Europe, liberalism and democracy - ALDE party congress in Madrid

A general problem with the European democracy and politics is an almost absence of “real” European political parties. European party groups and formations promote official statements which their member parties do not always support or promote. Another case is that corrupted or misbehaving state-level parties undermine the civic trust concerning the general support for the party formations and the European political system. This has been the case related to the parties such as Fidesz (EPP) but also to the other, more civic oriented party formations. That is why Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe also need to “clean their own house” before criticizing others.

This week ALDE is holding its congress in Madrid. The congress offers a golden opportunity for ALDE to really “reclaim” itself and liberalism as the message was formulated in Lisbon, 2014. As liberals, we have been criticizing political behaviour around the EU when it comes to authoritarian, culturalist and anti-democratic behaviour. To be more trustworthy, we also need to “ wash our own hands” and solve internal problems.

One cannot expect that a liberal party can perform 100% ideologically correct in the public debate and decision-making process, having in mind the different factors as well as the needs for compromises and plurality of the liberal ideology. At the same time, it is important to remember that there are core values and ideas that can clearly be communicated, such as defending moral individualism, human rights and freedom, as well as being sceptic toward collectivism of different colours.

This parties that are only “liberal in name” should not be members of ALDE. A clear example is the MRF party in Bulgaria. The party has a corrupted structure and large numbers of members with dubious and criminal behaviour. MRF: s behaviour has contributed to Bulgaria being among the most corrupted parts of Europe and with lowest rankings of media freedom according to the Reporters Without Borders. As an ALDE-member in Sweden I would therefore never cheer for MRF performing well on the elections.

Second example is the ALDE party (former PLR) in Romania that also has been demonstrating behaviour which can only be described as corrupted and authoritarian. This is the case when it comes to issues of rule of law and judicial independence where ALDE-R have supported problematic and questionable decisions. Also, the Romanian ALDE-PSD government recently spent around 35 million euros on a referendum with the aim of banning same-sex marriage.

While problems with corruption and statism exist among the ALDE parties in some younger member states, there are also mainly problems with political communication and collectivism is the older ones. In Denmark, the regime of Venstre has led to policies as forbidding burqa and begging for help as well as creation of a “ghetto list”. One can say that right-liberals in Denmark have contributed to the situation where political correctness is to pick up on minorities and make a fun of international conventions as regarding refugees. Such polices are not only undermining freedom of speech and religion but also punishing already socially vulnerable and more excluded individuals in the Danish society.

A similar case took place in Netherlands, where the supposed “victory over populism” was based on populist and nationalist communication. High-ranking VVD members communicated that celebrating Easter is a “Dutch value” targeting towards the Muslim population. It also represents a right-wing collectivist “logic” where one is against leftist gender policies while at the same time trying to force Muslims to become liberal feminists.

The problems with political communication among liberal parties are not only relevant for the local or the state level policies but also when it comes to the EU-level. In Sweden, Liberalerna (my own party) is famous for promoting “more European cooperation” for almost every EU-policy area. However, the problem with “more cooperation” rhetoric is that it is often seen by citizens either as empty words or as dishonest way to promote more intergovernmentalist bureaucracy and political integration.

EU needs more decentralization and local-self-governance, limited EU-level governance and better functioning central institutions as the court of justice, more economic liberalization and openness to global migration and mobility. But if European liberal parties are not able to perform as they teach or to wash their hands, they should ask themselves about the meaning of their own existence. If ALDE cannot transform into a single party based on individual membership and grass-root activism then European liberals should try to form a new party based on a meaningful and inspirational liberal story that can improve the current institutional, economic and social problems in the union.