Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-01-31-Speech-4-125"
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"en.20080131.22.4-125"2
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"Mr President, thank you very much for showing discretion on this matter and allowing me to take the floor to offer my explanation of vote.
I did understand what I was voting for on this issue, and I clearly voted against. I understand that some people in this House interpret the Rules and I understand that to mean that we are within our Rules on this.
But what I would say is that we always have to be very careful about giving arbitrary powers to a chairman or a president. I am sure that the President and the Vice-Presidents of this current Parliament will use these powers with extreme caution, and I am sure we welcome that. But what of future presidents? What of future chairmen who choose to interpret these rules as they see fit, to frown upon dissent and to suppress it?
We have to be careful that this is not a slippery slope, or perceived to be a slippery slope, to dictatorship, rather than a diversity of views. Therefore, I say to everyone, the true test of a democracy is how you treat your minorities, and, if you treat your minorities well, then we can all be agreed that this is a true democracy."@en1
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The resource appears as object in 2 triples