Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-01-26-Speech-3-143"
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"en.20050126.8.3-143"2
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"Mr President, like many others this evening I welcome this resolution on this extremely important anniversary. As others have said, there is a risk that the memory of the realities of the horrors of what happened in the concentration and extermination camps will start to fade. It is also worth mentioning that later in the year we will also be remembering the effects of nuclear weaponry.
It is not just a question of thinking about these events in terms of remembrance or even of education. As the resolution says, we must look at them not simply as historical events, but as a very real and present danger, which I believe they are. When political movements are not just extremist, and not based solely on certainty, but are also based on some feeling of their own superiority or their desire to be superior, that is an extremely dangerous mix for all of us.
I, like others, welcome the moves by the Commission and the Luxembourg presidency to restart the negotiations on the draft framework decision on racism and xenophobia, because this is an issue that needs a political response.
I am very pleased that the resolution makes a point about the role of the media having a positive or a negative way of either engendering hatred or explaining difference in a positive way. When we look at the way in which some of the British media, for example, reported the plight of the Jews fleeing Hitler’s Germany and looking for sanctuary in the UK, we hear phrases like ‘we have enough’, ‘other people should be doing more’, ‘we should be sharing the burden’ as I suppose we would put it in modern parlance. A lot of that newspaper coverage was hostile: it vilified the Jews, and it actually treated them as sub-human. When we look at the way in which some of those same papers today have portrayed the Roma in the run-up to the accession of new Member States last year, and their remorseless targeting of asylum seekers, we know that those ideas have not gone away.
Politicians also have a very clear leadership responsibility to promote understanding and a respect for different religions and races. This does not mean avoiding the difficulties, but if we are serious when we say ‘never again’ to the horrors of the Holocaust, we as politicians must stand up for strong anti-discrimination policies and confront racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia and faith-based hatred, rather than bending our policies before it.
This resolution shows that we believe it is possible to make a positive future and that we in this House have the privilege and the possibility as politicians to help shape that future in a positive, constructive way."@en1
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