Saturday 19.07.2025

First day of Youthcracy! 🤗

The day started with breakfast! After breakfast, we went outside and started the day with name-memorising games. Some of us managed to memorise others' names, and some didn't. 

    After a short coffee break, which made us even sleepier, our leaders did some energisers that were exciting but exhausting at the same time. 

    Time passed really fast, and then lunch came. After we ate some delicious food, we had a break till 3 PM.

    At 3 PM, we started a game called speed dating. We were given a specific topic and a partner. The partner was chosen by drawing a clock on paper and asking someone what time they were free. It was really fun. 

The next game we played was exciting. We formed two circles, and the circle inside the bigger one had to draw the faces of the people from the outside circle. Then, the people from the two circles changed places with each other! It was really fun!

Sunday 20.07.2025

Second day simplified 🥳

1. The start of the day 🌄

After everyone had breakfast, our excellent leaders prepared an exciting wake-up exercise to get everyone ready for the day.

2. Explanations ⁉️

The leaders have all created workshops to explain to everyone how things work around here. Every leader had one specific role of the simulation to explain to the participants, and the organised groups had to participate in all of them. This way, everyone knew how to organise for their upcoming elections.

3. The Ceremony 🎊

To gain the right to vote in the elections, every new member got their personal ID card; this way, they have officially become a member of the Youthcracy program.

4. The Elections ☑️

Post-lunch, the Young members of the Youthcracy have all gathered with ideas, the winning team getting to choose what everyone does for the rest of the day and tomorrow.

The two teams, The Alphas and The Bridge of Friendship, presented their ideas; shockingly, they had similar ideas. Who do you think won?

5. The results 👏

The tension was high, but ultimately, the Bridge of Friendship won the elections. The judges were also chosen. We put our faith in The Bridge of Friendship and hope they pick amazing activities for us until the next elections! 

Monday 21.07.2025

Bouillon & Second elections! 🏰 

The second day of the simulation started early in the morning. After a filling breakfast, the activity which the winning team chose was officially in the works! We visited the Bouillon castle, but sadly, we couldn’t enter the actual castle. Instead, people had the chance to have fun and explore the beautiful and historic city of Bouillon. After our lunch, the second activity of the day, organised by the government, was in action: we had a cookie competition to test which team could bake the prettiest and tastiest cookie! The winning teams turned out to be teams 2 and 4, after a long, tiring, and intense cooking battle. 

After the new parties were announced and had a chance to explain their beliefs, it was time for our second elections! This time, the elections were more successful; only one vote was invalid. The winning party was Plan-A with 21 votes, and they slayed very hard in their pre-election campaign!! We hope to see some improvements and changes in their reign, and we are also looking forward to the new election the day after tomorrow.

Wednesday 23.07.2025

A day full of activities... and drama 😏

Yesterday was an eventful and busy day for the program. As the days pass, tension grows stronger, opinions get louder, and citizens become more passionate. So how did a day like that pass by? 

The day started with a pleasing breakfast of croissants and pain au chocolat. After that, the government of “Plan A” had prepared a very clever and resourceful treasure hunt. This hunt needed action and quick thinking. The citizens needed to combine competition and teamwork. Following that, a Kahoot quiz determined the winner of the activity. The winning team was entitled to 10€ free supermarket shopping. 

After lunch, the events started to unfold unexpectedly. The candidacies consisted of three parties: the “tea party,” “those for all,” and “the dawgs,” with the third one joining at the last minute. However, each party had its own special schedule. At the end of the informative campaigns, “those for all” decided not to run for the elections. 

Nevertheless, while cooking Greek and Italian food, they announced that they would run again, which stirred up some reactions. Members of “the dawgs” thought it was unfair to reannounce their participation just a few minutes before the elections, and they moved on to a complaint.

Then, a trial was held with great dedication and courage. Both parties had really good representation from their lawyers, and in the end, the prosecuted party was found innocent, and the election procedure continued as planned. However, it was rescheduled for the next day.

Despite the challenges of the evening, everyone had fun at the party that had been organised for later that evening. This day was a perfect opportunity to understand and practice the democratic values the simulation requires!

Thursday 24.07.2025

Third trials... and the fourth ones 🙄

Rain and thunder hit Loryhan this morning as the citizens of the Youthcracy tiredly walked to breakfast after the eventful past night. But the hopes of a smooth transition of power soon became slim: the authorities declared quickly after the election that the voting had been tampered with.

Soon, a trial was put in place, with the government prosecuting three individuals: Hanni, who was found guilty of voting illegally; Yasin, who was found guilty of disrupting the election process; and Louis, who was found guilty of sabotaging the elections and of resisting arrest.

However, after a very turbulent start, the elections were finally organised, and the winner was announced: The Dogs won in a landslide with 58% of the votes. On the other hand, the T Party and Those for received 21% and 21% of the votes, respectively.

After that, the evening was mostly uneventful until the international night, when, between cringe videos and international dances, everyone had a lot of fun.

Saturday 26.07.2025

Closing of the program & final goodbyes ☹️

The morning started with some energisers, and after that, the group split into national groups to do the final and more detailed evaluation! Afterwards, the group engaged in some happy papers, where the participants had to write sweet words on each other's backs. Then, the youth pass ceremony started, where the participants received their youth pass certificates. After that, the first groups started to depart, and with them came tears, hugs, and sweet words. Thank you for having us!

The press team