Society

This is not to say that the gun debate ends here for me. It doesn’t. It actually starts here.

Ukrainians today are more serious about liberal democracy than many Europeans have been for a long time. The traditional values of Europe – self-reliance, self-determination – today are much stronger in the Maidan square than in parts of, say, Greece.

Here you are - XXI century, modern-day Poland: the smartest minds of the Catholic Church care about preventing the spread of the disease called gender theory, or as they refer to it – gender ideology, as they proclaim it is not compatible with the scientific standards at all.

We should fight for a European Bill of Rights, which is the European Convention on Human Rights, and declare this to be our minimal standards for the democratic society we are constructing in Europe.

The Kremlin’s influence has always been a reality. It is naive to negate it.

The answer is quite clear: one of the core concepts of any political philosophy which deserves to be called “liberal” is “self-ownership”.

And, last but not least, the virtues of a free and liberal democratic society must be accepted – irrespective of religious or political creed, colour or race. On the other hand: cultural and social specificity and diversity must be respected.

That brings me to my main point; the biggest threat to Europe is economic populism. The European debt crisis has proved what should have been clear much earlier.

Tonight I would like to draw your attention to the classical liberal conception of the human being. For the sake of wider recognition, I would like to refer to British thinkers such as John Locke, David Hume and Adam Smith.

Is it true that racism is not so common a problem in Western Europe? Is it better - despite the legal situation - to be gay in Paris than in Warsaw?