Source: ABC
Berlin, July 27 (EFE).- The NGO World Liberty Congress or ‘World Congress for Freedom’, co-founded by Venezuelan Leopoldo López, Iranian Masih Alinejad and Russian Garry Kasparov, inaugurated its European headquarters in Berlin this Monday. The opening of the organization’s European offices is “a giant step” for the organization, López said in the presentation of the headquarters.
Leopoldo López: Together with Garry Kasparov, from Russia; Masih Alinejad, from Iran; and myself, from Venezuela, four years ago we had an idea. The idea was simple: democracy and freedom were losing ground around the world. During the last twenty years there has been more and more autocracy. Every year there is less freedom in the world. Fifteen years ago, 40% of the population lived under an autocracy. Today, 75% of the world’s population lives under some kind of autocratic regime. Our idea was simple: the autocrats work together. And they do not work together for ideology, but for power and control, having democracy and freedom as a common enemy. And we understood that those of us who believe in freedom should also work together. We come from the front line, from prisons, from the streets and from the hope of millions of people who want to be free. In 2024 we received an invitation from the city of Berlin to come here and celebrate the fall of the wall. The fall of the wall is not a thing of the past. It’s not a history lesson we should learn. It’s the present. It is the present for us in Venezuela, Iran, Russia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Cuba and Nicaragua. The fall of the wall is the most important and symbolic image that those who fight for freedom around the world have today. The women of Iran want to break down the wall of discrimination against women. The people of Venezuela want to break down the wall of the dictatorship. Last year the first Berlin Freedom Week was held. Today we are opening our offices here in Berlin. And this is a huge step for us, because it gives us presence and also provides us with solidarity and alliances with our partners for Berlin Freedom Week. It motivates people here in Berlin, in Europe, but it is also a symbol for the people who fight in each of our countries that freedom can be achieved, that walls can be torn down and that people can keep their hope for freedom alive. Berlin is sending a clear message to Germany, Europe and the world that freedom is something we must fight for every day. And what happened last weekend was a reminder of it.
Masih Alinejad: In democracies many people wonder why they should care about what happens in Iran? What happened in Berlin broke my heart. A woman died in the heart of Europe. Dictators are not only a threat to those of us who live under authoritarian regimes; they are the greatest threat to democracy. The terrorist attack has a name: Islamist terrorism. The German government is thinking of giving an embassy to the Taliban. Iran’s terrorist regime has its embassy. This is the time to stop funding all Islamic centers linked to the Islamic Revolution in Iran, because German taxpayers should not finance terrorism. Unfortunately, dictators are more united than democratic countries.
