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In the year it is thirty years since I first entered the pulpit at a partilandsmøte.
A couple of months before, had Bulgaria abolished their union and Lithuania and begun its march towards independence when 300.000 protesters conducted what got the name “the singing revolution”.
the Fight for the future were won. One by one replaced the old kommuniststater rasjoneringskort and travel restrictions with trade agreements and tourism. Our side won the election after election. In Hungary was the Hungarian Democratic Forum, the Russian party Fidesz in the country’s first free elections.
the Future belonged to us. The liberal right wing. I was so sure that only a fifteen year old boy with braces and nyvunnen conviction can be.
the Future was global and liberal. It belonged to the open society with freedom of expression, functioning democracies, market economy, a strong rule of law and human freedom of movement across borders.
Nasjonalistenes international Comment
I can’t remember what I talked about. But I do remember that I – in spite of my somewhat come very entry – got the applause. The other was as secure as me. Together we stood in the good fight. And we were about to win. We were about to reach the Francis Fukuyama two years later was to call the endpoint.
Through the nineties fighting we work together across parties and organizations. For the EUROPEAN union and international free trade agreements. For globalization and science. One would revive the Russian næringslivsbladet Farmand. Others had other, exciting projects that I learned from. All they should change the world in their ways.
We slept on each other’s couches. We were acquaintances, friends, and occasionally boyfriends. All of the things you associate with the time when you go from youth to adult. All seeking community. We will have something that binds us together. Our glue was the common cause. We had a kind of a meaning with what we did.
It was, in any case, what I thought.
My acquaintances who have tried to revive the liberal magazine Farmand, is today the leader of the minipartiet the Alliance. Where spreading his anti-semitism and conspiracy theories.
A stronger EU in crisis Comment
It is not a long time ago I – together with a couple of them I still feel a value community – met to discuss another of our former friends. The anger he expresses against the muslims, the State and the dissenters has reached such a level that we were afraid that he “could find anything”.
And they are not alone. “What happened to the hen?” “That is not good!” “Have you seen what X has said?” I do not have figures on how many times phrases like this have been uttered when those of us who still stands with both legs placed in the liberal project, meet.
The ones we thought were our closest, suddenly those who are farthest from us. And not just in Norway. When the Hungarian freedom party Fidesz stormed into the parliament at the elections in 1990, called their parliamentary leader Viktor Orbán. Today governs both he and the party in Hungary in the authoritarian and nyfascistisk direction. In Poland, govern the same powers.
IN the united STATES have the author Anne Applebaum asked himself the same question. “What caused this transformation”, she asks. “Were any of our friends always skapautoritære? Or have the people we skålte with at the start of the new millennium, in some way changed in the last twenty years?”
Yes, he is dangerous Comment
As she points out: The people we are talking about here, is not the stereotypical Trumpvelger with primary and Fox News as the only source of news. These are people with education. They write books and travel. They can the alien language. They live in New York, Oslo, London and Berlin. They are not the new høyresidens foot soldiers. They are its architects and byggmestere.
Armed with examples that range from Greek civil wars to Dreyfussaffæren in France, she gives an answer that gives reason to ponder. The liberal moment, which in practice started with the fall of the berlin wall in 1989 and joined 11. september 2001, was an exception, ” she says. Polarization and demokratiskepsis has been the historical normal.
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The communist regimes , which collapsed at the beginning of the nineties, was the illegitimate folkefiender which beat down on all the diversity. They had to fight. We liberals, and our former friends on it which is now called “the new nietzsche”, learned different things from the fight. We learned the value of diversity. We learned that the opponent is an illegitimate enemy that must be fought.
Lessons from Hungary, Poland and other countries tells us that our former friends are just as dangerous as the communists they helped us fight. They are highly skilled. They are well-educated. And they know how a country should be governed.
In Poland, it took a couple of years before the courts ‘ independence was put to the side. Would similar powers get power here, it would have only taken months. In the Uk the government namely free to appoint who they want. The same applies in other areas of public life.
Politicizing of courts in Poland began with a choice that would “evaluate the courts ‘role”. It was the first step towards knebling. Two months ago, the centre party with the same proposal here in Norway to have accused the national court administration to “thwart The will of the father”.
Today’s Senterparti low in common with those powers who now govern Poland and Hungary. Their desire is only to clarify the roles. They will not control the courts. It is unlikely that the thought of doing it a second time has turned them.
To destroy the democracy Comment
In Norway we do not like that. The only time Government in living memory has overridden dommerinnstillinger was when the in 2007, would ensure the kjønnsbalansen in a court located in the county of Vestfold. No one asked any of the candidates what issues they would come up with.
Power behaves in Norway. Therefore, we have not built the institutional barriers against the authoritarian. We assume that those who have power limits itself. So far, after all, our experience is that they always have done it.
I hit last year one of my old “liberal” nittitallsvenner at Gardermoen. He had just come back from a meeting in Budapest where Trumps old strategist, Steve Bannon, was responsible for the main contribution field. “Very interesting,” he said. “A lot to learn.”
Applebaum characterised their experiences as a warning from Poland. All the society can become authoritarian. All they need is competent environments that are willing to take the lead and build a system around them.
today, the risk is low in Norway. Today is still the confidence high. It may be we shall use the moment to together build the institutions that we know will withstand a day of 10 – 20 – 30 year where it no longer is so.
We can all hope that the day never comes. But the day that happens, is it too late to prepare. the
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