Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-11-28-Speech-3-275"
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"en.20071128.25.3-275"2
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"Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, in 1848 Karl Marx proclaimed Socialism for the 19th century, and it was a disaster. In 1917 Lenin, with the Russian Revolution, proclaimed Socialism for the 20th century, and it was a disaster. Various Members of this House emerged from that disaster to join us in freedom. The problem with Socialism for the 21st century, as proclaimed by President Chávez in Venezuela, is that this century is only just beginning and we do not know what will happen. However, we can imagine that, as in the 19th and 20th centuries, it will also be a disaster.
As a matter of fact, we see it resulting in violence. It is not the elections that concern us; it is the brutal violence perpetrated by the authorities against the students protesting in Venezuela because they are not recognised as having the right to demonstrate. Some of these students have died in recent days on the streets of Caracas and other cities. It is the threats to freedom of expression that concern independent and free journalists throughout Latin America and in particular in Venezuela and which led to the closure of Radio Caracas Televisión.
This is the line that concerns us, and we are right to be concerned as, in the constitutional reform proposed by President Chávez, words such as ‘decentralisation’, ‘private initiative’, ‘freedom of competition’ and ‘social justice’ have given way to words such as ‘Socialism’, ‘Socialist’, ‘imposition of the Socialist State’, ‘elimination of the independence of the Central Bank’ and ‘people’s power’. It is well-known throughout the world that, when someone uses the expression ‘people’s power’, power will be taken away from the people and democracy will be destroyed. This has happened everywhere that the expression ‘people’s power’ has been used. ‘Bolivarian Armed Forces’, ‘communes’, this is the kind of line that should concern us, that has sown instability and violence in recent months and years on the streets of Caracas and that also represents a threat to regional stability if what has recently happened in relations between Venezuela and Colombia should continue. That is why it is essential that we closely monitor events in Venezuela in solidarity with the democratic parties and civil society fighting for regional stability and firmly defending democracy, but also with great cohesion in the European Union’s diplomacy."@en1
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