Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2009-05-06-Speech-3-140"
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"en.20090506.18.3-140"2
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"Mr President, the Independence and Democracy Group has tried to be helpful, positive and constructive right through this parliamentary term.
Yes, because we have been providing the voice of opposition and, in a democracy, opposition is essential. It is vital. But sadly, as President Václav Klaus pointed out when he came here, you do not actually think there should be any alternative view and, as a result of that, your presidency has been marked by your deeply prejudicial manner in the way in which you have treated the Members of this House who have stood up and opposed the Constitution/Lisbon Treaty.
The defining moment for me in this House was when we had the French say ‘no’, we had the Dutch say ‘no’ and then we had the Irish say ‘no’, and this Parliament wilfully carried on ignoring the wishes of the people. You just do not get it, do you? ‘No’ means ‘no’, and it is truly incredible that 499 Members of this House voted to ignore the Irish ‘no’ vote and to continue with the Treaty. What kind of a Parliament is this? If you believed in democracy, you would not just bulldoze aside those three referendum results.
Worse still, you are now so fearful of public opinion – you know that you are losing the argument – that you have sunk to abuse. I have had Mr Watson saying that I behave like an English football hooligan, when all I did was to gently point out that Commissioner Barrot is a convicted embezzler. Gary Titley said that I was a paranoid reactionary living on the fringes of society. Well, he may have a point, I do not know; but Danny Cohn-Bendit, that great champion of free speech, said that opponents of the Treaty were mentally ill, and Martin Schulz, the leader of the Socialists, said after one of the ‘no’ votes that we must not bow to populism and that the ‘no’ votes opened the door to fascism.
I hope in the next four weeks, in this campaign, that the voters of Europe can see the real face of this project. You are nationalistic; you are bullying; you are threatening; you are anti-democratic; you are a complete shower!"@en1
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