PES Women took part in the PES Congress held in Amsterdam from 16 to 18 October. On this occasion, PES Women organised its Annual Conference during in which members voted on the new statutes and elected the new Executive Board to lead its work for the coming mandate. PES Women President Zita Gurmai was re-elected for the next two and a half years.
Zita Gurmai, PES Women President, said:
“I am very honoured to have been re-elected by my sisters as President of PES Women. With our newly elected PES Women Board, we are ready to continue working together to give a voice to women across Europe and advance our vision of equality, especially in these turbulent times.”
The following were elected to the new Executive Board:
Vice-Presidents of the Bureau of the Executive:
- Sonja Kovač, SDP Croatia
- Emmi Lintonen, SDP Finland
- Rosário Gambôa, PS Portugal
- Elke Ferner, SPD Germany
Bureau members:
- Simona Bucura-Oprescu, PSD Romania
- Rosiane Cutajar, LP Malta
- Rhonda Donaghey, LP Ireland
- Cecilia Gondard, PS France
- Jackie Jones, LP UK
- Michaela Kauer, SPÖ Austria
- Olga Markogiannaki, PASOK Greece
- Roulla Mavronikola, EDEK Cyprus
- Roberta Mori, PD Italy
- Riina Sikkut, SDE Estonia
- Inga Verhaert, Vooruit Belgium
- Vera Tax, PvdA Netherlands
Ex-officio members:
- Laeticia Thissen, FEPS.
- Joanna Scheuring-Wielgus, S&D FEMM.
- Carina Ohlsson, PES Group CoR.
- Irja Vaateri, YES.
- Katarina Barley, PES Vice-President charged with Gender equality.
- Carola Ebhardt, Rainbow Rose.
- Dasa Silovic, CEE Gender Network.
- Throughout the Congress, many women from our member parties, organisations and activist groups joined us to exchange, strengthen networks, and advance our shared feminist agenda.
- Among the highlights of the event:PES Women and International Guests Reception offered a space for women leaders, activists and representatives to connect, share experiences and strengthen alliances in the common fight for gender equality and social justice.
- Female Leaders Breakfast Meeting provided an opportunity to reflect on women’s participation and representation in leadership positions and to exchange ideas on achieving parity across our political family.
- Panel “Shared power, shared progress: men as allies in gender equality”, co-organised with the CEE Gender Network and PvdA, highlighted the importance of engaging men as allies in advancing gender equality, tackling stereotypes and backlash, and promoting shared responsibility and solidarity between women and men.
- YES Fringe Event titled “Backlash Rising: Fighting the Anti-Feminist and Anti-Queer Tide Among Young People” where our Vice-President Sonja Kovač was a speaker.
- PES Panel “Social Europe, Strong Europe”, in which PES Women President Zita Gurmai participated to the discussion.
In addition, our feminist resolution “No feminism = no democracy” was officially adopted and presented by the PES Women President and PES Vice-President Rosario Gamboa, outlining our key priorities and sending a clear message: without equality, there is no democracy. At a time when far-right and anti-rights movements continue to attack freedoms and hard-won progress; we stand united in affirming that feminism is a cornerstone of democracy and a foundation of social justice. By choosing feminism, we choose solidarity, inclusion, and progress.
