Frank Engel (PPE). - Madam President, one of the characteristics and maybe also one of the problems of liberal democracy, such as we know it in Europe, is that it allows the expression of opinion. It allows the expression of nearly every sort of opinion, up to the point where the bearers of certain opinions which are not particularly appetising might just start organising themselves in a manner which becomes intolerable to democracy.

This is what we have seen most recently in Greece; this is about considering violence as a legitimate means of political action; this is about considering a crisis as a welcome opportunity for revolutionary social behaviour which will result ultimately in death – as it has done.

And it is not a phenomenon that applies uniquely to Greece, because I happen to remember that just after the leadership of Chrysi Avgi were arrested, the leadership of the British National Party and some weird esoterical club called The National Revival of Poland expressed their solidarity towards the leadership of Chrysi Avgi.

So we seem to be witnessing across Europe a trend which says: if nothing else helps, violence will. This is something that the democratic states and the democratic institutions of a united Europe will have to counteract with all the means at their disposal. We only have the law; we only have the strength of the law. But we need the full strength of all the laws in order to counteract this phenomenon which will ultimately put the cohesion of our societies at existential risk.