Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-05-11-Speech-3-140"
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"en.20050511.16.3-140"2
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"Mr President, it is of great importance that we should at this moment commemorate the end of the Second World War 60 years ago. It is also a good thing that on this occasion, it is underlined once again that freedom and democracy should not be taken for granted, and have to be actively upheld. The atrocities of National Socialism are a black page in Europe’s history and the previous speakers were right to point out that there is little, if anything, that can be added to that.
It is regrettable, though, that Western Europe is devoting so little attention to the historical fact that 60 years ago, the official go-ahead was given for handing over the Eastern European peoples to Soviet occupation, to dictatorial Communist regimes that were certainly a match for the Nazis in terms of horror and crime. The Red Army was already at Warsaw in 1944, simply waiting until the Nazis had suppressed the uprising. Sixty years ago, there was praise and honour everywhere in the West for Joseph Stalin, a tyrant who had by then already killed millions of people and who, with the connivance of the liberated West, would go on to kill many more millions, in and outside of Russia.
It is, in fact, high time that Russia should follow Germany in putting the past to rights. Officially, countries such as Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were liberated by the Red Army. Vaira Vike-Freiberga, Latvia’s President, pointed out that 1945 did not bring the Baltic States liberation of any kind, quite the contrary. Let me quote her: ‘It meant slavery, it meant occupation, it meant submission and Stalinist terror’.
The European leaders who were in Moscow a few days ago hardly took the trouble to broach that reality, and what meant liberation for the Western Europeans 60 years ago, was another calvary for Eastern Europe, the difference being that the new dictatorships could count on the active support and sympathy of so many Western European politicians, media, intellectuals and many others, some of whom, in fact, appeared to be on the payroll of the Soviet secret services. It is perhaps apt, 60 years down the line, to look at those issues. Maybe Europe will not be able to fully put the past to rest unless a kind of Nuremberg Trial of Communism is held, not in an attempt to open up old wounds but with the intention never to forget, with the future of our children and grandchildren in mind.
I am shocked when a European Commissioner includes photos on his website on which he demonstrates his admiration for one such as Fidel Castro. I am shocked when intellectuals and policy-makers continue to deny or play down the advent of Islamic extremism. Jean-François Revel already spoke of
the totalitarian temptation. If there is one lesson to be learnt from the atrocities of the Second World War, it is that totalitarianism should not be given another chance, wherever it may appear."@en1
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"la tentation totalitaire"1
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