Hello. You were elected within the bureau of the Young Democrats for Europe at the last Congress in Bilbao in September. For your team, Europe has to show its face, then tell us who you are and what you do…

 

Can you introduce yourself and tell us in a few words about your background and your local political commitments?
Hello everybody, my name is Pierre Bornand and I just turned 23. French and Parisian of birth, I am currently living in the suburbs of Paris, even if my core belongs to Tarn and Savoy where my family comes from and lives in. In that respect, I realize the importance of devolution in France, an importance that my political family in the Centre always faced and tackled. Such a decentralization process was crucial for France in order to give more local liberties to our regions and contribute to revive the multiple identities that compose our Republic.

 

My political involvement takes roots in my studies, in Sciences Po Paris, where I was once seduced and moved by the Centre. At first in the New Centre (NC), then in the European and Democratic Force (FED), I finally joined the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI) when it was founded in 2012 with Jean Louis Borloo.

 

I had the chance to take up responsibilities, especially at student level when I was elected and reelected several times to the Board of my university. As president of a Student Association, I had the occasion to launch interesting projects for my school, even when we were going through difficult times due to the death of our headmaster. It is a great pleasure for me to realize all the work done but also the projects we still have concerning universities and high schools.

At national level, I also contributed to the foundation of the Youth branch of the UDI, especially in the setting up of our local and regional federations. In the next years, I will continue to structure our UDI Youth, in the national team of UDI Jeunes, and I will try to help all the talents we have in our federations in France, in Europe and overseas.

 

To finish, few weeks ago, it was an honor for me to be part of the campaign team of Jean-Christophe Lagarde for the presidency of our Union of Democrats and Independents. I am sure that he will become soon the new face of the Centre in France and that it will lead him and us to a brighter future.

 

Beyond your civic commitment, can you tell us what are your favorite activities / leisure activities?

 

I enjoy partying, and you can ask all the people that know me (including the one sharing my life) I know how to do so ;)!

I also practiced horse-ridding for almost ten year, even if my new professional life (in a city council) doesn’t leave me enough time to continue now. Member of JEF and AIDES, I can easily tell the importance of militant and civic commitment beyond politics.

 

The elected team, widely renewed around Miroslava Calegari, is at work for almost 3 months now. Can you tell us the reasons for your involvement in the movement and your mission in this team?
If my faith and hope of a federal Europe are quite old, my commitment in YDE was firstly made by chance. As I was delegated by the UDI youth to pilot our entrance in YDE, I saw the immense potential of this movement, I made several new European friends there and I decided finally to run in Miroslava Calegari’s new team for 2014-2016. After the Bilbao congress, I became YDE Vice president, in charge of partnerships and new members. As such, I have the important mission, with the fantastic team working with me (Marin, Alex, François Xavier and Norbert), to develop our political party, finding new members in new countries, in order to make the voice of the Centre and the Democrats more audible in Europe.

 

I firmly believe that we need to continue to make European pedagogy and to make Europe live, including in territories where it is threatened by populists. If we are not euro-blinded, like Guy Verhofstadt often says, we still need to realize that Europe has done a lot for all European citizens. To face demagogues and populists, we must build an “European federal network” and this is what we are trying to do with the YDE in the 28 Member States, alongside with our LYMEC friends.

 

Finally, according to you, what should be the priority for Europe and YDE for these next 2 years?

 

According to me, Europe must simplify itself to talk more directly to EU peoples, and grab real political subjects. Indeed, we hear too often that Europe is too abstract, too complicated and too technocratic. I want YDE to show that Europe is more than what it seems at first sight. We need to be, at our own level, the promoters of a conquering Europe, an acting and daring Europe. To do so, an important work of formation will have to be done so that we can give to our fellow members, in our national movements, the tools to fight and face populist discourses. Populism is often easy, Europe is complicated, so we need to explain it more and talk about it more often with the people.