On 09.06.2024, local elections will be held in Saxony and the European elections nationwide. The Rectorate is campaigning for broad participation.
Dear members and relatives of the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences, dear students and colleagues
On 09.06.2024, local elections will be held in Saxony and the European elections nationwide.
The Rectorate is campaigning for broad participation in these democratic elections by members and affiliates of Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences.
Members and affiliates of our university have also been involved in political parties and voter associations and have been nominated as candidates. All candidates deserve great respect for this, especially in view of the intolerable and violent attacks on political office-holders and activists in recent weeks and months. We strongly condemn these attacks and the increasing poisoning of democratic exchange and competition in some areas. Our democratic societies are based on the mutual recognition of each other as equal participants in the political process, a free and peaceful exchange of arguments and proposals and the acceptance of majority decisions.
Furthermore, democracies - unlike autocracies of any kind - need the active participation of the citizens of the community. Without their participation in the free and peaceful processes of exchange, negotiation and decision-making, liberal democratic systems cannot function. This expressly includes the exercise of the right to vote. Representation of the people in parliaments at all levels - from municipal and city councils to the European Parliament - presupposes that those represented cast their votes.
We therefore support the initiatives for a high voter turnout and ask you all to take part in the upcoming elections, this "festival of democracy", by casting your vote and thus living democracy.
An overview of further offers and participations of the university and its members in the field of political and democratic education since the beginning of 2024 (and initially until the end of the year) will be published shortly, for which you are very welcome to forward further messages to Ms. F. Straßberger (Research Office, e-mail: fraenzi.strassberger(at)hszg.de).
With best wishes for the election, for the coming weeks of the end of the semester - not least for the upcoming exams and
with best regards
The Rectorate
In this context, the university supports the "#machdeinkreuz " initiative - one of the initiative's posters can be found above, others at the Internet address given.
The German Rectors' Conference (HRK), the Free Association of Student Organizations (fzs) and the German Student Union (DSW) are jointly calling on students to vote in the European Parliament elections under the slogan"Study without borders. Vote for Europe!" are jointly calling on students to take part in the European Parliament elections. The appeal to make use of their right to vote on June 9, 2024 is not only aimed at students, but at all university members. The three associations are also calling for fair, respectful and peaceful political competition.
The "Universities for Enlightenment" network, of which the HRK is a member along with nine other European rectors' conferences, is also calling for as many university members as possible to vote in the European elections. In the current statement "Universities vote for Europe" , the network recalls key achievements of the EU in the higher education sector and combines this with the call to work for a strong Europe in which cooperation in education and research is further expanded and academic freedom is firmly protected.
