At Palumba.org, we are dedicated to bridging the gap between young citizens and the democratic process. During 2025-26, we are led an ambitious project titled “The Power of the Z Vote,” in collaboration with the COTEC Foundation. This initiative leverages the success of our voting advice application, which supported over 170,000 young voters across the EU during the last European Parliament elections. By analyzing the data generated by these users, we identify the specific political preferences and electoral behaviors that define Generation Z.
After months of working on the project through desk research and in-person workshops happening in Girona, Barcelona and Madrid, we have published the resulting report The political participation of Generation Z in Spain: gaps, transformations and new kinds of engagement (accessible via COTEC download request). It was authored by Harrison Parpillon (lead researcher) and received the support from Francesc Almendros (project manager), Markus Hofer (co-director of the Knowledge Lab) and Pol Villaverde (president).
Our commitment to these issues was recently highlighted in October 2025, when we participated in the IV Gijón Forum on Innovation and Inequality, organized by COTEC. During this event, our Project Manager, Francesc Almendros, joined a panel of experts to address the “Participation” pillar, one of the four critical challenges facing today’s youth alongside housing, employment, and mental health. The forum provided a vital space for intergenerational dialogue, emphasizing how innovation can be used as a tool to combat social inequality and foster active citizenship.
The insights gained from both the Gijón Forum, other workshops in Barcelona, Girona and Madrid and our ongoing data analysis have been distilled into a comprehensive set of new ideas. This will help us build new digital tools for political engagement, which will be announced soon alongside with our partners at COTEC. By transforming raw data into actionable knowledge, we seek to inspire a new wave of civic participation and ensure that the voices of young Europeans are not only heard but effectively integrated into the future of European democracy.
In partnership with the COTEC Foundation.
