Democracy “light” a result of broken Promises

Decades of unresolved promises made by the democratic forces have led to the emergence of more and more people. The success of authoritarian and illiberal politics in Europe, therefore, can not be attributed solely to propagandist attitudes. In Fresach, experts analyzed the concept of right-wing populist politics to position themselves as a patron of protection…

Freedom of Thought, Habitat of Grace

“Freedom can exist in a country only if it is also a paradise for heretics.” With this remarkable sentence, the Protestant bishop Michael Bünker opened the European Tolerance Talks in 2017, which also included the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. However, liberty in Luther’s time had a completely different meaning and would probably not be…

Barazon: Political education more important than ever

Freedom is being challenged daily anywhere in the world, not only in far-off countries, but in the middle of Europe, as recent developments in Poland and Hungary show. More urgent than ever, therefore, we need political education as an obligatory teaching subject to consolidate democratic consciousness. Ronald Barazon, the disputable chief editor, said this in…

Opening of the Citizens’ Dialogue

The presentation of the European Tolerance Talks 2017 on 24 January in the mirror room of the Carinthian provincial government in Klagenfurt was the prelude to the new “Citizens’ Dialogue on Freedom and Democracy”. Villach’s mayor and sponsor of the event pointed to the historic importance of his city in the struggle against paternalism and…

Talking about Freedom and Democracy

Does freedom need democracy? And what is freedom worth if decade’s value building and systems collapse. What happens when long-standing traditions are thrown overboard or hard-won human rights are abandoned voluntarily on the Internet? These and other questions were discussed within the program preview of the European Tolerance Talks 2017 on 18 January in Vienna…

The Lion of Cameroon in Fresach

Three years he sat in prison, just because he had dared to compete against President Paul Biya who is in power since 1982. Since May, he is now on the loose. The weekend he was in Austria to fulminate against the corrupt political caste in his country Cameroon. When asked whether he will rise despite…