A generation of young Europeans that became activists while still at school is now of age to take up positions in political office.
They began by protesting alongside Greta Thunberg at Fridays for Future demonstrations; now they are candidates for the imminent European Parliament elections.
A generation of young Europeans that became activists while still at school is now of age to take up positions in political office.
They have launched campaigns across Europe in order to protect and further climate protection policies amid backlash from right-leaning parties.
If successful, they will become some of the 720 European lawmakers who, alongside EU governments, pass new laws.
The elections from 6-9 June come at a key moment as the EU strives to meet 2030 energy and climate targets.
Meet three of Europe’s new 20-something eco-warriors swapping protests for the political stage.
Petr Doubravsky is running for Czech’s Green party
While at school, Petr Doubravsky was inspired to join students across Europe leaving their classrooms on Fridays to march for action on climate change.
In 2018, he co-founded the Czech offshoot of Thunberg’s Fridays For Future strikes.
Since then, he has attended countless protests picketing parliament and making speeches.
Now aged 22, he is studying economics and the environment at Brno University. He is also making his first foray into European politics.
In June, he will run as a candidate for Czechia’s Zeleni (Green) party in the EU elections.
“In 2019, we heard that we should calm down, that we should stay in school, that we should wait until we are adults. And that time has now come,” he writes on his campaign website.
It was a big decision to move from sparking conversations on the outside to legislating from the inside.
But he felt Czechia needed more inspirational figures of its own to become role models for the next generation.
“The voice of young people is missing in Czech politics. It’s time to fix it,” his campaign reads.
Lena Schilling is a key candidate for Austria’s Green Party
23-year-old Lena Schilling, studying political sciences at the University of Vienna, is now a candidate for the Austrian Green Party in the upcoming EU elections.
Schilling was also a climate activist with the Fridays for Future movement. In 2022, she published the book Radikale Wende delving into the historical significance of protests.
“I feel this injustice so deep inside me, I can’t help but take action,” she said in a recent radio interview.
She is now channelling her energy in a political direction.
“From being a climate activist fighting on the streets to being in the EU Parliament is a big step,” her campaign manifesto reads. “A step that we can only take together as a movement. I want to go with you to where the important decisions are made.
“I stand for a climate-friendly, democratic Europe. For a European Union in which women and men earn the same amount, in which we actively oppose poverty. A Europe in which hatred and right-wing agitation have no place.”
French activist Sybille Douvillez helped refound France’s Place Publique party
Sybille Douvillez is a French activist who is a candidate for the socialist-affiliated Place Publique party.
She began to get involved with climate strikes and protests from the age of 14.
Now 19 years old, Douvillez is in her second year studying economics at the Sciences Po University in Paris and running as a candidate for the volunteer-run socialist Place Publique party.
“After pounding the pavements, going on strike, signing petitions and plastering our streets with feminist messages, I realised that our democracy was in crisis. We had to get back into politics,” she says in a video on her social media.
