Event reports
In their welcoming words, Dr. Mario Voigt, Secretary General of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Thuringia, Barak Herscowitz from the Liberals in the Likud and Nadine Mensel, Deputy Country Representative of KAS Israel, emphasized the significance of this meeting, because of its meaning to strengthen ties between Israel and Europe - also in terms of liberal-conservative values.
Israeli and German participants expressed their great interest in the work of the respective parties and the various party platforms. Moreover, the aim was to share information on intra-organizational decision-making processes. Representatives from both sides went on introducing their organizations and as well as their major programmatic issues. At this point, the input of the Thuringian politicians was particularly welcome. First, Younes Ouaqasse, regional chairman of the Association of Christian-Democratic Students (RCDS), a CDU affiliated platform at university level, remarked on the German party system in general. His presentation was complemented by Stefan Gruhner, regional chairman of the Junge Union (JU), the youth branch of the CDU in Germany, who talked about the party’s strategies to reach the youths and to become engaged at schools and universities.
Several aspects of those presentations served as a basis for roundtable discussions. The more than thirty seminar participants engaged in thorough debates, exchanged their views, and got involved in serious talks about different issues such as economic and fiscal policies, security and foreign affairs, or even same sex marriage, which has become quite a topic in the conservative oriented CDU. The Israeli peers also expressed a particular interest in learning more about the possibilities of the young generation to participate in politics. How was it possible for young party members to have a say in policy formulation and inner-party decision-making procedures with respect to the established party circles?
Interestingly, Likud members related it took them longer to move to positions of responsibility or offices compared to their counterparts from the CDU or JU. But since the Israeli society is much younger in demographic terms, you would expect a larger proportion of representatives from the younger generation active in politics. However, it seems that for German youngsters it is easier to start a political career and also be taken serious by voters. This is particularly evident in local politics, where a lot of young people get involved and hold offices.
Both parties, Likud and the Christian Democratic Union rely on internal platforms to shape a political program. Party forums play an important role, to give room for a variety of opinions and interests, but to also filter it to derive consensual political demands. In consequence, it may even be that inner-party groups advocate different ideas. With regard to the Likud for example, in terms of security policy existed a wider consensus than in terms of economic views.
Internal Likud forums of the young generation are groups like ”Manof”, a think tank promoting liberal ideas, ”Young Generation”, mainly active at universities, the parliament and ministries, and the LGBT Group, that advocates the topic of sexual orientation and equality.
Apart from the exchange on party structures, the Israeli-German workshop addressed the question of follow-up projects. All participants expressed their commitment to continue and expand the cooperation between their political parties.
