Why I Am Supporting the Demokratesch Partei

 

Note: In October 2023, I moved from the United States of America to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. While I hope these articles universally promote the principles of liberty, the expectation is that the context will still be American-centric, though I will delve into European politics at times.

Every five years, citizens of the European Union (“EU”) will vote for individuals to represent them in the EU parliament. The elections will take place from June 6 – 9, 2024 and over seven hundred representatives (“Members of the EU Parliament” or “MEPs”) will be elected from twenty-seven countries.

While I am not an EU citizen and cannot vote in such elections, they are still important to me because my new home, Luxembourg, is one of those countries and, as such, the policies and laws adopted by the EU have a direct impact upon my individual rights.

For the protection of such rights, I will be supporting the Luxembourg Demokratesch Partei (“DP”) and its slate of candidates, for the following reasons.

Without a doubt, of primary importance in this election is the protection of democratic forms of government. Governments derived from the consent of the governed, under which individuals are protected by law, are under assault on two fronts: externally by a wide array of collectivist regimes (nationalist Russia in particular, with communist China and North Korea, theological totalitarianism Iran, and others waiting in the wings) and internally by the resurgence of religious nationalism.

The DP stands on the right side of this issue within the current context. They support the EU, NATO, and victory over Russia. They support the fundamental concepts of democracy and the rule of law. Candidates who agree with these principles are the ones who should be in the parliament advocating for them.

The DP is a European liberal party (for my American friends, European liberalism is different than American liberalism). On many social issues, they support the right of individuals, such as allowing those who wish to live a better life in a better place to immigrate to such place.

There are, of course, differences between my ideology and that of the DP’s. To the extent that laissez-faire capitalism (which I advocate) can be described as classical liberalism, I am a classical liberal and, while the DP is a liberal party, the DP is more moderate when it comes to economic policies.

However, like the United States, there are no political parties within Luxembourg which I perfectly align with ideologically. This is to be expected, as a political party is an organization whose primary purpose is to elect candidates to office who support similar goals based on similar principles. Putting together a winning electorate who are aligned perfectly on all things is an extremely rare feat.

Within the context of Luxembourg, the DP’s principles and mine are the closest and there is enough common ground that, to the extent that their positions and mine align – and to the extent their candidates continue to demonstrate the virtues of honesty and integrity and show no penchant for lusting after power – they will have my support.