Sixteen years ago, on Liberation Day, I packed all my belongings in an old BMW I’d bought off a friend for 300 Euro and drove to Ireland, into a new future. It was exciting, a little scary, but mostly exhilarating. Much more than moving out from my parents’ house, a few years earlier, this felt like a liberation. Like love, freedom comes in many shapes and forms. The freedom to go to sleep and wake up, or when to have dinner is one thing. Quite different is the freedom to travel across borders without needing a passport, to settle in another country and work there without having to file a complicated working visa application. That again is quite another thing than being able to say and write what you want without the fear of an oppressive regime.
Sixteen years ago, on Liberation Day, I packed all my belongings in an old BMW I’d bought off a friend for 300 Euro and drove to Ireland, into a new future. It was exciting, a little scary, but mostly exhilarating. Much more than moving out from my parents’ house, a few years earlier, this felt like a liberation. Like love, freedom comes in many shapes and forms. The freedom to go to sleep and wake up, or when to have dinner is one thing. Quite different is the freedom to travel across borders without needing a passport, to settle in another country and work there without having to file a complicated working visa application. That again is quite another thing than being able to say and write what you want without the fear of an oppressive regime.
We owe a lot to the French when it comes to these liberties. The French led the way with “Liberté, égalité, fraternité” during the French revolution and, later, made important contributions to the (founding of) the European Union. Today, I can’t reminisce my journey across Belgium and northern France without also thinking about the little revolution that took place in France yesterday. Emmanuel Macron, until two years ago a political nobody, has won the presidential vote at the expense of the far-right Marine Le Pen. If she had won, she could have become a serious threat to the European project, the liberty of the French people and (indirectly) everyone else in Europe. Luckily, common sense prevailed among the French.. for now. The sweetness of her defeat has a sour after-taste when you realize her party has gained a lot of traction, similar to the rise of Geert Wilders in the Netherlands and populist movements elsewhere in Europe.
While we celebrate the victory of Macron, we should continue to remember that liberty, in all its shapes and forms, is a fragile commodity, easily overturned by figures like Marine Le Pen, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Adolf Hitler. It’s important to protect our liberties, not just on liberation day but every day, and to never ever take them for granted! In a way, Le Pen & co, are still a threat, but only if we let them!