Democrat Youth Community of Europe

Last updated
Democrat Youth Community of Europe (DEMYC)
Formation1964 (1964)
Type
President
Javier Hurtado Mira
Secretary General
Margherita Saltini
Key people
Falah Hasan
Affiliations International Young Democrat Union

The Democrat Youth Community of Europe (DEMYC) is the international umbrella organisation of the youth wings of christian democratic, conservative and like-minded parties of Europe. With currently now more than one million affiliates in its member organisations, DEMYC is one of the strongest political youth organisations in Europe.

Contents

DEMYC is the oldest centre-right youth political formation in Europe, founded in 1964, celebrating 51 years of existence. DEMYC currently comprises 45 national organisations from 33 countries from Europe and its neighbourhood.

It is DEMYC's aim to further contacts and strengthen co-operation between its member organisations from European countries and thereby to contribute to a united Europe.

In 1973 DEMYC was granted a consultative status at the Council of Europe and since then represented its member organisations in the activities of the European Youth Centres and the European Youth Foundation.

DEMYC is a full member of the European Youth Forum, a platform of one hundred youth organisations all over Europe, promoting the interest of young people to the institutions of the European Union, the Council of Europe, and the United Nations.

The senior parties of the DEMYC member organisations followed their youth organisation's example and formed in 1978 the European Democrat Union (E.D.U.), a European-wide working association of centre-right parties. DEMYC became a permanent observer of EDU in 1979 and has been actively involved in its political work since then.

Each year DEMYC organises a number of seminars in different parts of Europe. Topics discussed at these meetings in recent years have included: the new democracies in Central and Eastern Europe and their way into a common future Europe, the European Union and its development to a unified Europe, the North-South dialogue, environmental and employment policy, the future of the welfare state, implications of the introduction of new technologies and a lot more.

On a worldwide level DEMYC has promoted the creation of the International Young Democrat Union (IYDU), thus guaranteeing permanent links to centre and centre-right parties all around the globe. Excellent relations have thereby developed to the Republican Party of the United States as well as to like-minded organisations in Latin-America, Africa and Asia

Study visits have been made to the United States, Central America, Cyprus, Israel, Southern Africa, China, Hong Kong, Turkey and to all former communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe before and after their democratisation.

The organisation was founded as the Conservative and Christian Democratic Youth Community of Europe (COCDYC) in May 1964 by the conservative and Christian democratic youth organisations from Austria, Denmark, Germany, Serbia, Hungary, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The current name was adopted at the conference in Manchester in October 1975, to allow for a broader ideological spectrum.

List of Chairpersons

Name YearsCountry
John MacGregor 1964–1966Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom
Dietrich Rollmann 1966–1968 Flag of Germany.svg  Germany
Ragnvald Dahl 1968–1970Flag of Norway.svg  Norway
Alan Haselhurst 1970–1972Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom
Volker Rühe 1972–1974Flag of Germany.svg  Germany
Per Unckel 1974–1977Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden
Tony Kerpel 1977–1979Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom
Elmar Brok 1979–1981Flag of Germany.svg  Germany
Gunnar Hökmark 1981–1983Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden
Robert Miller-Bakewell 1983–1985Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom
Alexander Demblin 1985–1987Flag of Austria.svg  Austria
Neale Stevenson 1987–1991Flag of the United Kingdom.svg  United Kingdom
Klaus Welle 1991–1994Flag of Germany.svg  Germany
Arthur Winkler-Hermaden 1994–1995Flag of Austria.svg  Austria
Fredrik Reinfeldt 1995–1997Flag of Sweden.svg  Sweden
Stavros Papastavrou 1997–2001Flag of Greece.svg  Greece
Meinhard Friedl 2001–2006Flag of Austria.svg  Austria
Ines Elise Prainsack 2006–2008Flag of Austria.svg  Austria
Páll Heimisson 2008–2010Flag of Iceland.svg  Iceland
Jani Johansson 2010–2012Flag of Finland.svg  Finland
Antonio de Lucia 2012–2015Flag of Italy.svg  Italy
Javier Hurtado Mira 2015–Flag of Spain.svg  Spain

Executive Bureau 2018–20

The new DEMYC Executive Bureau was elected on May, 2018 by the 26th DEMYC Congress.

NameCountryPosition
Javier Hurtado Mira Flag of Spain.svg  Spain Chairman
Margherita Saltini Flag of Italy.svg  Italy Secretary General
Lilit Beglaryan Flag of Armenia.svg  Armenia Deputy Secretary Gerenal
Falah Hasan Flag of Kurdistan.svg  Kurdistan First Vice Chairman
Juela Hamati Flag of Albania.svg  Albania Vice Chairman
Athanasios Lazaros Moldovanidis Flag of Greece.svg  Greece Vice Chairman
Andrej Čuš MPFlag of Slovenia.svg  Slovenia Vice Chairman
Marko Dejanovic Flag of Serbia.svg  Serbia Vice Chairman

See also

Related Research Articles

The European Democratic Group, more commonly known as European Democrats, was a conservative political group that operated in the European Parliament between 1979 and 1992. At its height in July 1979, it had 63 MEPs.

The Christian Union is a Christian democratic political party in the Netherlands. The CU is a centrist party, maintaining more progressive stances on economic, immigration and environmental issues while holding more socially conservative positions on issues such as abortion and euthanasia. The party describes itself as "social Christian".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Democracy Union</span> International alliance of right-of-centre political parties

The International Democracy Union is an international alliance of centre-right political parties. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, the IDU consists of 84 full and associate members from 65 countries. It is chaired by Stephen Harper, former prime minister of Canada. It has two affiliated international organizations and six affiliated regional organizations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liberals (Sweden)</span> Political party in Sweden

The Liberals, previously known as the Liberal People's Party until 22 November 2015, is a conservative-liberal political party in Sweden. The Liberals ideologically have shown a broad variety of liberal tendencies. Currently they are seen as following classical liberalism and economic liberalism, and have been described as being centre-right. The party is a member of the Liberal International and Renew Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Democrats (Sweden)</span> Political party in Sweden

The Christian Democrats is a Christian-democratic political party in Sweden founded in March 1964. It first entered parliament in 1985, through electoral cooperation with the Centre Party; in 1991, the party won seats by itself. The party leader since 25 April 2015 has been Ebba Busch.

Social conservatism is a political philosophy and a variety of conservatism which places emphasis on traditional social structures over social pluralism. Social conservatives organize in favor of duty, traditional values and social institutions, such as traditional family structures, gender roles, sexual relations, national patriotism, and religious traditions. Social conservatism is usually skeptical of social change, instead tending to support the status quo concerning social issues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Young Democrat Union</span> Global association of centre-right political youth groups

The International Young Democracy Union (IYDU) is a global alliance of centre-right political youth organisations and the youth wing of the International Democrat Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Young Conservatives</span>

The European Young Conservatives (EYC) is a grouping of youth wings of conservative and centre-right political parties in Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European People's Party</span> European political party

The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian democratic, liberal-conservative, and conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily Christian-democratic parties in 1976, it has since broadened its membership to include liberal-conservative parties and parties with other centre-right political perspectives. On 31 May 2022, the party elected as its President Manfred Weber, who was also EPP's Spitzenkandidat in 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homeland Union</span> Political party in Lithuania

The Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats, also colloquially known as the Conservatives, is a centre-right political party in Lithuania. It has 18,000 members and 50 of 141 seats in the Seimas. Its current leader is Gabrielius Landsbergis, who replaced Andrius Kubilius in 2015. It is a member of the European People's Party (EPP) and the International Democracy Union (IDU).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hungarian Democratic Forum</span> Political party in Hungary (1987–2011)

The Hungarian Democratic Forum was a centre-right political party in Hungary. It had a Hungarian nationalist, national-conservative, Christian-democratic ideology. The party was represented continuously in the National Assembly from the restoration of democracy in 1990 until 2010. It was dissolved on 8 April 2011.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Civic Party</span> Belarusian political party

The United Civic Party is a banned liberal-conservative and liberal political party in Belarus. The party opposes the government of Alexander Lukashenko and has participated in the country's elections on a few occasions, but it did not have a single member in the Belarusian parliament until one member was elected during the 2016 elections. It claims that its lack of seats is due to the unfairness of the election process.

This article gives information on liberalism worldwide. It is an overview of parties that adhere to some form of liberalism and is therefore a list of liberal parties around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Classical radicalism</span> Historical political movement within liberalism

Radicalism was a political movement representing the leftward flank of liberalism during the late 18th and early 19th centuries and a precursor to social liberalism, social democracy, civil libertarianism, and modern progressivism. This ideology is commonly referred to as "radicalism" but is sometimes referred to as radical liberalism, or classical radicalism, to distinguish it from radical politics. Its earliest beginnings are to be found during the English Civil War with the Levellers and later the Radical Whigs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">European Democrat Students</span>

European Democrat Students (EDS) is a pan-European centre-right student and youth political association, and the official student organisation of the European People's Party. Founded in Vienna by Scandinavian, German and Austrian students in 1961, it represents over 600,000 students and young people in 34 member organisations from 30 countries in Europe and Asia. Its stated goal is to promote a free, democratic and united Europe through a greater student mobility and comprehensive education policies across the continent.

The European Democrat Union (EDU) is one of the three European wings of the International Democrat Union, along with the European People's Party (EPP) and the European Conservatives and Reformists Party. Its members include Christian democratic, liberal conservative, and conservative political parties. It is only a nominal sub-entity of the IDU, since it ceased its activities in 2002.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Conservative European Forum</span>

The Conservative European Forum (CEF) was founded in 1969 to promote the UK's entry into the European Economic Community. The organisation is committed to a positive and constructive approach to the UK's relationships with the democracies of Europe, including the European Union.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Young Conservatives (Czech Republic)</span> Youth wing of the Civic Democratic Party

The Young Conservatives is a right-wing political youth organisation in the Czech Republic. It is the youth wing of the Civic Democratic Party (ODS), a centre-right political party, and shares that party's conservative and economically liberal ideology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christian Democratic Youth of Slovakia</span> Slovak youth organization

The Kresťanskodemokratická mládež Slovenska or KDMS is the youth organisation of the conservative Slovak political party, KDH. They share the same ideological platform with the KDH: a centre-right ideology, Christian democracy and economic liberalism. Membership focuses on young people aged between 15 and 35, while only those between 18 and 30 eligible to candidate for functions.