Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-11-13-Speech-2-289"
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"en.20071113.31.2-289"2
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"Madam President, I am not an anti-federalist. I believe that federalism is a good form of government in Germany, Canada, Switzerland and the USA. However, it requires a people, and there is still not a European people that is prepared for a European democracy. Since I was first elected, participation in elections has fallen from 63% to 46% most recently. Next time this figure will probably fall below 40%. The European media are very few in number and small. They live off artificial subsidies. There are no common parties with members who have signed themselves up, who voluntarily pay their membership fees and who are involved in the creation of election programmes. The parties are controlled by the national parties and financed by the taxpayers. They now want more money and the opportunity to use it in national elections. This distorts equal competition, is unfair and is probably unlawful because it is in breach of the principle of equality.
Party support is being managed by members of the largest parties; my party has lost its subsidies because an individual signature is required from one of our members, even though not all the members of other parties have signed for their membership individually. We are being treated differently, yet there is no critical press that raises cases involving discrimination. I would gladly vote for subsidies for European political parties if the electorate wanted a European democracy. Begin by giving the elected people’s representatives power over the legislative process, and take the power away from the government officials and lobbyists, so that the electorate can make a difference by turning out on election day and voting for a different party. Create living parties with direct membership and voluntary membership fees, so that we can then arrange the public aid which the electorate deems reasonable and which is not discriminatory. Currently, we hardly have the support of the electorate for any further pressure on the citizens’ purse."@en1
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