The British comedian, Russel Brand, recently called on his fans to stop voting in order to “starve [politicians] of consent”. Brand believes there is no point in voting for any politician, as they all ultimately behave the same way once they’re in office.

Elsewhere in Europe, another funnyman turned man of the people – Italy’s Beppe Grillo – also argues that politicians are all corrupt and useless. Grillo’s proposed solution, though, is not to ignore elections but rather to vote more ‘non-politicians’ into office. Either way, it’s another rejection of ‘mainstream’ politics.

This feeling of frustration with the current political system is something shared by many of our readers here on Debating Europe. Gratian from Italy, for example, recently sent us in a comment complaining that: “When all parties turn out to be the same once in power, people lose faith in all parties, and ultimately in democracy.”

When we spoke to Uffe Elbaek, a member of the Danish national parliament and former Culture Minister of Denmark, he argued that important issues should not just be reduced to party politics. Rather, he thought they should involve citizens’ movements working alongside the traditional political system to a much greater extent:

There are questions even more important than which party you vote for. If you look beyond party politics […] the bigger picture is the way we think about growth, the way we produce, the way we think about environmental issues… So, get out there, vote for the right people, but do more than just voting. Organise yourself around important questions and create your own platform.

Which is all very nice. But what should these “citizens’ platforms” actually look like? To get a better idea, we spoke to Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, a German MEP and part of the Freie Demokratische Partei, a Liberal Democratic party in the European Parliament. Chatzimarkakis announced in April that he would be quitting German politics at the end of the European Parliament’s current term because of the way Cyprus was treated during its bail-out negotiations. Instead, he has announced his intentions to form a “citizens’ platform” in Greece with the aim of taking part in the European elections in May 2014.

First of all, we asked him how he would respond to Gratian’s comment about the feeling of disillusion with politics:

I totally agree with Gratian. That is why I advocate more referenda and more direct democracy in Europe. In the case of the financial crisis, the crisis of democracy was even worse than normal because there was no influence or control on the European level from the only Europe-wide elected body – the European Parliament. There was some influence from national governments and parliaments, but to be clear: they were often blackmailed, like Greece and Portugal, to do what they were told. So, what we need now is a big step into a more supranational, or rather federal, fiscal union as a first step towards a United States of Europe.

But is a stronger European Parliament really the solution? We also had a comment sent in from Mike, who argued: “The problem with the EU is that it assumes that it is representing Europe. It is not. Many many don’t even know who their MEP is. So why are they going to vote for someone they don’t even know?”

What we haven’t had until now is a public debate in Europe. A public debate is starting to emerge now, but we certainly didn’t have it until the financial crisis broke out. The crisis was the first real transnational and pan-European phenomenon that led to the participation of the entire European demos, and you could see because in a lot of letters to newspaper editors, participation in TV shows by citizens, discussion on social media, etc. Suddenly, there were comments to a much larger extent on European affairs. For example, German pensioners started talking about the pension system in Greece. So, I think a big step has been made, but we haven’t managed as a European Parliament to cope well with this new situation, to pick up the debate and to demonstrate our own role. And, to be honest, I am not surprised because I am disappointed by our own role: the European Parliament has not had any real means of control and oversight during the crisis. There was only one hearing in the European Parliament – just one! – on the policy of the Troika. This was not enough, and it has to change.

Finally, is “anti-politics” just a lazy excuse not to engage with the political process and ignore tough compromises? We asked Chatzimarkakis why he was forming a citizens’ platform. Why not just engage with existing political parties?

First of all, it’s an attempt to respond to some of the discontent I have heard from citizens, including your readers just now. All the questions I have just answered have had to do with the unsatisfied feeling that many people in Europe today possess; the belief that ‘my voice is not being heard’ by governments and politicians. That’s why we have created a platform for citizens in Greece. It will be a list of people that want a stronger and even more integrated Europe. This is our answer to the Euro-crisis and to the public sense of apathy. We want to make clear that it would be a major mistake to stop European integration, and that a push forward should be made. Citizens from all parts of society are invited to take part in this new movement. And it means that ideologies are not our focus. Our focus is realism, and not ideology. This might sound new, but in fact people are fed up with parties or ideologies. They don’t want to choose A, B or C if the outcome is always the same. Some of your questions reflect this idea. I believe that such citizens movement are the way forward.

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IMAGE CREDITS: CC / Flickr – Bill Roehl