Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-12-12-Speech-3-255"
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"en.20071212.28.3-255"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I should like to thank Vice-President Frattini and all the fellow Members who have worked with me, and the proposers, to draw up this resolution.
Manifestations of racism and xenophobia have increased in recent years, as is borne out by the reports of the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia. This increase is closely linked to the growth and proliferation of political forces which, in Europe, have interpreted the problems raised by immigration in an aberrant way, often to put forward slogans defending race and identity, and to stir up feelings of self-preservation against those entering Europe, describing them as terrorist threats or criminals, or even branding them with unacceptable anthropological names and xenophobic and racist slogans.
Parties and movements which in recent years have had strong anti-European nationalist leanings, and are highly racist, are on the increase. Their political propaganda draws on social insecurity and tries to add pieces to the mosaic of the war of civilisations. That propaganda is now a mainstream part of the political and institutional debate and in some cases, seems to be the message emerging from governments or as the result of the activities of governments.
Tomorrow, we shall vote on a resolution on extremism, a title which is perhaps a little vague. Lenin said that extremism is the infantile disease of communism; we could paraphrase Lenin and say that extremism is perhaps an infantile disease of all political, religious, economic and ideological programmes. Mr Weber is right: there is left-wing extremism and right-wing extremism, but there is not just left-wing and right-wing extremism, there is neo-liberal extremism, Catholic extremism, Muslim extremism, ecological extremism and anarchic-insurrectionist extremism.
The problem in Europe, however, is the growth of right-wing extremism and the problems which are causing right-wing extremism to proliferate. Neo-nazi and neo-fascist political forces and movements have been set up in recent years in Europe and have made it their policy to work against European integration – we have seen them in Italy, in France, in Austria, in the Netherlands, in Belgium, in the United Kingdom, in Germany, in Denmark, and in Switzerland; they reflect the crisis that has led an intellectual such as Alfio Mastropaolo to describe the offensive of the new right as the mad cow of democracy.
The democratic legitimisation of certain political forces has helped dangerous ideas to spread into the body of European society, feeding reactionary leanings. A dangerous, and in some cases underestimated, disease which feeds on ethnocentric proclivities, often concealed and hidden, in some cases masked by seemingly democratic and legitimate acts. We therefore need to question our choices and our political initiatives.
There is a growing emphasis on the need to establish and consolidate a shared European culture and identity. I believe that a European identity and culture must be built on the basis of dialogue and contact with cultures other than those that have in recent years promoted and paved the way for the dissemination and the growth of a European idea, a European culture.
A major cultural battle is needed, and that is my conclusion. Police or public security activities are not enough; there needs to be a major cultural effort and only in that way will we manage to ensure that 2008 is actually the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, because Europe must be founded on intercultural principles."@en1
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