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European climate science dissenters beware.

Recall how the effort in the US of some 20 attorneys general to silence climate skeptics backfired. In the story the attorney generals wanted to go after oil companies and think tanks because the scientific views they held differed from their own.

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Well, in Europe it is not just a group of activist attorneys general who are calling for silencing dissent, but the EU itself!

According to Deutsche Wirtschaftsnachrichten – DWN – (German Business News), “The EU is planning penalties for parties that do not represent ‘the values of the EU“.

The move is apparently in response to the rising wave of right wing parties currently sweeping across Europe – especially Austria, which saw a right wing figure almost winning national Presidential elections last Sunday. Europe’s established parties are spooked, and they aren’t coping well with growing opposition and voter dissatisfaction. Their latest solution: to punish it.

A number of EU parliament leaders apparently believe that political parties should not provide a platform for citizens to express their dissatisfaction with failing EU policies. The proposal has been floated by the EU socialists, led by EU Parliament President Martin Schulz and Denmark’s Helle Thorning-Schmidt. The aim, according to DWN, is to prevent “rightwing radical or foreigner-hostile” being represented in the EU Parliament.

Of course the exclusion of radicalism always appears to be a noble cause at first glance, but achieving it by regulation as some leading WU parliamentarians are proposing opens up very dangerous doors to abuse. It would be the first major step to dictating speech and opinion, and that on a continent that likes to claim it protects. The move would be a threat to anyone holding a different opinion on controversial EU issues like energy, fiscal policy, social orientation, economics and immigration.

Skeptics of climate science could be targeted

The proposal reveals the EU’s growing discomfort with the democratically and legitimately led opposition. Brussels is in fact (unwittingly) sending a terrible message: Democracy is okay, but only if you agree with us. That’s arrogance, and it should be no surprise voters are punishing the established politicians by voting against them. These people seem to think dissenters are need of upbringing.

Deny funding to parties

The proposal calls for punishing political parties that don’t conform to EU norms by denying them EU party funding. Parties would only get money if they agreed with the opinions of the money givers.

Fortunately, many established politicians, even Green ones, are able to see the plan for what it is, and are against it. EU Green parliamentarian Nicholas Villumsen told: “That would be like the Parliament imposing penalties against parties with wrong opinions. It is very worrisome that the European Parliament wishes to punish parties for their views,” the DWN quotes.

So it starts. What’s next?

Punishing the Catholic Church for its views on gay marriage and abortion?

The fining of climate “deniers”?

The DWN comments:

In fact such a regulation is very dangerous. It opens the door and gate to pressure opinion. […] In a tense crisis climate, EU critics could be forcibly silenced with such an EU rule. The right to freedom of expression can be suppressed with such a regulation. […] The enforcement of belief to ‘values’ is undemocratic. It is the first step to a totalitarian system.”

Obviously for the socialists in power in Brussels, that is precisely the idea. They can’t win the debates on the merits of their arguments, so they resort to the very radical right-wing type authoritarian measures they proclaim to fear and from which we need to be protected.