To find a creative response to anti-democratic forces in European societies, in particular: - Right-wing populism / right-wing extremism and propaganda against refugees - Christian fundamentalism (through the Orthodox Church) - Islamic fundamentalism / Islamism - Disinformation and conspiracy narratives With the results of our project, we want to empower youth workers to enable young people to change their perspective, develop a deeper understanding of people who are ‘different’, overcome prejudices and discover the joy of exchanging ideas, playing, acting and dancing with people they would otherwise never meet. The development of tolerance for ambiguity was another goal. At the organisational level, we brought together organisations from various European countries that are active in the field of cultural and political education in order to establish a stable and reliable partnership. In addition to exchanging experiences, knowledge and existing methods and formats, we also wanted to develop completely new and contemporary methods for cultural political education.
The rise of anti-democratic forces in Europe is threatening the cohesion of our societies. Their supporters seek to dominate political discourse, suppress others and claim to be ‘the people’ with the ‘right’ answers, denying others, especially minorities, a place in our society. Many supporters of right-wing populists, Islamist or Christian fundamentalists despise democratic processes and try to undermine them. At the same time, they expect others to tolerate their intolerant behaviour. We are deeply convinced that is important - and necessary - that young Europeans understand how populists and extremists of all stripes try to manipulate them, what are their strategies, how they create divisions and even hostility between groups / towards other groups, be they refugees, Muslims, ‘infidels’, LGBTQ+ people and many more.