“Democracy is possible only in independent nation states. Independence, democracy and a just welfare society belong together. It is possible to achieve all of them, if only citizens get their voices heard,” writes Antti Pesonen, Chairperson of the Independence Party in Finland.

All politicians would say that they support democracy and are ready to defend it. But they have different opinions of what democracy means.

Democracy should mean that big issues in the society are decided as the majority of the citizens want them to be decided. In the European Union it is more and more clear that the top politicians do not take account of the opinions of the citizens at all. The best example of this is that top politicians do not want to give voters the possibility to decide the future of the EU constitution in a referendum, even if at the beginning of the EU constitution it is written that it gives expression to the will of the citizens.

The leaders of Finland will not give the citizens the possibility to decide over the future of the EU constitution. Instead, they will accept it to be above the Finnish laws. According to a recent public opinion poll only about 17 percent of the Finns support this kind of decision.

Representative democracy means, according to the Constitution of Finland, that voters elect decision makers to represent them for the periods of time in between elections. But representative democracy does not give these temporary representatives the right to dispose of, or steal the highest power, which belongs to the citizens, or to give it away from the country.

The political system does not stand very long in a situation wherein important social concepts, like independence, democracy, well-being, or not belonging to a military alliance or cooperation, are explained to mean whatever each particular speaker in different times wants them to mean.

The present degeneration of democratic concepts will have more and more serious consequences. We should remember that the dictatorships of the Twentieth century had partly their foundation in the misinterpretation of these important concepts.

Democracy in the European Union is not possible. One reason for this is that big companies have a strong influence on the EU. And their interests are often different from those of the majority of the people. That is why there is no real democracy in the EU, the parliament of which is not a real parliament, and their unelected Commission, formed of civil servants surrounded by companies’ lobbyists, has the sole right to initiate bills. And democracy is not any more possible in the member states, because they no longer have any independent power in issues belonging to the EU.

Democracy is possible only in independent nation states. Independence, democracy and a just welfare society belong together. It is possible to achieve all of them, if only citizens get their voices heard.

Now it is time to increase cooperation between those movements who are working for real democracy and independent nation states.

We have to tell the citizens that there are better and sustainable alternatives to the EU State.

Antti Pesonen is Chairman of the Independence Party in Finland and a member of TEAM’s board. info@itsenaisyyspuolue.fi