Issue 12
- Ayaan Hirsi Ali awarded liberal democracy prize
- Van Aartsen candidate for ELDR presidency
- Cuban prisoners in hunger strike
- Seif Sharif Hamad pledges peaceful polls
- Paraguay: presidential re-election rejected
- Slovakia sacks Pavol Rusko
Ayaan Hirsi Ali awarded liberal democracy prize
At a ceremony in Stockholm on 29 August 2005, Dutch liberal MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali (VVD) was awarded the 2005 Democracy Prize of the Liberal Party of Sweden, by party leader Lars Leijonborg. Mrs. Hirsi Ali was selected prize winner for her courageous work for democracy, human's rights and women's rights. She also participated in a seminar on 'Integration and Diversity', presenting her views on Islam, tolerance and multiculturalism, which have recently been published in her latest book 'The Caged Virgin'.
Mrs. Hirsi Ali is Member of the Dutch parliament for the liberal party VVD. Living under death threats, she calls for 'enlightenment' of Islam and struggles for the rights of Muslim women. In 2004, she made the controversial film 'Submission' about the oppression of women in many Islamic cultures. The film was made together with Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who was later murdered. In 2003, Mrs. Hirsi Ali was included in the Time Magazine list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Van Aartsen candidate for ELDR presidency
'Member Parties in the Driver's Seat! --A Bid for the ELDR Presidency'
Dear fellow liberals!
At this moment the idea of European integration encounters scepticism among the peoples of Europe. 'Brussels' is considered too far away, too bureaucratic and too centralist. I want to fight euroscepticism by making European integration and enlargement a success by not overburdening the EU and by a step by step approach in further enlargement which I welcome. For this reason I want to be a candidate for the ELDR Presidency.
We need a strong grass roots ELDR Party which is well organized and plays an important role in the European debate by active participation of its Member Parties from the respective Member States. They together form ELDR and maintain the closest link with the citizen who must be the focus of our political work.
My approach is bottum-up and not top-down. The political agenda should be set by the Member Parties on the basis of our 2004-2009 Election Manifesto, the legislative work of our MEPs in the ALDE Group and our MPs in the national parliaments and focus on the discussions taking place in the Member States. I want a strong co-operation between the ALDE Group and the ELDR Party, however the ELDR Party has its own responsibility and identity based on its Member Parties. The ELDR Party has established its own office with its own staff outside the European Parliament. The President of the ELDR Party should, in this line of reasoning, be equally independent and active. This will give the ELDR President the position to engage in productive discussions with the European Democratic Party (EDP) in order to pave the way for a more intensive party-to-party dialogue which must produce added value for both.
As a former Foreign Minister who negotiated the Treaty of Nice, I consider myself neither incrowd nor outsider. As former director of the Telders Foundation, the VVD Think Tank, I want to further debate on Europe and not to discourage it. I consider myself a grass roots politician committed to a strong liberal input in European and national politics. Member Parties will be in the Driver's Seat if you would elect me as your ELDR President. For these reasons I ask for your support at the coming ELDR Congress.
Cuban prisoners in hunger strike
In Cuba prisoners of conscience Adolfo Fernandez Sainz, Arnaldo Ramos Lauzerique and Alfredo Dominguez Batista are in hunger strike since August 19th 2005. The families of these men are trying to raise the awareness of the plight of these men who have been jailed since 2003 under appalling conditions.
Adolfo Fernandez Sainz is international officer of LI observer Party Partido Solidaridad Democrática from Cuba.
Seif Sharif Hamad pledges peaceful polls
Seif Sharif Hamad, Vice President of Liberal International, issued a joint statement with the incumbent Zanzibar's President Amani Abeid Karume aimed at helping foster tolerance among their supporters.
“We are both asking members and followers of both parties to make sure that we protect the peace and security of our country, its people and their property and to avoid any actions that will awaken hate and endanger peace and stability,” Hamad and Karume said in the joint statement. “We are emphasising the creation of a new culture of tolerance, respect and patriotism in Zanzibar politics.” Zanzibar is the semiautonomous island of Tanzania.
The October 30 poll will vote in a new parliament and president for both Zanzibar and Tanzania union. Seif Sharif Hamad is running for Zanzibar President as the Civic United Front (CUF) candidate.
Paraguay: presidential re-election rejected
Ruling party of Paraguay the National Republican Association-Red Party (ANR) has openly suggested a constitutional amendment to allow the president run for a second-term. 69 percent of people disagree with this amendment.
Former presidential candidate Julio César Franco of the Authentic Liberal Radical Party (PLRA), member of Liberal International, said his party would not support any changes, declaring “our current Constitution has all the tools a president, if he were capable and intelligent, requires to work to provide a better life for his countrymen.'
Slovakia sacks Pavol Rusko
Pavol Rusko, the Slovak economy minister, was dismissed on Wednesday 24 August by Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda over an alleged conflict of interest between his position and his private business activities.
Mr Rusko is now expected to lead his liberal ANO party out of the fractious minority government, further weakening its reforming impetus and raising doubts over whether Mr Dzurinda can hang on to power until the elections in autumn 2006.
Pavol Rusko is the leader of the Alliance of a New Citizen (ANO), member of Liberal International.