By Konstantinos Petrou

“I shall either find a way or make one” said Hannibal to his generals, when they told him that it was impossible to cross the Alps by elephants. In modern Europe, where the debt crisis dominates, especially in the Southern region, the way towards prosperity and stability is at stake. Moreover, the confidence in the traditional politician caste is questioned, especially in countries such as Greece or Italy. As a result, the solution is a new way, in order the European integration to be achieved.

The European Union is currently undergoing a major crisis, which is not only financial but also political and ideological. The idea of European integration, which dominated last decade, has gone by the wayside taking into consideration that most states act according to their own internal policies and values. Furthermore, Europeans are divided between those who live at the northern region and those who live at the southern region of the European Union.

The first ones believe that the southern states waste Union’s money irresponsibly, while the second ones believe that the northern states can’t realize their problems.  

Furthermore, there is a lack of new ideas and policies from the leaders of the European Union, who continue applying outdated programs and failed policies.

Greece is also struggling to recover from a deep economic, political and social crisis.

This is the result of a political and ideological stagnation that took place during the last two decades.

Huge scandals between politicians and businessmen or media owners have been revealed. The Greek people used to vote their representatives based on patron-client relationships without evaluating politicians’ abilities and political platforms.

The Greek governments have always been indecisive concerning the promotion of social and economic reforms because they don’t want to assume any political cost.

Even in the same party there are politicians, who struggle for power whereas the ideological gap between the two most popular Greek parties has vanished. Eventually, two questions arise: Is the salvation of Europe possible? Is someone able to make a new way in order to lead us in our European promised land?

I strongly believe that pioneers towards this new direction should be the European young people, whose role is the creation of movements, which will influence deeply both society and politics.

Just like in France in May 1968, when the police invasion in Sorbonne provoked a series of student occupation protests, which concluded to the uprising of a wide range of social groups, and ultimately generated an enormous social impact.

The final outcome of this ideological revolution was the transition from the last decades’ conservatism to the liberal ideas -on which the western society was based in the second half of the 20th century-, and the evolution of the socialistic theory.

Therefore, the so-called ideological innovation, which leads to the evolution of our society throughout the human history, is often a privilege of youth, whose involvement in politics is necessary and indisputable.

As in Greek mythology Hercules had to choose between the Virtue -who offered him a severe but glorious life- and Pleasure -who offered him a pleasant and easy life-, so the European youth must choose between the road of an ideological revolution, which will lead them to an era of change, progress and prosperity and the road of participation in games of thrones, among the traditional political leaders, which led earlier generations to political and ideological stagnation.

Therefore, when we talk about political action of the new generation, we should understand that we mainly mean the political debate, the development of innovative ideological movements and the continuous effort to improve the existing situation.

The ultimate goal should be the ideological confrontation (even in the same party), through which we will be led to new governmental policies. The sterile political debate and participation in games of thrones, which mainly aim at preserving the balance and the correlation of political factions, is perhaps the most serious fault.

In conclusion, young Europeans, who want to engage in politics, must first make a decision about the role that they want to play.

They should struggle either for manors and coalitions of power or for the renewal of the political scene through the ideological conflict.

From our side, we must understand that politics is not just a field, where social conflicts and rivalries are carried out in order to gain governmental power, but rather an area, where ideologies are clashed. We should go one step further.

We must leave behind the outdated politicians as well as the ideas they represent. We have to form our political and ideological style, which will distinguish us from the previous generations and will be the trigger for a new start.

The youth of Europe must act towards the European integration and cohesion. They should develop and apply the idea of the European solidarity.

The decision is certainly hard and the implementation of the specific decision is even harder but eventually the outcome of such a painful process will reward us.

Konstantinos has a BSc in Political Science and Public Administration from the Law School of University of Athens. He is Project Manager at JADE Hellas and currently involved in the organization of the 4^th Global Entrepreneurship Week in Greece. His interests include political analysis and communication.

For more information contact him at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it