It was a bombshell that hit most delegates at the Agora in Enschede unexpectedly: on the opening day, Wednesday afternoon, ten locals, ex-CD members and CD members demanded a Vote of Confidence (VoC) against each member of the current CD. The discussion about the VoC will take place tomorrow night. The reasons for the VoC still remain unclear, it is only sure that this will upset the Agora and the remaining four month of the current CD’s term.
Already a few weeks Agora first rumours started in the network that there might be a vote of confidence, among others due to the loss of the financial year. However, there was no public sign that this VoC would really happen. About one week before the Agora the situation escalated. Former CD members like Thomas Leszke were operating partly as driving force, partly as advisers how to deal with a VoC at the Agora. So, the chair team was prepared. The fact that the opposition group around Thomas, Mickey Turati and others actually found the necessary ten locals that are needed to hand in a vote of confidence, shows a wide support for the motion. As one person put it: “We could have found also 20 locals”.
After the speeches of Franck Biancheri and external guests from academic, political and European Commission circles, AEGEE-Europe Vice President Marko Grdsic entered the stage. Already hours before there were rumours that the CD would ask for a vote of no-confidence against Internal Affairs Director Jüri Kirpu – which would have been strange, since Jüri is known as hard-working CD member, who enjoys a lot of support from the Network Commission. However, Marko did not ask for a vote of no-confidence against Jüri, but against Alfredo Sellitti, the President of AEGEE-Europe. He was backed up by CD members Elena, Jüri, Guillermo and Gizem; next to Alfredo also CD Secretary General Alma was not on the stage. Marko: “We lost our trust in Alfredo. We came to the conclusion that he is not able to fulfill his responsibilities towards the AEGEE network and towards the CD as their team leader.”
There was a lot of confusion in the plenary. But this was just the beginning. A few minutes later former CD member Thomas Leszke entered the stage. He asked for a vote of confidence against each individual CD member. “The silence in the plenary reflects the situation now. The situation is serious. Even if the vote of no-confidence against Alfredo fails, we have doubts that the CD would be able to work together as a team. Therefore we have prepared another motion – a vote of confidence against every CD member. In case Alfredo gets confidence, then we will ask for this vote of confidence against all.” This was supported by several CD members and ten locals, so the Juridical Commission decided to accept only this wider VoC and not the one against Alfredo.The latter went to the stage later, wanted to comment, but could only express his big astonishment about this situation, since it came totally unexpected to him. The Chair said, however, that he and the other CD members would get opportunity to give their statement on Thursday night.
What wil happen if Alfredo goes? There is still confusion about that, There are rumours about a possible by-election of an interim president. However, this should bot be necessary, since in this case the vice-president should take over the task of acting president until the end of August.
Nobody knows what the Agora will decide. However, the situation shows how deeply poisoned the relation is between the CD members. Some observers talked about three factions with the CD: Alfredo and Alma on one hand, Gizem, Marko and Guillermo as main critical driving force related to the leadership style of Alfredo and Elena and Jüri in the middle. Tensions between CD members are a normal problem, since they come from different backgrounds and face a lot of pressure in a foreign environment in Brussels. In this case obviously mistakes in team-building must have been made from the beginning – and as always there is no one innocent.
One thing is for sure: after the Agora the CD won’t be the same anymore as it is now. It will be a smaller CD. In case Alfredo will be confirmed by the Agora, some CD members said they would resign.
