everyone who has come and made it possible to hear your ideas, needs and wishes so we can represent them in the European election. This manifesto will be the basis for many decisions made by ALDE over the next five to six years and it is so important to us that it’s a document representing European citizens and people.”
#ALDEParty Co-President @ilhankyuchyuk and @AnnaSturgkh listening to citizens’ ideas and questions about EU integration and enlargement at today’s Town Hall on our 2024 Manifesto pic.twitter.com/M6I9nhnOvD
— ALDE Party (@ALDEParty) June 22, 2023
This town hall was the second in a series of meetings that will travel across Europe in the coming months, where ALDE Party will meet with citizens to hear their thoughts and concerns ahead of the European elections in 2024. The outcome of these discussions will feed into the ALDE Party Manifesto drafting process.
You can watch the town hall in full below or on YouTube.
