madam president why is it that democrats feel so restrained about naming dictators and those who dedicated their careers to combating democracy enslaving countries persecuting those who dared to speak against them and are responsible for crimes
this evening we are not talking about totalitarianism we are not talking in euphemisms we are talking about hitler's fascist criminal dictatorship and joseph stalin's communist criminal dictatorship
when i was sixteen years old i lived in frankfurt am main which is two hours tank drive away from prague
minister alexander dubček whom we honoured in this house tried very hard to liberalise the system
he spoke about the human face of communism
the inhuman face of communism was leonid brezhnev and his predecessors and successors
i believe commissioner that if we are to stand by our beliefs we should honour the victims of communism and fascism
we should make no distinction between these twin criminals that is what they were
the only difference is that hitler lost the war and stalin won the war
today the president of this parliament honoured the memory of those deported from three baltic states estonia latvia and lithuania
but minister your country suffered jan palach lost his life
he tried desperately to demonstrate the limits to which he would go to show that the regime under which he lived was unacceptable
i remember listening aged sixteen to radio prague as the tanks occupied your capital city in wenceslas square
don t forget us is what your brave countrymen said
this evening commissioner we do not forget those who suffered
we should have the courage to name those who were responsible but we should look to the future to ensure that never again this continent suffers from hitlerism or stalinism
