The European Left Party acquires a key competence in issues such as peace and social policies. Hence, from now on, the EL will have to work more intensively and conceptually on the two issues: fundamental freedoms and civil rights.
Finding a “face” is an evidently urgent issue for the EL. Therefore the EL decided in January to form a working group of freedom and civil rights. As mentioned, the EL should draw its profile by emphasising peace and social state. Nevertheless, the EL should also search for further political bases in which the European population might identify itself.
Sometimes the EL and its member parties in Europe concentrate on social freedoms and rights, which blur the conditions under which social rights should be claimed. Such conditions guarantee and protect the so-called fundamental freedoms and civil rights. The EL often considers such issues second-class rights if compared to social freedoms and rights and has a sort of stepmother relation with them. But we need a balance in our fight for social and civil rights.