UK Prime Minister David Cameron is the latest prominent political figure to call for his party to open up to and reflect more society’s diversity. This follows a last year warning from party co-chair Baroness Warsi that “Conservatives will not win election without more focus on minority voters“.
In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel is seeking a facelift of the CDU ahead of the next elections, aiming at more women and immigrants in party posts.
At European level, the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats in the European Parliament recently called for an extension of voting rights to immigrants. On the other side of the spectrum, the European People’s Party think-tank concentrates on how diversity and equality can be better reflected in internal party operations.
MPG’s recent toolkit on Becoming a Party of choice includes a benchmarking tool to help parties opening to diversity and equality, from voters and candidates to staff and suppliers. A new project, DivPol, was launched earlier this year to build on MPG’s successful tool.
