A Survival Kit Against the Far Right
Speakers:
Rui Tavares, Member of Portuguese Parliament & Co-Founder of LIVRE
Rui Tavares is currently a member of the Portuguese parliament. Rui Tavares born 29 July 1972 in Lisbon, is a portuguese writer, historian and politician. Former member of the European Parliament, where he was rapporteur for the situation of fundamental rights, rule of law and democratic values in Hungary; PhD in History at Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales de Paris and author of many books, mostly about history or politics. In 2013 he founded a new political party, LIVRE, and he is currently a member of the portuguese parliament elected by that green-left party.
Francesca de Benedetti, Senior Editor, Domani
Francesca De Benedetti is senior editor at the Italian daily Domani, where she covers European politics, as well as a fellow at IWM, where she won the Milena Jesenská Fellowship for Journalists with a project on “Giorgia Meloni and Viktor Orbán: An Asymmetric Interdependence”. De Benedetti writes columns for Vanity Fair and Jacobin (USA); her writing on Italian politics has been published by The Independent, Balkan Insight, the International Press Institute, and other international outlets. De Benedetti previously worked as a reporter at la Repubblica and La7tv. She co-founded the European Focus newsletter, a cross-border editorial production (Balkan Insight, Delfi, Domani, El Confidencial, Gazeta Wyborcza, HVG, Libération, n-ost, Tagesspiegel).
Sybren Kooistra, Campaign Strategist
Sybren was the Campaign Manager of the European Greens for the 2024 and 2019 European elections.
Natia Gvianishvili, leading Georgian LGBTI+ rights activist
Natia Gvianishvili is one of the first publicly open lesbian feminist activists from Georgia; currently residing in Sweden. Natia has been actively engaged with local, regional and international LGBTIQ and feminist movements for over 10 years; her work ranges from the community mobilisation, research, visibility work, building solidarity to lobby and advocacy. Natia is a former Executive Director of Women’s Initiatives Supporting Group (WISG) – Georgian LBTQ organisation, and is proud of the work she’s done as a bold human rights activist through WISG, including advocating for LGBTQI rights to live free from violence and discrimination. She currently works at RFSL – The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex Rights, with a specific focus on Eastern Partnership countries, that includes advocacy, mapping the conservative opposition in the region and working on response strategies. Natia is a former Board member of EL*C – EuroCentralAsian Lesbian* Community and the current co-chair of ILGA-Europe Executive Board.
Melanie Vogel, Co-Chair European Green Party
(bio and photo to follow)
