We're slowly feeling the effects of demographic change in Europe. As our baby boomers are retiring and birth rates remain low (yes even here in France), we should have ample opportunities for finding quality work and affordable places to live and raising a family, while our elderly are well taken care of... Not at all. Reality bites and today often means badly paid bullshitjobs or no work at all, long communtes or living with parents and not only our elderly struggling to make ends meet.

My priorities

  • Unconditional basic income

    Just like the industrial automation and globalisation made blue collar work obsolete, artificial intelligence will eventually do the same to white collar work. New jobs will emerge, but we have seen the limits of reskilling in the past. We should not believe markets and minimum taxation will result in nobody being worse off from their job being replaced. I would like to advance the discussion of unconditional basic income and the underlying financial basis - something which needs to happen on European level for having any chance of success.

  • Right to housing

    We are neither renovating nor building the housing we need. Appartments shouldn't be speculative assets, short-term rentals should not crowd out residents, zoning laws shouldn't be binding for public construction and France has shown everyone how building ghettos begets not only discrimination but outright violance. Renovation and intelligent densification must ensure we're creating place to live. Urbanisation and construction can only benefit from supranational oversight and I would like to ensure that member states make every effort to provide affordable housing and access to public transport infrastructure to everyone without repeating the errors of the past.

  • Evolution of work

    Shouldn't we work to live instead of living to work? We should support efforts towards introducing a four day work week and working remotely or from home. All member states should have a minimum wage. There should be no gender pay gap and bearing and rising children should no longer be a criteria to deny someone a career. I would like us to make strides towards Europe showing what the future of work can look like.

Articles on this topic