31/07/2025 President
Warning that “the serious politician is losing ground to the populist”, PACE President Theodoros Rousopoulos has urged politicians to return to the values of trust in order to retain public support during an address to Speakers of Parliament from around the world.
In a speech yesterday to the Sixth World Conference of Speakers of Parliaments organised by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) at the UN in Geneva, the President suggested these values could be summarised in the acronym TRUST - truth, responsibility, understanding, sacrifice and transparency.
“Politics has always carried a certain level of public discredit,” the President pointed out. “But today, we are witnessing a more dangerous trend — a co-ordinated attack on the very idea of politics itself. It spreads through anonymous accounts, through social networks, and now through artificial intelligence and the mass production of fake news.”
“What is equally worrying is not just the content, but how easily it is believed,” he added. “The serious politician is losing ground to the populist — the one who focuses primarily on personal survival in power. Younger generations no longer value democracy the way those who lived under authoritarianism once did. And when democratic values fade, new forms of authoritarianism inevitably rise.”
“Too often, politicians fall into the trap of flattery — saying what people want to hear, making promises they cannot keep. And when those promises collapse under the weight of reality, something even more fragile breaks: the public’s trust.”
During the conference, the President also participated in panels on “Protecting and promoting the rights of persons in vulnerable situations: towards comprehensive anti-discrimination action” and on "What role for parliaments in shaping our digital future?".
He also held a series of bilateral meetings, where he met - among others - the Speakers of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye, the German Bundestag, the Palestinian National Council, the Israeli Knesset and both houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. He also met the President of the Arab Parliament.
The annual conference – organised by the IPU and the UN – brings together Speakers of Parliament from around the world, as well as the heads of international parliamentary bodies.
