On 2 July, liberals gathered in Vienna ahead of this weekend’s ALDE Party Congress for a pre-Congress celebration in collaboration with the Alliance Of Her and Rainbow Platform.
The event served as a warm- up for the 50-year anniversary Congress weekend celebrations. Liberals mingled, heard impassioned speeches and witnessed this year’s the Alliance Of Her Women in Politics Champion of the year award ceremony.
The evening kicked it up a gear with a Drag Show performance in the evening. The tone was set for liberals to celebrate the LGBTQIA+ community as well as the importance of self-expression in the face of societal backlash.
Miłosz Hodun from the European Liberal Forum started the speeches, speaking about the importance of intersectionality and diversity. He encouraged liberals to continue being good allies and educate themselves on practicing compassion.
The highlight of the night came from Emma Wiesner MEP (Centerpartiet, SE) as she spoke on stage about the importance of supporting transgender women and drag queens, as their rights are directly attached to women’s rights and equality.
“Not until we are all free, confident and proud will the world be safe and free. Women’s rights and human rights cannot be without transgender rights and drag queen’s rights. We must work on diversity at all levels,” Wiesner declared, removing her suit to reveal a pride-themed outfit as an ode to the drag performances.
After her speech, Wiesner presented this year’s award, announcing the winner Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, leader of the Lithuanian liberal party Liberalų Sąjūdis and speaker of the Lithuanian parliament. As a 2016 Alliance Of Her alumna and a chess Grandmaster and European champion, she has an especially interesting profile.
Čmilytė-Nielsen described her experience in the Alliance Of Her as a motivational moment which transformed her to push onwards in politics. She went on to say that other political groups are ‘envious’ of the platform’s results. She has expanded the Alliance Of Her ethos through establishing the LILY programme to help liberal women in Lithuania dare to make the final step through a network that looks forward to the future.
“We have a duty as liberals to spread this message and strengthen our political work, we must build the Europe that doesn’t give in to the politics of fear or turn back the work generations before us achieved,” Čmilytė-Nielsen stated in her speech.
She ended on a note which set the tone for the Congress weekend, saying that “liberal values are not a matter of fashion, but of our strength and the Europe we want to be a part of.”
This event was produced with the support of ALDE Party, the European Liberal Forum and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom – Europe.