A grassroots-led European anti-racism campaign is urging European Union citizens to use their right to vote and counter far-right and racist parties from being elected in the European Parliament elections, which begin tomorrow until 25 May.

Lead by Fare member UNITED for Intercultural Action, alongside ENAR and Hope not Hate, the ‘Your Vote Can Unite, You Chose' initiative is raising awareness of populist and racist parties taking advantage of Europe’s delicate situation to raise more votes.

Parties that spread poison
"Many people in the EU do not want parties that spread racism and poison society but they don’t use their voting rights," said campaign co-ordinator Ralph du Long.

"Public interest in the elections is low. At the same time racist parties activate their voters, leading to a higher number of seats for far-right, racist parties. So we ask people to go the ballot box and to vote, to show they care about what happens in their society," he continued.

"Far-right parties are manipulating peoples’ fears to build support for their dividing policies. Inciting hate against minorities is a classic strategy to gain visibility and win votes, especially in times of economic crisis. Migrants are the easiest targets" say UNITED in their call to action.

The message of the campaign is spread across 28 EU countries. Intensive, local campaigns have been organised in Hungary, France, Italy and Greece to motivate voters to use their rights.

Subjective Values
In Hungary, leading campaigners from another Fare member Subjective Values, are visiting Roma villages across the country urging them to vote. In Greece, campaigners from the young migrants organisation Generation 2.0 urged friends, family and others, to get involved.

The French group Les Indivisibles have produced a special newspaper and video, which was spread in a suburb of Paris and campaigners from the Italian Centro d'Iniziativa per l'Europa del Piemonte reached out to young people to spread the importance of the European Parliamentary elections.