Six weeks to gain 3,000 to 5,000 supporters. Yes, it really is that important.

Many thanks to you for all of your support for the Campaign for a PES Primary and for helping us to reach over 1,000 supporters on Facebook. In less than six weeks we have attracted the support of PES activists, public representatives and progressive citizens for our campaign for the PES to hold democratic primaries to select our candidate for the next Presidency of the European Commission.

That's over 1,000 people who want to put democracy first in the PES and to use that as a platform for Europe to take a new direction at the next European Parliament elections in 2014.

Our campaign is also attracting considerable comment in the European media. "Euobserver" and "EurActiv" have both carried articles on the campaign and "New Europe" has published an opinion piece in their newspaper on the work that we are doing. We are also seeing a lot of political interest in the campaign as MEPs and officials return from the Summer vacation.

This is important because we are now reaching the first big challenge for the campaign. In three weeks time, on the 23rd September, I will be presenting our proposals to an internal meeting of the PES in Brussels. Our aim is to ensure that the PES organisation and the PES national parties endorse our call for democratic primaries. While we have encountered no opposition to our proposals so far in the PES we cannot take anything for granted. This is a project with huge transformative potential but it requires hard work and dedication to ensure that we deliver our objectives.

That's why I have a request to make of you. The feedback I have received from across the PES is that while gaining over 1,000 supporters in six weeks is impressive, we need to attract betwen 3,000 and 5,000 people in order to make a real impact on the decision-makers in the PES national parties. I know that this will be a huge task, but it is essential to demonstrate the level of grassroots support for our ideas.

Can I therefore ask you to invite just 10 of your Facebook friends to join this campaign group. Don't just send them an invite ... please contact them individually and encourage them to sign up. It really is that important. And remember, we have less than three weeks to achieve this level of support. So please contact 10 of your Facebook friends today and ask them to support our campaign group.

When we make our presentation in Brussels we really need to be able to anticipate all possible objections. With thousands of people supporting the campaign we wil be able to make a much more convincing case for a democratic PES.

Amitiés socialistes ... Desmond.

Desmond O'Toole and José Reis Santos
Campaign for a PES Primary