Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-02-02-Speech-3-036"
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"en.20000202.4.3-036"2
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"Madam President, the European Union was built upon the idea ‘never again’, meaning never again do we want to see xenophobia, concentration camps, anti-Semitism, heightened nationalism or war. The one and only significance of the European Union is the will to transcend the atrocious history of the twentieth century which gave the
to any ideal of humanism within the heart of Europe, and which is still highly topical today.
It is not true to say that, when a government forms an alliance with neo-Fascists somewhere in Europe, this is merely a question of national sovereignty. For this Union of ours is not a grouping of neighbouring nation states who are simply coming to mutual arrangements to improve their collective circumstances. It is a Community that is destined to exist, in which, when the main thing is under threat, when values are under threat, all democrats must bend over backwards to find solutions to ensure that the mistakes of the past are never made again.
Let us learn the lessons of the past. In the thirties, when Adolf Hitler was democratically elected, although with a minority, many people thought that it was not as bad as all that and, Mr Poettering, in France, a number of men and women, on the right wing but perhaps of other political persuasions too, thought, ‘Better Hitler in France than the
.’ They put their own petty squabbles first, and the rest is history.
We must make a rapid, strong and united response. I would have liked to hear your discussion with the Austrian President, Mr Poettering. We are well aware that he is very embarrassed today at the dirty deal that government has done in forming such an alliance. So our response must be rapid and strong. Of course, the Treaty provides us with a barrier when things become intolerable; I was almost going to say ‘irreparable’. History has taught us that Fascists start to blow hot and cold: using heated words first, in populist, xenophobic speeches, and then cool words in order to make themselves acceptable to institutions and to infiltrate them gradually, poisoning them, until the day they start to take action. And when that day comes, it is too late. So our Treaty has made provision for barriers for the time when it is too late, but we are not at that point: today we have to take steps to ensure that we do not get to that point. We must therefore find a political solution.
I support the Council proposals in this, while deploring a certain lack of strength, a certain spinelessness, on the part of the Commission which will, however, have to be vigilant on a day-by-day basis, with determination over time, since Fascists count on the spinelessness of democracy, they count on time to wear us down and they hope to impose their views in the end. Our response must be rapid. If today we do not staunchly support the Council, then history will judge us, saying that we achieved the political equivalent of the Munich Agreement."@en1
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