mr president this year we commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the pogroms
it seems that the collective memory is becoming weaker and weaker since we face rising extremism associated with racism xenophobia anti-semitism and aggressive nationalism worldwide including in european democracies
looking ahead to the two thousand and nine european elections the pse group is convinced that political representatives can play a positive role in the overall promotion of mutual respect and understanding
the pse group is committed to raising awareness of the value of cultural and religious diversity as a source of mutual enrichment of societies
we always underline the necessity that public personalities should refrain from statements that encourage the stigmatisation of groups of people
may i express my confusion that the epp has chosen and still keeps as its main partner in bulgaria a party whose leader appreciates the statesmanship of stalin hitler and mao who believes that the way forward to integration is to impose a list of bulgarian names on every new-born child of non-bulgarian ethnic origin a man who says that there are bulgarian citizens in bulgaria turkish in turkey and if somebody is a turk they should go to turkey
i wonder if you mr president or the epp support the same approach for the ethnic turks in germany
i underline how important the role of the european parties is in carefully selecting its partners because when you exchange quality for quantity the first victims are the epp's credibility the stability of the national political systems and of course the beliefs of the ordinary right-wing voters
