In a video from the #UseYourVote campaign, some of the latest winners of the Sakharov Prize of the European Parliament for Freedom of Thought and their teams have prepared a number of messages for EU citizens, in the run-up to the European election of 6-9 June. “We are losing freedom in the world. Use your vote to defend democracy, use your voice for those who can’t”, stated Oleksandra Matviichuk, winner of the Sakharov Prize in 2022 and head of the Centre for Civil Liberties, an NGO that reports war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the Russian army in Ukraine, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022. “Dear fellow citizens of Europe, in Europe you have a precious gift: the power to elect your leaders and shape your future”, points out the Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, winner of the Sakharov Prize in 2020. “Democracy is a difficult system to build but it is also very easy to lose”, adds Lorent Saleh, ex political prisoner, winner of the Sakharov Prize in 2017 on behalf of the democratic opposition in Venezuela.