Three current and one (sadly) former liberal MEPs have written for the European Parliament’s Magazine following a Liberal International meeting in Oxford. They argued that liberals must stand together against the far-right and the politics of fear.
Catherine Bearder, Dutch MEP Hans van Baalen, our Graham Watson and Swedish MEP Cecilia Wikström show how liberals see the world:
As liberals, we will be standing together against the racists, the xenophobes and those who believe Europe needs to return to its fragmented past.
Liberals are naturally internationalist; it is in our DNA. We view the world as a global stage, not one subdivided by borders. We see friendly cooperation with our neighbours as the very key to unlocking a more secure, sustainable, prosperous and market-oriented future for Europe and the rest of the world.
We need to spread the message that liberalism is a home for people who don’t seek to brand migrants as ‘other’, for people who believe a Europe without the EU would be weaker and for people who see a reversion to separatism as the very worst outcome.
The Netherlands has its own version of UKIP but it’s now on the wane:
In the Netherlands, Geert Wilders’ Dutch Front National lookalike Partij voor de Vrijheid (Party for Freedom) appeared, like UKIP in the UK, to have become a structural force in politics. Yet Wilders’ slogan, “We want fewer Moroccans”, rendered him isolated on the Dutch political landscape. No party wants to work with him anymore.
This is the best antidote to prevent his party gaining momentum again. Wilders lost seats in all elections after he brought down the first Liberal government led by Mark Rutte. Liberals had their best results ever at the polls in May 2014.
What explains the difference between the UK and the Netherlands? Perhaps the level of civic education. As George Orwell observed, human history becomes increasingly a race between education and catastrophe.
You can read the whole article here.
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3 Comments
Please don’t say that any policy or political leaning is “in your/our DNA.” Politics is not biological or hereditary in any way — and a good thing too. The path to victory for liberals lies not in attracting some imaginary born-liberal vote, but in convincing, individual by individual, people to change the ideas they have been brought up in using facts, evidence, and reason.
That’s a difficult thing to do. Most parties don’t even try it; they’d prefer to have a mass support based on emotion and/or biases inculcated during childhood. But liberalism needs to be different. There are not many liberals who arrive there because they grew up in a house singing The Land. Liberals are made, not born, and the best way to make them is to appeal to their minds, and creating a party of conviction, not bias; of conversion, not heredity; of thought and reasoning, not “DNA”.
David-1 29th Mar ’15 – 6:02am
“… Liberals are made, not born, and the best way to make them is to appeal to their minds, and creating a party of conviction, not bias; of conversion, not heredity; of thought and reasoning, not “DNA”.”
This really is very good. Can someone print it on a Tee-shirt for me to wear ?
Sound Liberal stuff here, if we’d had more of this in the European Election campaign instead of the ‘party of in’ rubbish Catherine Bearder might had some some UK Liberal Colleagues to talk to.
Why can’t we be open about our vision for Europe and our contempt for UKIP? (the British ‘Front National’).
Guy Verhostadt’s verbal attack on Farage in the European Parliament is better than anything I’ve seen from a British politician, have a look: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M4hExU-tfg. Trouble is the British Liberal Leadership seem to treat the ALDE Leader as an embarrassing uncle at a wedding reception!