2019: Words of the Year

2019: Words of the Year
Copyright AP
By Elena Cavallone, Lazlo Arato, Maria Psara, Nima Ghadakpour, Isabel Silva, Ana Lazaro, Gregoire Lory, Stefan Grobe, Meabh McMahon, Andrei Beketov
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Brussels bureau chooses the words of the year 2019, from 'revuelta' to 'restauration', learn a new word to define the last 365 days in Europe.

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Italian - quota 100

The word of the year for Italian politics is: quota 100. This is the huge promise made by the 5-star and League when they were together in power. They promised workers they could retire earlier, but once it was introduced it was considered impossible to carry out due to the heavy cost on public finances. So as results, Italians felt disappointed and mocked by politicians.

Greek - Moria

The word of the word for me is Moria. Moria is a place on the island of Lesbos, now famous because of the overcrowded refugee camp. Almost 18.000 people are currently living there -and the camp was built for just 2.000. But, Moria is more than a place or just a word. It represents the EU's inability to unite in tackling the issue of migration.

Russian - Допускай!

Russian word of 2019 could be Допускай! meaning: "allow", "give admission", "tolerate" or "let them do it". It was a slogan of a protest rally on Sakharov avenue in Moscow against preventing independent candidates from being elected to City Duma. This word is in present continuous tense: "keep allowing". One can read in it a call for freedom in the country where the State Duma often passes forbidding laws, banning peoples activities.

Hungarian - Kipchak

It was a great surprise for Hungarians as well when Viktor Orban called the first President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev a friend of Kipchaks. "Kipchaks live in Hungary, there is Kipchak blood in Hungarians”, noted the Hungarian PM. This happened while the EU condemned Turkish aggression in North-Syria and Orban visited the Turkish-led Turkish Council.

Spanish - Revuelta

Revuelta which means revolt because this year many countries of Latin America have been shaken by a wave of protests. There is a growing popular discontent that does not seem to differentiate about ideologies.

German - Klimamarsch

The word of the year in German is, I would say, 'Klimamarsch'.

A huge coalition of mostly young environmental activists across Europe – and the world really – marched through cities big and small to make their voices heard. hey called it „Fridays for Future“ - and they were pretty serious about it. And it looks like the youngsters got the attention of politicians: the new European Commission made a stronger climate policy their number one priority.

Portuguese -  Coesao

I chose the word Coesao. It means Cohesion, a term widely used in the european union politics because there are funds with this name, that aim to reduce the gap between the poorest and richest Union countries. The word was mentioned a lot in Portugal because the portfolio with that name was given to Commissioner Elisa Ferreira, appointed by the Lisbon government.

Farsi - قطعی اینترنت

My word of the year is: قطعی اینترنت meaning internet blackout. One of the most important consequences of the crackdown on Iranian protests was the internet Blackout. The way the Iranian regime used to shut down the Internet was unique. With the Internet shut down, the world only found out much later about the intensity of the crackdown.

English - Fatigue

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Fatigue - is one word that I would use to describe the mood among many people that I meet when reporting around Europe for Euronews. Fed up people are of the fact that Brexit uncertainty is still in the air and still will be until next year. 

French - Restauration

My word of the year would be: restauration - meaning to restore. As a French person it's time to restore Notre-Dame de Paris which burned down this April. As a European journalist it is a time to restore the link between citizens and European institutions. This year more than 50% of voters went to the polls for European elections to restore a bit of hope in the EU. Now it's up to European leaders to restore this march towards trust.

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