Rik Daems, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, spells out the red lines no democracy should cross, even in a crisis – and warns that the COVID-19 emergency measures fast-tracked by governments around Europe should not become “the new normal”:
There’s an old proverb that says a healthy person has a thousand wishes, but a sick person has only one. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought with it a terrible clarity: each of us wants safety and good health for ourselves and our loved ones.
The response to Coronavirus is testing each of us individually, our families, our governments, our economies and our societies in ways many of us have never seen.
Almost overnight, government has become everybody’s immediate business. Politics is suddenly very up close and personal. Politicians and officials are scrambling to respond to the first duty of any government: to protect the public and save lives. But it is precisely in times of trouble that the basic wiring of a state is put most severely to the test. As the lockdowns bite, and the emergency measures take effect, are we continuing to get right the age-old balance between security and liberty?
Read the full statement - COVID-19: 'Let’s not normalise the abnormal'
