Sakharov Prize 2025, candidates finalised. EPP-ECR convergence

Brussels – Belarusian opposition, Algerian opposition, Palestinian people, LGBTIQ movement. And again, Serbian students and pro-Trump influencers. The list of nominees for the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize 2025 for Freedom of Thought to be awarded in December has been defined. All the main groups have withdrawn their reservations, and from the indications, the convergence between the popular (EPP) and conservative (ECR) groups on the name of Andrzej Poczobut, a Polish-Belarusian journalist, human rights activist, and political prisoner in Belarus, stands out. 

A correspondent for the Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza and a long-standing voice critical of Alexsandr Lukashenko’s government, Poczobut has been arrested on several occasions since 2011 and in the years that followed. The latest arrest, which took place in 2021, continues today. EPP and ECR confirm the alliance established in the last edition of the Sakharov Prize, with an initiative that, if supported by the rest of the political forces, would see the award (a plaque and a cheque for €50,000) going to the Belarusian opposition for the second time, after the 2020 one. 

For the second time, however, the Socialists (S&D) chose civil society actors from Palestine. Last year, Women Wage Peace and Women of the Sun, the Israeli and Palestinian women’s organisations working for peace, were nominated. Journalists and humanitarian workers in conflict zones, represented by the Palestinian Press Association, the Palestinian Red Crescent and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), have been nominated for the 2025 edition of the EU Parliament prize. The MEPs of the Left group, who propose the Palestinian journalists Hamza and Wael Al-Dahdouh, Plestia Alaqad, Shireen Abu Akleh, and the Ain Media group (in honour of Yasser Murtaja and Roshdi Sarraj), associate somehow. 

The Liberals (Renew Europe, RE) instead propose Serbian students who “organise peaceful demonstrations for a free and democratic Serbia,” and who led Prime Minister Miloš Vučević to resign with their protests. The Greens instead chose as candidates the organisers of the Budapest Pride, who “have managed to organise Budapest Pride year after year despite threats and intimidation from the Orbán government.” 

For the Patriots for Europe (PfE), the Sakharov Prize 2025 should go to the French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, imprisoned in Algeria since November 2024, while for the ultra-right of ESN, to Charlie Kirk, the pro-Trump influencer and political activist murdered last Wednesday (10 September).