Pulling off a delicious festive dinner comes down to pairing complementary flavours. Whether mashed roast potatoes and gravy in Ireland (my favourite), blood sausage with cranberry sauce in Estonia (each to their own), or dumplings and red cabbage in Germany (I’ll take double helpings please), a good chef knows all good things come in twos.

Two peas in a pod

A vibrant democracy is similar (yes, I’m going to use Christmas dinner as a metaphor for democracy - bear with me). While there are lots of essential ingredients in a democracy, free and fair elections and independent media are two foundational pillars that go hand in hand.

Head chefs

The decisions that define who we are as a society - like whether we welcome those seeking asylum, the care we get if we become sick, or if our public institutions celebrate diversity - hinge on our political leaders. Returning to the culinary metaphor, they’re the head chefs who decide what’s on our political menu.

The year of elections

Because of this immense power, you need to be confident you know what each candidate really stands for and that election conditions are fair. This is why, in the year with the most elections globally, Liberties decided to focus on election integrity in 2024.

Social media is a black hole

In our election monitoring project investigating the European Parliament elections, our research revealed that social media is a blind spot for political advertising rules. There’s little to stop politicians from using manipulative tactics by bombarding voters with opposing messages. Based on the gaps Liberties and our partners identified, we are applying pressure on the Commission to tighten EU-wide rules on political advertising and privacy, so politicians can’t use dirty tricks to get into power.

Democratic first aid

We’ve seen across the pond how social media and biased journalism can sew division, which paved the way for an unserious, problematic strongman to take the highest seat of power. At Liberties, we know it’s not too late to repair democracy here in Europe.

Liberties does damage control

EU-wide rules act as damage control against the actions of criticism-shy politicians who only want the media to say nice things about them (if they are so thin-skinned, they might need to consider switching careers). We use our report to convince the EU to implement strong media freedom safeguards and monitor how well they’re enforced.

If all you want for Christmas is a society that treats everyone equally and respects human rights, support Liberties’ work today. Your contribution makes our work sustainable, so we can continue protecting democracy, regardless of who is in power.

If you believe our work is important, please consider donating.

Best,

Csilla and The Liberties Team