The EUDemocrats support the Irish vote
Thursday, 3 July 2008
This week we bring you a series of news about the EUDemocrats activity around Europe concerning the events in Ireland of last month. Members of the EUD showed support and enthusiasm in the results of the Irish Referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, all stressing the need to respect the voice of the voters. This article gives you a sample of this EU-wide support.
France
Co-President of the EUDemocrats and President of the Debout la République party, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan writes "a thousand thanks to Ireland for having saved the honour of democracy in Europe and having offered its people the historical chance for a radical reform of the European construction".
He continues by noting that " The Irish 'no', like the one in France and the Netherlands of three years ago, mirrors the established gap between the elites and the people". In the words of Mr. Dupont-Aignan, the Irish vote represents "the rising revolt against a system that is inefficient, unjust and disciplinary, that demolishes what exists ( the nations and their features), without building the protective, prosperous, innovative and democratic European model promised ever since the Maastricht Treaty of 1992".
We fully recommend the reading of the whole article, which you can find here.
United Kingdom
MEP Roger Helmer passionately defended the Irish vote in the very hemicycle of the European Parliament. In his plenary speech of June 24th, he noted how efforts were and is being made to continue with the Lisbon Treaty even after the Referendum.
"Last week we all said we respected the Irish result. But we do not respect it. We are treating the Irish with utter contempt. Like Robert Mugabe, we simply reject the verdict of the people.
Wolfgang Schaeuble says that a million Irish cannot decide for half a billion Europeans. Very well then. Let the half billion vote on the Treaty. You dare not, because you know they too would vote NO."
You can read more from Roger Helmer on his blog: http://rogerhelmermep.wordpress.com/
Slovakia
Also on the 24th of June, a delegation of Slovak EUD-member organisation AGORA was received by the Irish Embassy in Bratislava. Led by EUD Vice-President Peter Kopecky, the delegation congratulated the Irish citizens for the vote of 12 June. In doing so Mr. Kopecky lamented the fact that the same chance to vote was not given to the Slovak citizens, not with Lisbon and neither with the Treaty of Nice.
Another member of the delegation, Mr. František Pálka pointed out that Agora (like the EUD itself) is not against the European Union, but against the bureaucratic elites who prevent citizens to participate in public affairs. He mirrored the opinion of many members of the EUD in saying that "if referenda would have been organised in all the member-states, none would have been for the Treaty of Lisbon".
The civil organisation Agora also used the event to remind the public of its intention to enter politics and become a political party with the aim of participating in the next year's European Election. With a wide range of support from independent mayors in Slovakia (who represent around 27% of the mayors in the country), there is a real political background for the future party.
We encourage all our French speaking readers to take a look at the whole article detailing the visit, which can be found here.