Dr. Berbel Koffler is a German
Bundestag Deputy from
Bavaria and the Head of the German-Ukrainian
Parliamentary Group in German Bundestag.
She was born in 1967 in Freilassing
and worked as a bank clerk. She graduated from the
Saltsburg
University majoring in Russian and Spanish. In
1991 she entered the Social-Democratic Party of Germany. In 1998 she became a
Doctor of Philosophy and was teaching German language in
Moscow. Since 2004 Ms. Koffler is a
Bundestag Deputy.
On
28
September 2008 the elections to the Landtag will also take place in
Bavaria, the largest in territory and one
of the most economically developed lands in
Germany. The Free State of Bavaria (which
is its full title according to its Constitution) has been ruled by the
Christian-Social Union (regional, conservative, famous for its right-wing
tendencies Party) for almost half a century. A Social-Democrat, Barbel Koffler
is looking forward to changes to take place in her homeland
Bavaria. She is very attracted by
Belarus and expresses great interest about
the situation in
Belarus.
Q: “Ms.
Koffler, why do you pay so much attention to elections? What do you expect from
it? What parallels could be drawn between the Elections to the Landtag of
Bavaria and the Parliamentary Elections in
Belarus?”
A: “I think
that in general terms, the elections should represent a competition of the best
ideas. And as a result of this election competition, it should become clear
what ideas are considered as the best by the people. Therefore there should be
an opportunity to compare platforms of a variety of candidates and parties in
order to realize what they have to offer to the electorate. I am convinced that
the democratic countries should go through changes and that the leadership
should change. It is all due to the fact that the democracy exists only because
of the changes, i.e. when the new ideas receive a chance to be implemented via
the Parliament”.
Q: “As you
are well aware, the European Union has set up the 12 conditions for
Belarus. One of the most important among
them is to hold transparent, fair and democratic elections. The Parliamentary
elections in
Belarus will be monitored by the observers
of an influential European organization, the Office for Democratic Institutions
and Human Rights of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in
Europe. Do you have a feeling that these
elections will be assessed as democratic and transparent?”
A: “I
always hope for democracy. There is hope this time as well. In the recent past
we could observe that many people in
Belarus were engaged into the fight for
democracy. Whether the elections will be assessed as democratic from the OSCE
side, would depend completely on the election process per se and on the course
of this process in
Belarus. In compliance with our
understanding in Europe, democratic elections, first of all, are the elections
based on a competition between election campaigns of candidates, their wide and
objective reporting by the media, equal access of by democratic candidates to
the Media, so that anyone who is competing to become a Deputy could have an
opportunity to deliver his or her point of view to the electorate. These are
the criteria for assessing the elections as free, transparent and democratic.
All that is in the hands of
Belarus”.
Q: “It seems that the democratic
Europe is so large and
Belarus is a rather small country. Why is
there such interest of Europeans to this small country where political
situation has not changed for the past 14 years and the situation with the elections,
the Media and the Human Rights is only deteriorating?”
A: “Naturally, there is a huge
interest from the European side towards
Belarus due to the fact that the processes
ongoing in
Europe at the moment are strongly
interrelated. Since the times when the Cold war came to an end, we realized clearly
that
Europe extends beyond
Western Europe. Indeed, we should be interested in
our neighbours, because the situation existing on the territory of our
neighbours may significantly influence our lifestyle. Everything is
interrelated in civil, political and humanitarian fields. Therefore in
Europe in general, as well as in
Germany in particular there is great
interest in our European neighbour,
Belarus”.
Q: “In your opinion, what kind of
information do Europeans lack regarding
Belarus and the processes taking place
there?”
A: “I think we are not talking about
the lack of information here, there is enough information. We are more
concerned about other issues, such as non-compliance by this country with its
elementary obligations which the Belarusian authorities have to fulfill. For
instance, it concerns non-compliance with the clauses of the International
Convention of the International Labour Organisation regarding activities of
free trade unions.
Belarus signed the Convention however has
not made any progress in this regard. In the meantime the most important thing
is not what is written on the paper but whether the obligations are implemented
in reality, i.e. not reported information but practical implementation. There
is lack of implementation in Belarus”.
Ludmila Korsak
info@eurobelarus.info
