Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-09-04-Speech-4-195"
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"en.20080904.22.4-195"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, it was thanks to you that I was able to head the election observation mission to Mauritania.
We were very proud of the results, because the great success was that after 24 years the military was handing over power to the people.
I was in Mauritania for eight days last week and what did I hear there? I heard a people who, having previously been so happy to have a civilian government, were once again pleased that the military had come back to ‘readjust democracy’, as they put it.
Of course we call that a coup d'état. It is a coup d'état. We denounce it and we have denounced it. However, I think that we really need to go and see what is happening there and I would advise you, my fellow Members, to send a delegation to find out. The representative from the African Union, Mr Ping, is calling it ‘an atypical situation’. Mr Djinnit of the United Nations calls it ‘a reversal situation’ and both are saying that today we have to be creative. Indeed, when they say that there is deadlock it is quite true that there is institutional deadlock, but this institutional deadlock does not come from the coup; it is the result of a process of degradation that dates back to April and that culminated in June or July with a motion of censure that could not be voted on, with extraordinary sittings of the parliament that were not adopted, that were not granted and, indeed, with a resounding majority of two thirds, if not three quarters in favour of the President, which found itself overturned, with the call for him to resign. This truly was a reversal and for those who are not following things it is difficult to comprehend.
I would ask you, fellow Members, to go and see the situation as it really is and would call on you to support the democratic legacy that the country managed to acquire at the last elections.
It should also be remembered that institutions such as the Senate, the parliament and the municipal councils are still functioning and I really believe that these bodies are acting as custodians of the people’s power. I therefore think that it is up to them to find a solution. I believe that we have to trust in our parliamentary colleagues to propose a roadmap to this military junta, which we have rejected, and that it is really up to the representatives of the people, just as we are the representatives of our citizens, to decide what to do now.
I think that we can give them this credibility and show some trust in them: if they fail to come up with solutions that are lawful and institutionally legitimate then we can intervene forcefully, but I believe that today these representatives of the people, who have legitimacy on their side, should put forward proposals and we should give them our support as colleagues."@en1
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