27 DE FEVEREIRO DE 2024

89

We respond to hate and the continued activity of destroying democracy with more and more democracy and

better democracy.

We must be a free, safe and democratic Europe for everyone, co-operating so that the disadvantaged are not

the slave labor of extremists.

Education for respect for human rights is essential and that is why all extremists launch campaigns against

education for citizenship calling it an ideology, as if democratic constitutions had not chosen equality over

inequality. Citizenship is not an option, it is not optional.

We have a special duty to defend human rights and democratic principles and to reject all forms of racism

and intolerance, hate speech, incitement to racial speech.

This duty involves recognising that our societies have systemic problems of racism instead of denying them

by imagining our countries as exceptions to a centuries-old history that has left deep marks.

It is because these structural problems exist that fascism tries its way, so we begin by recognising them and

then deconstructing, repressing, combating, and creating real public policies that eliminate the causes of

discrimination against people who have the right to freedom, equality, and security.

This is the Council of Europe. We have made a choice.

Thank you very much.

O Deputado Nuno Carvalho (PSD)participou também com a seguinte intervenção:

Thank you Madam President,

Well, of course the far-right in Europe feeds itself from the stresses that our

society produces, the stresses that come from different challenges. All of us can

understand that, quite recently, when we had to struggle to fight against COVID-19,

this was an opportunity for a lot of the movements that are far-right and extreme to

infiltrate themselves and say that they were anti-vaccine and anti-a lot of the

measures that had to be taken and everyone had to suffer in order to, of course,

undertake and at the end win this fight against this terrible virus.

But the truth is that this is an example of all type of stresses that our societies may face in the future, like

climate change, of course, like inflation.

And so, the first point that I would like to stress is that we need to tackle these issues and we need to tackle

them in a the most moderate a way as possible.

Because the first thing that we can see is that a lot of times, they occupy a void: they occupy a void of protests;

they occupy a void of not taking care of some issues and recognising them as true problems.

I should also say something, that I can see a lot of times that we as politicians – and allow me to say that we,

including myself of course, as politicians need to do our best to respect our principles with our voters, respect our

mandate that we have assumed with our voters.

Because if we do not carry out our mission with our, principles, with our mission, with our ideology, the mistrust

that we can create in society with the true democrats, with the ones that want to maintain and sustain a true

democratic system, well, that belief in these politicians may crumble.

People may lose trust in us, so it is very important to maintain our principles always in our priority, and never,

never try to fail with our voters that have entrusted us with that mission. So that is of course something that we

need to be very, very, very clear about in these very difficult times.

Otherwise, of course, the counter communication that has been created by the far right, and of course by all

other types of extreme movements that we have been assisting, will thrive and will win against the moderate

politicians like I, myself, think I am, and most of our colleagues here represented.

Thank you.