Nicht nur, aber auch angesichts der gerade begonnenden Eu-Ratspräsidentschafts Ungarns halten wir diesen Aufruf für sehr unterstützenswert. Unterschreibt ihn, leitet ihn weiter, … Zum Unterzeichnen bitte – mit Angabe von Namen und Ort/Land – eine Email senden an: iprotest.hu@gmail.com. Der folgende Aufruf ist samt Unterzeichnetenliste auf der Seite iprotest.hu zu finden.
Dear Friends,
We the undersigned are members and supporters of the democratic movements that fought against the Communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe — fought for our nations to join the community of European democracies. We can never forget the risk of losing basic rights to power-hungry governments.
This time, the destruction of democracy’s guarantees is enfolding right before the eyes of the European Union, the very alliance founded to ensure that respect for our common values remains indivisible.
Today, the goal of a Europe united in liberty is in grave danger. What the European Union meant to prevent, and what many thought to be impossible, has now materialized: a full-fledged illiberal democracy inside its own borders — in Hungary, an EU member state since 2004.
Just 20 years after communism collapsed, Hungary’s government, though elected democratically, is misusing its legislative majority to methodically dismantle democracy’s checks and balances, to remove constitutional constraints, and to subordinate to the will of the ruling party all branches of power, independent institutions, and the media.
We turn to the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the European Council, as well as to all European governments and political parties that care for Europe’s true unity. We call on you to take resolute action to keep our Europe of democracy on track!
It is untenable that binding EU criteria only apply to the economy of member states. It is indefensible that we set benchmarks of compliance with democratic values only until a nation joins the Union, but stand baffled when those values are blatantly disregarded in a member state.
Our hard-won freedoms need to be made accountable! There exist no common European democratic values if they are not served by a common European law.
We ask the European Institutions not to repeat the mistake that was committed in Hungary: respect for our common values must not be jeopardized for the sake of party political fights or the mistaken prestige of the rotating European Presidency. Conservatives, Social Democrats, Liberals and Greens must unite, just as we the undersigned have, in developing a forward-looking defence against the demolition of Europe’s shared democracy.
Censorship anywhere in Europe is censorship everywhere; the removal of constitutional constraints holds all our nations hostage; the denial of basic rights in one country humiliates all Europeans. Any member nation’s shaken trust in Europe’s capacity to stand up for democracy will lead to further charges of „democracy deficit“ at the European level, and will end up in a global mistrust for Europe’s democratic vocation.
We call on European Parliamentarians and Commissioners, on Europe’s governments and parties to build clear standards of compliance with the values of democracy: pluralism, freedom of speech, individual liberties, separation of powers, and independence of justice. The European Institutions should be able to name and shame the transgressors, so that our nations may continue to look to the Union for guidance in their daily struggle to keep freedoms alive.