Often the perception of politics is reduced to "great" figures who appear at press conferences in our capitals. However, it is important to remember that our democracy, its liveliness, and its resilience is given by its plurality. A plurality that is not limited to different ideas and opinions, but also includes a multiplicity of people who dedicate their time and passion to political projects. 

Our democracies in Europe are possible thanks to the voluntary engagement of single members, single volunteers, and local activists. 

With this article, we want to focus on an example of political commitment to Europe in the daily work of local organizations. Below we publish a contribution from the secretary of a local association of the German Social Democrats (SPD) in Berlin. His association leads a partnership with an association of the Italian social democrats (PD).

 “No, Tuesday 28th we have a board meeting, so we can't. Thursday 30th? "

And the answer promptly arrives:

"On the 30th our party congress takes place and the next day there is the city council". 

These are the typical attempts to organize meetings between two associations separated by over a thousand kilometres. Difficulties in finding a suitable time show that local circles are not only united by the same ideals, but also by the same number of commitments. 

The situation reflects a looming danger to political activism: The tasks carried out by volunteers in a local association, the basic unit of our democratic life, are innumerable. The range of jobs, for example, includes preparing city council meeting, congresses, gazebos and leafleting actions. The consequence is that we often become prisoners of organizational tasks and find it hard to take the opportunity to reflect on the "big questions" of our century. 

When we are absorbed in reading a book, our attention is focused on a sentence, an expression. Only if an external disturbance comes to "perturb" our concentration, our gaze widens. Suddenyl we can clearly see the page, the book. We perceive the context in which our sentence, our life and our problems, are embedded. The importance of the contact between the circles of PD Arese and SPD Westend-Klausenerplatz, therefore, plays a similar role to the ‘interruption’. By placing itself outside the routine, it allows us to see the more general context. 

On 25th November, the exchange centred around the respective electoral successes in the elections of the German parliament and of many city councils in Italy. The participation of the German trade unionist and MEP Gaby Bischoff made it possible to contextualize the debates from a European perspective too. Thematically, we touched on three issues. 

The first concerns the importance of concrete social policy proposals for the electoral result in Germany. A central part of the program was raising the minimum wage to 12 euros per hour. The minimum wage was introduced in Germany by the SPD in 2015 and now amounts to 9.60 Euro per hour.

Another topic was the attack on the CGIL, the biggest Italian trade union, in Rome. The recent good results for social democracy in Europe must not allow us to forget the threat of the radical and violent pro-fascist organizations. The attack on the Bundestag in August 2020 and the one on the trade union reminds us that the left in Europe is called upon to fulfil its role as guarantor of democracy.

The number of questions from the members of PD regarding the former Christian Democratic leader Angela Merkel underlined the importance of the German Chancellor abroad. We have become aware of how even in Italy the end of her chancellorship is perceived as an historical event. 

Why meet, then, despite the many commitments we already have? Because Europe is made up of people. Our meetings, therefore, represent a brick at the base of our common home.