The European Social Survey (ESS) is a cross-national study carried out every two years, which uses questionnaires to map the current attitudes, opinions, and behaviors of the populations of Europe, based on their activities in the 12 months prior to the research. According to the last edition of the survey, published in July 2022, 26% of respondents identified as left-wing, 24% as right-wing, and about 50% as centrist. Furthermore, the study investigated how often people engage in different types of political activities, ranging from those requiring little personal effort – boycotting and signing petitions – to more committed activities, like donating. Interestingly, those who identify as left-wing are twice as likely to donate as those in the middle or on the right.

 

Looking only at EU Member States, analysis of the data shows that there are around 30 million engaged individuals living within the borders of the European Union: people who do things like volunteering, wearing a badge, demonstrating or donating money. In addition, around 12 million people in the EU had recently made contact with political parties or governments at the time of the survey, and around 41 million had boycotted, signed petitions or shared political content online. All of this indicates that the progressive side has significant reserves, contrary to the mainstream story mentioned earlier. Given the fact that some EU countries (Cyprus, Denmark, Luxembourg, Malta, Romania) were not included in the survey, the numbers could potentially be even higher. 

 

Apart from offering us hope, these numbers tell us that the most important component of progressive power is already in place: a large number of people ready to take action. But power is not just about numbers: it is also, importantly, about community activism and engagement. When those 30 million voices connect, they amplify each other and create something that transcends the sum of its parts. The digital space provides many opportunities to do this, making digital organizing an essential tool for political campaigners and movements in the modern era. Our job – as activists, politicians, organizers, and campaigners – is to transform all of this existing energy and passion into power. And we don’t have to reinvent the wheel. If we communicate our issues clearly, if we understand what the people in our countries really care about, and if we build campaigns around those issues, people will join and support us.

 The role of the ECDA and its partner organizations like Estratos is to provide the infrastructure and support that allows campaigners and activists to focus on what they do best without worrying about the technical details. Campaigns can make it rain, but you need buckets (infrastructure) to collect this rain and turn it into something that will outlast the current shower. Creating these buckets is what organizations like the ECDA specialize in. The main resources collected in these buckets: people’s time, their voices, and their money. While it’s important to allow people to show that they care through things like signing petitions or sharing content, the key to creating something that lasts is by nurturing the community you build through low-threshold actions, and providing opportunities to do more: opportunities to participate ever more actively – whilst always keeping in mind that the commercial digital universe has made people used to intuitive actions. Sharing content can’t take more than two clicks, and it has to be triggered at the right moment. Donating is an impulse decision, if a transaction can’t be completed in a minute, you lose 80% of your potential donors.

 

Facilitating this kind of low-threshold, high-impact action is how you turn online activism into real-world action (boycotts, events) and how you will be able to penetrate bubbles and engage people. Our responsibility here is huge. The voices of these 30 million people in the EU, amplified, can reach decision-makers and shift the political discourse in a progressive direction. If found, reached, and organized, these 30 million people represent a significant social and political force, more than capable of instigating change. Collaboration and cooperation through digital activism tools are critical to promoting political change at this moment in time, and progressive movements must use this power to bring about the changes we want to see. The only way to stop the spread of far-right hate and radicalism is to show that there are in fact more of us and that we are organized and ready to fight.