President Christopher Andresen Founded 2010 (2010) | Vice President Jonas Kopf | |
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Headquarters Aktivitetshuset
Norderstraße 49
24939 Flensburg Mother party South Schleswig Voter Federation European affiliation European Free Alliance Youth (EFAy) | ||
The Youth in the South Schleswig Voter Federation (Youth in the SSW) (Danish: SSWUngdom, German: Jugend im SSW), a political youth organization in Germany, is the youth wing of the South Schleswig Voter Federation.
Contents
Names
The official name of the organisation is Sydslesvigsk Vælgerforenings Ungdom in Danish and Jugend im Südschleswigschem Wählerverband in German. The corresponding abbreviations are SSWUngdom and Jugend im SSW, respectively. There is no official English name, but a rough translation of the German name is Youth in the South Schleswig Voter Federation, abbreviated Youth in the SSW. The organisation itself rejects the abbreviations SSWU, SSW-U and SSW-Ungdom.
Positions
According to themselves, they are non-ideological. Instead, they choose to let their positions be determined by three factors. The members of their party and minority all have a connection to Denmark and Northern Europe. They all come from a minority. And they are all young. From these three circumstances, they deduce the four key principles they use to determine their position on a given matter:
History
Historically, the SSW has often had a youth wing, but these occurrences have always faded out as the persons in charge gradually left Southern Schleswig to study in the greater cities of Denmark or Germany, which is why, in 2009, the group of initiators under Manuel J. Thomsen decided to create a solid and democratic structure for the youth wing. It was their belief, that such structures would prohibit the usual disappearance of the organisation when they left the region to study. Therefore, they decided to hold the first National Convention in 2010, where the members adopted the first by-laws, the first political program and elected the first Board. Under the chairmanship of Lukas A. Lausen, who was elected on this occasion, the youth wing increased its membership fivefold, its budget was doubled, its activity level increased significantly and the contacts to the SSW and the press were formalised. On the National Convention of 2011, the by-laws were changed, among other thing to allow for the creation of local branches, and the second National Board was elected under the chairmanship of Jonas Knickmeier. Since then, the positive trend has continued.
Internal
The Youth in the SSW consists of two local branches (one in Flensburg and one in Schleswig) and the national federation. The local branches, or districts, are responsible for the local politics, recruiting new members and arranging informative and social gatherings. The national federation is responsible for communications and national politics. On both levels, the members gather once a year for a local or national convention, in order to discharge the old board, elect the new one and debate the challenges of the coming year. The National Board consists of the chairperson and two deputies. In addition to this, an indeterminate number of ordinary board members are also elected every year. The same goes for the Local Board, who are nevertheless usually somewhat smaller.
Relations to the SSW
Legally, the Youth in the SSW is a working group within the mother party. In that sense, it is not an independent organisation. Nevertheless, it chooses its own course, without further interference of the SSW. Furthermore, all members of the SSW under the age of 26 are members in the Youth Wing and vice versa. It sees itself as the political voice of the youth in the Danish minority of Southern Schleswig, and as responsible for making the ideas and political beliefs of that demographic clearly visible in the actions of the political representation of the minority. Therefore it primarily functions within the bigger framework of the SSW. Some elected officials of the youth wing are ex officio members of the organs of the mother party, whereas other members of the Youth in the SSW get elected to these organs in their own right. For example, the members of the youth wing elect three delegates to the National Convention of the SSW, but nothing prohibits SSW members under the age of 26 to be elected delegates by their local party branches. Financially, the bonds are tight, since 80% of the youth wing's budget come from the mother party, a proportion which is nevertheless expected to decrease as the government institutions on different administrative levels increase their share.