SAARBRUECKEN, Germany: The leaders of Germany and France marked the 35th anniversary of Germany’s democratic reunification on Friday (Oct 3) by calling for more resolve to check the spreading appeal of what they called the “dark enlightenment” of authoritarianism.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron said Europe must do more to counter illiberal, anti-immigrant parties surging in opinion polls, in part by bolstering the continent’s flagging economy.
“DARK ENLIGHTENMENT”
“New alliances of autocracies are forming against us and attacking liberal democracy as a way of life,” Macron told an audience of dignitaries from both countries in Saarbruecken on Germany’s border with France.
“In the face of the return of the dark enlightenment … there is a path to a new enlightenment,” Macron said, “a way to love culture, music, literature, conversation and debate, to believe that respect and science are stronger than hate and fury”.
He was echoing remarks by Merz, who had earlier warned that economic troubles across the European Union were giving openings to far-right nationalist parties offering radical solutions at odds with democracy.
“Years of irregular, undirected migration to Germany have polarised our country,” Merz said, asking its citizens to recognise the value of living in a democracy under rule of law.
“Politics, the state, the government have their responsibility,” he said. “But the scale of the challenge must be understood by us all, by every citizen in our country.”
Source: CNA
