Hi. This is Odracirys, and I have something to say. Europe is not free. This may come as a shock to those who think that Europe is a bastion of liberal thought. It’s merely a bastion of leftist thought, and as I have realized, left-wingers can be just as much against freedom as any right-wingers. If you are a Classical Liberal or a centrist, I would like to make the case for voting for those you may not even strongly support, but who are in danger (as are we all) if the authorities get what they want. Many of the powers controlling Europe are so authoritarian and despotic that they must be resisted. They attempt to appear like they are on the side of good while destroying the freedoms that people these days take for granted. Geert Wilders and Marine Le Pen, although they have flaws like anyone else, have been unfair targets of governmental abuse, and I feel that the best way to stop this abuse is to show the authorities that the more they try to destroy these people, the more support these people will get.
Geert Wilders is a Dutch politician who is running with the Party For Freedom in the March 15th general election. This man has been thrown under the bus multiple times by laws that are completely antithetical to freedom. (Usually this happens when they fear that he will do will in an election.) He was previously charged with insane counts such as “group insult” and “inciting hatred against Muslims because of their religion” just for telling the truth about Islam. Please note that daily in mosques around the West and the world, imams quote the Qur’an, which incites hatred against all non-Muslims, but unless they carry out a terrorist attack, there are never any charges against them. Any cursory reading of the Qur’an (much less a more in-depth reading) will yield hate-filled rhetoric. Your proof is only an internet search away. Please search Islamic websites themselves if you don’t trust critics. Geert Wilders has even been convicted of these so-called “crimes”. March 15th is the time when the Dutch can tell their government that the truth should not be a crime.
The European Parliament and the French government are perhaps taking totalitarianism up yet another notch during this French election season. During two rounds of voting on April 23rd and May 7th, the French people will be able to vote for their president. I assume the powers that be think that the people cannot detect the trampling of democracy when they learn that, according to a Washington Post article, "The European Parliament voted Thursday to lift French far-right leader Marine Le Pen’s immunity from prosecution for tweeting gruesome images of violence, a crime that carries up to three years in prison under French law. The legislature voted by a broad majority in Brussels to clear the way for the possible prosecution of Le Pen over tweets she made in December 2015 showing executions, including the killing of American reporter James Foley by Islamic State extremists."
Why did Marine Le Pen post photos of graphic ISIS murders? Was she trying to get French people to join ISIS? Of course not. The European Parliament only rarely prosecutes those who entice people to join ISIS. They seem to mostly prosecute those who speak out against ISIS...particularly if they are up for election. How many people are openly calling for jihad in Europe and are not behind bars or deported? Anyway, what was Marine Le Pen’s motivation? "Le Pen, a leading candidate in this year’s French presidential election, posted her tweets in response to a journalist who drew an analogy between her anti-immigration National Front party and IS extremists. She was trying to show the difference between the two groups but the effort backfired, drawing widespread condemnation."
So, in short, a "journalist" (how easily we toss that term about these days!) said that the National Front is "as bad as Islamic State extremists" and she posted that image to show what ISIS actually is like. The powers that be didn't like that, and they decided to attempt to imprison her for sharing pictures before an election in which she is a front runner.
This taking away of immunity of prosecution couldn’t have come at a more opportune time for the elite. That’s why it happened now. Her tweet was more than a year ago, but it is now when she has a chance to win an election. It is not a coincidence that this immunity was revoked just as her right-wing rival has been plagued with an embezzlement scandal. Now, the European elite are deathly afraid that she may actually win, so they decided that now is the time to pull out all the stops, even if one of those stops is freedom itself.
Even if you hate Le Pen, think about what laws such as these can do to a society. Similarly to "Ag-gag laws" in some U.S. states (which criminalize the taking of photos of the gruesome situations and tortures that livestock animals are subjected to before they get on your dinner plate), showing the truth has become ILLEGAL. If you support the outlawing of telling of the truth or the showing of the truth, then do not call yourself a supporter of liberty, because you aren't.
If the French people cannot see how hideous this totalitarian tactic is and defend Le Pen (no matter their personal views concerning her policies), then they deserve everything that they will get by letting this continue, namely an overwhelming authoritarian regime that will find any way at its disposal to crush both the dissent of the people and their representatives. I saw similar tactics (though not legislative, and not this bad) used when Trump was running against Clinton, and that is one of the reasons why, although I had many problems with Trump, I voted for him. Sometimes true democracy (like a person having a fair shot at winning, and not being destroyed by entirely transparent tactics of the establishment) is more important than any specific policy stands. Both Trump and Le Pen have issues, but both are also some of the only people in power to have the guts to talk openly about certain problems. There is no doubt now that, if I were French or Dutch, I would vote for Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders, respectively. We cannot allow this violation of justice to stand. Europeans should support these people and get the laws changed so these kinds of politically-motivated totalitarian tactics can no longer be used and Europe can become free.
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