The European Union is so afraid that the upcoming European Parliament elections will bring more far-right lawmakers to Brussels that it is turning to Taylor Swift for help.
In a recent statement, Margaritis Schinas, the vice president of the European Commission, urged the American pop star to use her upcoming concert tour in Europe to register voters for the June elections.
“No one can mobilize youth better than young people,” he said. “It’s young people who can mobilize young people to participate, more than commissioners … I very much hope that someone from her media team follows this press conference and relays our request to her.”
Schinas’s desperate plea comes as the establishment of Europe is dealing with a bit of a growing headache in the form of populist right-wing parties that are seeing continued electoral success across the continent. In June, that success could find its way to the European Parliament as the right-wing parties of Europe look to make a statement in the elections.
Schinas represents a “center-right” party from Greece that is part of the European Parliament’s majority coalition. If the far-right wave reaches the elections, it is his coalition, which has overseen a massive influx of unvetted immigration to Europe, that stands to lose the most. His appeal to Taylor Swift, the most popular entertainer in the world, is nothing but an attempt to blunt his coalition’s pending electoral reckoning.
Swift has become an outspoken supporter of left-wing causes and a harsh critic of former President Donald Trump. But she is also a cultural phenomenon who enjoys an idollike status. Demand for tickets to her concerts in the U.S. last year drove prices into the hundreds and even thousands of dollars. Her fans even sold out movie theaters to see a film version of her Eras Tour concert.
But Schinas is counting on Swift’s help because she has used her godlike status in the past to encourage voter registration with the unstated goal of helping Democrats win elections.
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In September, Swift told her then-272 million Instagram followers that they should all register to vote while sharing a link to vote.org, an allegedly “nonpartisan” organization that registers voters and is run entirely by left-wing activists. The organization reported 35,000 new registrations after Swift posted her video.
Swift, of course, is free to do as she wishes. But Schinas’s cynical plea for her to “mobilize youth” is not an altruistic call for more youth engagement in the civic process. It’s a cynical attempt to save his coalition at the ballot box and maintain power.