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AGAINST EXTREME NATIONALISM

→ The EU is founded on freedom: 3-min video EXTREME NATIONALISM IS THE ENEMY OF FREEDOM Today is Black Ribbon Day, an International Day of Remembrance for victims of totalitarian regimes. Right now, our thoughts are particularly with the people of Afghanistan, who are facing violence and repression under the renewed totalitarian regime of the Taliban. But totalitarianism has a long history, especially in Europe, whose countries and citizens have in the past grievously suffered from Stalinist, communist, Nazi and fascist rule. It was on 23 August 1939 - 82 years ago today - that Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact in which they agreed to carve up east and central Europe between them. The Second World War started just a week later. Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, followed by the Soviet invasion. It led directly to the violation of fundamental rights for tens of millions of people during one of the darkest periods of our continent's history. Even after World War Two and the defeat of Nazism, half of Europe continued to be subjugated under Communist totalitarian rule. It was not until 1989 that the citizens of east and central Europe stood up against the ‘Iron Curtain’ and ripped it down. It’s extreme nationalism that can lead to authoritarian rule. When a country and its rulers believe they are superior to all others; that’s the danger sign. International co-operation is the antidote to such misguided ideology. There are some who claim that the EU is itself a Nazi plot or even the ‘EUSSR’. Such allegations are as absurd as they are extremely offensive. The EU has democracy, human rights and free market trade as the non-negotiable membership requirements for all members. All member states of the EU volunteered to join, and all are free to leave. The USSR and Nazi regimes were not democracies, but one-party states. There were no human rights, or respect for life. There was no free market, but a state controlled one. Member states of the Soviet Union were forced to join, under threat of violence that was often used to bludgeon any member state that didn't comply. By contrast, the EU was established as the antidote to war and hate. Far from being a one-party state, the European Union is made up of many elected governments, and elected MEPS, from right across the political spectrum. The EU has free movement of its people. The EU is a democracy. It can only change with the unanimous agreement of all its member states. Its laws, aimed to protect almost half-a-billion citizens, are all democratically agreed. As the European Commission's First Vice-President, Frans Timmermans said: “We firmly stand together against totalitarian and authoritarian regimes of all kinds. A Free Europe is not a given but a choice, every day.” ▪ Join the discussion about this post on Facebook:   / 374655427563843   ▪ Report and video presentation by Jon Danzig. Video programme by the European Commission ▪ Jon Danzig is an independent campaigning journalist and film maker who specialises in writing about health, human rights, and Europe. He is also founder of the information campaign, Reasons2Rejoin