POLICY BRIEF Time to reset! can we revitalise  European democracies? Key Findings of the Brussels Democracy Dialogue 2025 Building a Progressive Vision for a Resilient and Responsive Democracy in the 21 st Century Julian Plottka “Democracy needs democrats.” The quote ascribed to the first German president and namesake of the Friedrich­Ebert-Stiftung summarises the twofold challenge that de­mocracies are currently facing. First, democracies can only survive if citizens make use of their civic rights and en­gage in decision-making. Citizens’ trust in democracy and their participation is needed for a vibrant democracy resil­ient against anti-democratic attacks. Second, democracies need democrats with the courage to actively defend de­mocracies against these attacks from populists and right­wing extremists. To discuss the causes of democratic backsliding and to de­velop policy recommendations for winning back citizens to engage in and defend democracy, the Friedrich-Ebert­Stiftung convened policymakers, scientists, think-tankers, trade unionists and civil society activists for the Brussels Democracy Dialogue 2025. They identified four sets of con ­crete recommendations to revitalise European democracies: 1. Democrats need to better strategise and make full use of the instruments at their disposal to fight against right-wing populists and anti-democrats. 2. Democracies need to be responsive to citizens’ de­mands (especially economic demands), but concrete results must be embedded in a wider progressive pro­ject for the 21 st century to win the culture war against right-wing populists and anti-democrats. 3. The European Union(EU) needs to scale up its defence against foreign information manipulation and inter­ference (FIMI) and address the structural dimension (regulation of very large online platforms) and emotional dimension of FIMI(narratives are not fought with facts). 4. Democrats need to revitalise democracies and offer a positive vision for civic engagement instead of merely defending the functioning democracies of the past.