towards a better Europe   Return to the archives list Where is Liberty? Most European school children have perhaps been struck by the image of Liberty in the painting, La Liberté guidant le peuple, by the French artist Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863). This painting was meant to celebrate the movement when the people rose up in July 1830 to dethrone the monarchy. This painting is considered by many to constitute a political poster. When it was completed and shown in 1830, it unsettled many*. It shows Liberty as a woman, leading the people. Her half-draped form wearing the traditional cap of liberty, holding a gun in one hand and the tricolor in the other. But there is another, more profound sense to this picture. It is Liberty, the embodyment of freedom, the desire for freedom, is that which leads people to resist and break those constraints which would limit freedoms, it leads people, eventually to do away with tyrants whose power rests upon the suppression of liberty. We have to ask today, where is Liberty? Is she the same young woman, as that depicted on the barricades? Perhaps now more concerned with wearing her chique jeans and spending time in the malls and chatting to her friends; and why not? Does she share her world and intimacies in the magic of having someone who loves and respects her? We sincerely hope so. But in enjoying our relative peace and comfortable standards of living, has the European population become oblivious of the importance of maintaining and actively working to increase their freedom by following Liberty? Europe has become emersed in an institutional grid lock in which we find the first seeds of a return to tyranny. Secretive and exclusive institutions unwilling to share information, top down elitist "planning", power being increasingly handed to unelected officials, smaller countries becoming micro-minorities and even larger ones becoming minorities. The brave expanding Europe "qualifying" yet others for entry based upon a ratification of a tick list of regulations and laws developed by unelected officials. Progress reports on candidate countries which selectively omit horrendous human rights abuse. And in all of this, no involvement of the people. Has anyone really posed the question to the people of Europe, "What is your will?" Such questions are only asked when those in power trust the people. Such questions are only asked when people who elect others to govern are truly free. Such questions are only asked when people, all people, share liberty. This theatre of the writing of a Constitution in the absense of the people is an outstanding example of Europe's lack of Liberty. Before asking, what should we place in the Constitution, we should first of all ask, where is Liberty? When she comes and says, "here I am!", and we, the people of Europe, see that she is well, then all of us with contented mind, confident of our common purpose, can sit down and write a Constitution. * The three days of July 1830, were known as the Trois Glorieuses, which saw out the autocracy of Charles X and brought in Louis-Philippe's parlementary monarchy. Disliked by conservatives, the work was bought by Louis-Philippe at the 1831 Salon. Soon after, it was hidden for fear of inciting public unrest.