Eye-catching election placards are popping up across the European Union. They appear overnight in public squares and in front of train stations, along the Autobahn and the Champs-Élysées and many lesser-known rues, strassen, and calles.
With bright colors and bold slogans, each promises to make a difference in the European Parliament, if only passersby will vote for their party in the upcoming election.
“Make Europe strong,” says one.
“Make it happen,” urges another.
And there’s a new slogan for a new party in Spain: “United in values, guided by faith.”
The sign asks people to vote for Fe, Infancia, Educación, y Libertad (Faith, Childhood, Education, and Liberty) or FIEL, a new, explicitly evangelical Christian party.
The party’s candidate for the European Parliament may not actually appear on ballots in June, though. Before Juan José Cortés can stand for election, FIEL needs 15,000 signatures by May 12.
“We are at a crucial moment,” party president Salvador Martí wrote in a recent campaign letter.
Your signature is essential so that we can continue in the battle, and so that together we can work for a better future for all.
Martí acknowledges this is an uphill battle.
Many experts say it’s basically impossible to build a new party from scratch out of a tiny religious minority.
Evangelicals make up about 2 percent of the Spanish population.
There are fewer than 5,000 evangelical congregations in the whole country, even with the recent increase in evangelical immigrants.
“We do not want to settle for the obstacles that say that it is not possible to build a party built by citizens like you and me in Spain,” Martí wrote in April.
The once-every-five-year election presents a strategic opportunity for evangelicals seeking to have more influence on European politics.
The European Union’s 447 million citizens in 27 countries have the chance to vote from June 6 to 9, electing 720 politicians to the parliament in Brussels.
Those leaders, sitting in the EU’s only directly elected legislative body, will provide democratic oversight to the European government.
They will pass laws and approve budgets, together with the council of appointed representatives of member countries, and steer the EU into the future.
Evangelical parties like FIEL may have a chance in 2024 to make some gains, due to general discontent with the long-established ruling parties.
But they will have to cut through disinformation, reach generally disinterested voters, and jockey for position amid a range of parties hoping to capitalize on that discontent.
At the moment, polls suggest Europe’s far-right parties—including Alternative for Germany in Germany, National Rally in France, and Vox in Spain—are winning over voters dissatisfied with the status quo.
