The first discussion group meeting in 2024 took place as usual on the last Friday of the month, the 26th of January. We chose a topic which will be “hot” all year round. 2024 is not just an election year. It’s perhaps the election year. Globally, more voters than ever in history will head to the polls as at least 64 countries (plus the European Union)—representing a combined population of about 49% of the people in the world—are meant to hold national elections, the results of which, for many, will prove consequential for years to come.
As we were talking about the future the discussion was mainly based on opinions and predictions. Our views and comments were about wide areas – from geopolitical processes and climate change to economics and immigration.
We focused on elections in the USA, UK, and Europe because although we live in Europe we have historical and current ties to these other places.
The US elections will have a major impact on the world therefore one of the first comments was about Trump, his political statements and possible actions.
Some were afraid that the EU would be lost and weak if Trump was elected and continued his previous policies regarding NATO. Because of the possibility of the US distancing from Europe, quite a few political and military high-ranking persons in the EU and the UK have been warning about a possible future war with Russia and calling to start conscription.
Other members of the group thought it would be good for the EU to become a more independent military and economically rely on itself when making important decisions.
We talked about the economic situation and immigration in Europe which creates possibilities for and facilitates far-right parties. The coming quite a few EU countries and EU parliament elections will be a good indication if such trends are strong.
A few comments were about governments we elected and put into power, that they can’t manage well a lot of issues which came after many countries’ economies already were seriously weakened during two years of COVID. It is also a question of democracy and the government’s responsibility to the people of their countries to implement promises made before elections and not be mostly interested in serving their own political agendas.
Our meeting was a good opportunity to talk about what we think and expect from the future, many views were more statements and opinions than analyses of facts, which we will talk about in the next meeting.
