What is the Youth Parliament in the Tula region
The youth parliament under the Tula Regional Duma of the 7th convocation was established by the resolution of the regional parliament No. 3/64 of October 31, 2019.
The main tasks of the Youth Parliament, according to the official document:
- Assistance in solving youth problems in the Tula region;
- Encouraging young people to participate in the implementation of state youth policy;
- Involvement of youth in parliamentary activities;
- Formation of legal and political culture of youth.
The document also states that members of the Youth Parliament have the right to participate in meetings of the Tula Regional Duma, attend Duma committees and commissions, conduct educational work, and study the opinion of young people about the work of state authorities on the implementation of youth policy.
The Youth Parliament must have 55 members. In the current structure of the youth organization there are 53 people, because 2 quotas were not occupied by representatives of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. The majority in the Youth Parliament are representatives of the “youth” of “United Russia” – 27 people, two each from “Fair Russia” and the Liberal Democratic Party, one each from the Party of Rost, the Russian Party of Pensioners and the “Communists of Russia”. Another 19 members are delegated through a competition by public associations.
Difficulties of dialogue in the Youth Parliament
Participants of the discussion at MK in Tula said that the problem of protest activity among young people, as the practice of the January uncoordinated actions in support of opposition leader Alexei Navalny showed, is the lack of opportunities to convey their point of view in a different way and so that they can be heard.
“You can write as much as you want on social networks, but they don’t hear us,” says Member of the Youth Parliament, member of the Council of the Youth of Just Russia Alina Balabolina… – There are various youth forums, companies, the Youth Parliament. I am in it. The Youth Parliament is engaged in volunteer activities and the launch of any hashtags. The charter of the Youth Parliament says that we should get together with the Duma committees and watch how they work. Over the past year, we have not been invited to a single committee meeting. “
“It turns out that we, being in the Youth Parliament, do not differ from other public associations that exist on a par,” – confirms Evgenia Gvozdinskaya, chairman of the regional branch of the Youth of Fair Russia, member of the Youth Parliament.
“There is just a tick that I am a member of the Youth Parliament. I was very disappointed, continues Alina Balabolina. – The Youth Election Commission is at least something. The guys are doing something. They are engaged in political education of young people about the need to go to elections, because young people are so disappointed, they have lost their hands so much that they do not even go to elections. “
“The Youth Parliament performs a representative function at the Tula Regional Duma, – specified Daniil Emelyanov, head of the youth organization of the Liberal Democratic Party “Time of the Young”, a member of the Youth Parliament. – He has a different role. It is aimed at the youth asset. There can be no real legislative work there. “
“We have to watch how real deputies work,” Alina retorts. – This is not. The Youth Parliament is the same crowd of youth activists and it is not necessary to call it “Youth Parliament” in this case. ”
“The Youth Parliament and its representatives act as mediators between the current government and youth. And we do not see this, ”added Evgenia Gvozdinskaya.
“We have never talked to the deputies for the whole year. Yes, I am a party member, I can talk to a deputy from my party, but not with others, ”Alina adds. – Young people do not hear. Until the authorities begin to listen to us, the situation will not change and protest moods will only grow, and I hope they will not turn into a radical form. This will not make anyone better. Nothing will change, only the economic situation in the country will worsen. ”
And the elections are not real!
Electoral passivity of youth Alexander Shishkin, head of the Tula branch of the non-profit organization City Projects, member of the regional branch of the Yabloko party, explains the lack of meaning to participate in the elections:
“When elections are regularly rigged and your vote is stolen, it is clear that young people do not want to go anywhere,” says Alexander.
Alina Balabolina is sure that if someone does not trust the elections, then one should go as an observer or a member of the precinct election commission with an advisory vote in order to monitor the purity of the electoral process.
“Nobody bothers to go as an observer,” says Alina. – Young people need to be explained that if they want to change something in the country, they need to act within the law. Don’t like to think that elections are rigged? Go to the observers, to the PEC members with the right of an advisory vote. ”
To knock on the authorities
Members of the Youth Parliament are ready to use the platforms for dialogue offered by the authorities. The problem is that no one wants to communicate with them. Active, thinking youth were gathered under the auspices of the regional Duma, awarded with the honorary title of “Member of the Youth Parliament” and left to stew “in their own juice”, not even allowing to look at the work of the deputies.
It is indicative that the organizing committee of the Youth Parliament, held under the chairmanship of the former speaker of the Regional Duma Sergei Kharitonov, passed without the participation of the “young parliamentarians” themselves. But the Tula activists came to the Youth Parliament not to become volunteers, but to convey their point of view to the deputies and the public using the available legal methods, using the platforms offered by the authorities.
But so far the lofty phrases about “dialogue with youth”, given the inaccessibility of the Duma sessions and the deputies themselves, reveal only hypocrisy on the part of the authorities. And young people feel it like no other. And then don’t blame Navalny.