Xavier Rodriguez is already waiting for the interview to begin. He is an attractive young man in his twenties. Furthermore, he is head of a unique party named the “Primavera adolescente” (PA). In the beginning of the year it counted over 5 million members. Given that the party was founded just two years ago in 2028 this number is nearly incredible. In general, the story of the PA is one that has to be told. Due to the growing youth unemployment rate and the lack of perspective in many European countries, the misery of the adolescents grew. In Spain, the movement of these young ideals were born.

Xavier Rodriguez, why and how was the “Primavera adolescente” founded?

“After an economic crisis that seemed to last forever, youth was exhausted. Even well educated adolescents couldn’t find a job. Especially in Spain, the youth unemployment was at nearly 70 %. The lack of perspective let the youth gather together. The faith in the present policy was nearly non-existent. That’s why we started to form our own ideas about the future. It all began in Sevilla. A couple of friends and me started to inform us about politics. We realised how few we knew about the roots of the European problems. Which is why we thought about how the next generation could make a change if we didn’t even know why we had a problem. At that point, the mobilisation started. We wanted to reach young people all over Europe to inform them about why we are in such a bad situation. Thanks to various social networks, this wasn’t a problem. We held assemblies for the interested and we received so much positive feedback. We encouraged our followers to organise assemblies on their own and talk about the future. Especially in France, Italy, Greece and Portugal the PA meetings started almost immediately. Suddenly politics were a topic for the youth. We caught the UN’s attention when we shared all of our ideas on the social media. The UN gave us the possibility to have our first international assembly. A PA representative of every country of Europe took part and we founded the first transnational party: the ‘Primavera adolescente’.”

Why is your party called Primavera adolescente?

“‘Primavera adolescente’ is Spanish and it means “spring of the youth”. Spring always symbolises an awakening. And that’s what it is. The youth woke 2nd Prize up from their sleep of ignorance. Now we want to make a change. We want to make an effort to add something positive to the future.”

What is the aim of the Primavera adolescente?

“The aim of the PA is to bring politics closer to the youth, because we believe if more people are reflecting on something, the more probable it is that somebody finds a solution. Our weapon is knowledge. Since we want to be taken seriously, you will hardly find followers of the PA making trouble. If we are not going to find solutions for our problems such as the youth unemployment, this grave period will never find an end. We offer workshops about politics but also of foreign languages or maths. If you are a member of the PA you can visit free courses given by other PA members. We thought that if the government can’t provide us with employment, we could at least try to do something productive ourselves. A positive aspect of the unemployment is that you’ve got plenty of time. We wanted to restore the faith in youth, because we are not lazy, sassy or rude.”

And did the Primavera adolescente achieve anything yet?

“We gave the youth a voice. A voice free of borders, nationalities, skin colours, religions or genders. We are united by our hopes for the future. We want change. As we want to change something in politics, we have to play their game. At first, the governments smiled at us, but after several international PA meetings and a few good approaches, we earned their respect. Now almost every European government has a PA council.”

How do your party members differ from a conventional party?

“In our independence. We are mainly sponsored by the UN, which guarantees our freedom of opinion. It is very important that our members stay neutral. Special gifts from any company are forbidden. Our views have to stay free from corruption or lobbies. Although we only have the role of a council, we have to be a role model for the future generation. Imagine a future generation of non-buyable politicians!”

Explain one of the PA’s ideas closer.

“We help youth help itself. An example for this are our workshops. They give unemployed adolescents something to do. Thanks to our sponsor, we can even pay them a moderate salary. We want to promote any kind of work. It doesn’t matter to us whether you are a butcher or a professor. Important is that you find work that makes you happy. We invest in start-up enterprises and try to restore the infrastructure. Most of the governments gave us a fund. With this we can build enterprises, or teaching organisations and, as I said before, pay a modest salary. It proves: We can make a change on our own!”