Jürgen Rüttgers

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jürgen Rüttgers, 2010

Jürgen Anton Rüttgers (born June 26, 1951 in Cologne ) is a German lawyer , honorary professor and politician ( CDU ). From June 22, 2005 to July 14, 2010, he was the ninth Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia . From November 17, 1994 to October 27, 1998, Rüttgers was Federal Minister for Education, Science, Research and Technology in Kohl's fifth cabinet .

life and career

education and profession

Jürgen Rüttgers was born the son of a master electrician. Rüttgers attended the Richeza elementary school in Brauweiler . In his youth he was a member of the German Scouting Association St. Georg . In 1961 he moved to the Apostle High School in Cologne-Lindenthal. After graduating from high school in 1969, Rüttgers began studying law and history , which he completed in 1975 with the first state examination and in 1978 with the second state examination . He is a member of the student association KDSt.V. Rappoltstein (Strasbourg) Cologne in the CV . In 1979 he was at the University of Cologne after presenting a paper on the prohibition of party political activity in operation for Dr. iur. PhD . From 1978 to 1980 he worked as a consultant for the Association of Cities and Towns in North Rhine-Westphalia . From 1980 to 1987 he was First Deputy Mayor of the city of Pulheim for urban development , finance and environmental protection . Rüttgers is chairman of the board of trustees of the Foundation Weiter See in the trusteeship of africa action / Germany (formerly ghana action ). This foundation was co-founded by him in 2002. Its main goal is to promote aid for people with eye diseases and handicaps in Africa as well as the training of local specialists for the prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of those in need.

In March 2011, Rüttgers started to work as an Of Counsel at the Düsseldorf office of the law firm Beiten Burkhardt. Since the summer semester 2011 he has been a lecturer at the University of Bonn , and since 2013 honorary professor at the Maastricht School of Management. In 2014 he was awarded an honorary professorship by the University of Bonn and has been teaching at the Institute for Political Science and Sociology since then . Rüttgers has been a member of the board of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation since July 2011 .

Political career

Rüttgers at a young age, pictured on a CDU advertising poster from 2007

Rüttgers has been a member of the CDU since 1970. From 1975 to 1980 he was a member of the Pulheim Council . From 1980 to 1986 he was state chairman of the Junge Union Rheinland . From 1981 to 2010 he was a full member of the state board of the CDU North Rhine-Westphalia . In 1985 he was elected chairman of the CDU district association Erftkreis, now the Rhein-Erft district , and in 1993 he was elected deputy chairman of the CDU North Rhine-Westphalia. From 1987 to 2000 Rüttgers was a member of the German Bundestag . He became chairman of the Commission of Inquiry "technology assessment and evaluation". Afterwards he was parliamentary managing director from 1989 and from 1991 to 1994 first parliamentary managing director of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group , whereby his "friendly and fine manner" is said to have deceived some opponents. After the federal election in 1998 , he was elected deputy chairman of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group. In this function, he was the successor to Rupert Scholz and was responsible for domestic and legal policy. Rüttgers was last drawn into the German Bundestag (14th electoral term in 1998) via the state list of North Rhine-Westphalia. In his publication "Dinosaurier der Demokratie" (1993) he developed concrete proposals for the self-circumcision of the parties in favor of civic self-organization and control. After Norbert Bluem's resignation as state chairman, the CDU North Rhine-Westphalia elected him as his successor in 1999. From April 2000 to November 2010 he was also one of four deputy federal chairmen of the CDU.

From 2000 to 2012 Rüttgers was a member of the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia . He served as chairman of the CDU parliamentary group from 2000 to 2005 and was thus opposition leader in the state parliament. In 2000 he entered the state parliament via the state list of his party, and in the state elections in 2005 and 2010 he won his constituency Rhein-Erft-Kreis I (Bedburg, Bergheim, Elsdorf and Pulheim) directly. In 2012 he stopped running for his constituency.

Minister for Education, Science, Research and Technology (1994–1998)

After the federal election in 1994 , Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl appointed Jürgen Rüttgers as Federal Minister for Education, Science, Research and Technology to be a member of the Federal Government and thus to the Kohl V cabinet on November 17, 1994 . Rüttgers had made educational and research policy proposals even before the election. So he propagated the idea of ​​founding a "German Academy for Science and Technology".

The newly created office from the amalgamation of the Federal Ministry of Education and Science and the Federal Ministry of Research and Technology was called the Ministry of the Future. At that time, Rüttgers described educational policy as the best social provision in the 21st century. During his term of office, among other things, the Bafög reform of 1995 falls. The master BAföG was introduced, allowances and requirement rates were raised, the maximum BAföG rate was set at 1050 DM. In 1997, together with the federal states, he tried to reform the university framework law , which, among other things, provided for a stronger evaluation of research and teaching, redefinitions of the standard period of study , the introduction of bachelor and master degrees and pedagogical aptitude tests for professors. The SPD-dominated Federal Council rejected this student loan reform in 1998. Irrespective of this rejection, the “Fourth Act to Amend the University Framework Act” came into force on August 20, 1998 (BGBl. 1998, p. 2190 ff.). By 1998 the education and research budget rose to DM 14.95 billion. The areas of biotechnology, communication technology and environmental research were given special support. Rüttgers initiated the IuKDG (Information and Telecommunications Services Act), which includes provisions on data protection , secure online payments and the protection of minors . He positioned himself as a committed advocate of biotechnology ; his ministry made around DM 900 million available annually for research. After losing the 1998 general election , he left the government on October 26, 1998.

CDU state chairman and opposition leader in North Rhine-Westphalia (1999-2005)

After the federal election on September 27, 1998 (after 16 years the Kohl era ended) there were personnel changes in many parties. Rüttgers (he had been Federal Research Minister in Kohl V's cabinet ) turned to state politics in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). After a vote against Helmut Linssen on January 29, 1999, he became chairman of the CDU NRW , succeeding Norbert Blüm , who had not sought re-election after 12 years in this office. On October 22, 1998, Rüttgers was also elected one of the deputy chairmen of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group. In April 2000 he was elected one of the CDU's deputy federal chairmen. In the state elections on May 14, 2000 , Rüttgers stood as the CDU's top candidate for the office of Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia ; the CDU received only 37% of the vote. The CDU election campaign was burdened by the CDU donation affair that became known from November 1999 . In North Rhine-Westphalia, Rüttgers was committed to a value-based concept for biotechnology and genetic engineering and thematized issues of labor and social policy . In April 2003 he was re-elected as chairman of the CDU NRW with 83.5% of the vote.

Prime Minister in North Rhine-Westphalia (2005-2010)

Rüttgers speaks at the Congress of the European People's Party (2009)
Rüttgers at the opening of the new Essen Ruhr Museum (2010)

After the CDU emerged as the winner of the state elections on May 22, 2005 and had worked out a coalition agreement with the FDP , Jürgen Rüttgers was elected Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia on June 22, 2005. This ended the SPD's 39-year reign in Germany's most populous federal state. As Prime Minister, Rüttgers demanded that the CDU should orient itself more towards employee interests. Rüttgers was then referred to as an "employee leader" in the CDU. His move received much approval, but criticism was voiced within the party. His re-election as deputy party chairman at the federal party conference in Dresden was therefore extremely poor with 57.7%. His proposal for a staggered extension of the payment of unemployment benefits, especially for older unemployed, prevailed in the grand coalition and was approved in November 2007.

Rüttgers brokered the coal compromise , which regulates a socially acceptable dismantling of the subsidized mining of hard coal in Germany by 2018. In 2009 Rüttgers successfully fought for the Opel workforce and against the possible closure of the Opel plant in Bochum. In view of the financial market crisis , Rüttgers called for a return to the social market economy .

In the 2009 election campaign, he provoked with derogatory remarks about Romanian workers.

For the state elections in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2010 , Rüttgers again ran as the top candidate for the CDU. After his CDU / FDP government lost its majority in the state parliament, no party succeeded in negotiating coalition between the election and the constituent session of the new state parliament, so that initially no new government could be elected. According to Art. 62 Paragraph 2 ( “The office of the Prime Minister and the Minister ends in any case with the meeting of a new Landtag […]” ) and Art. 62 Paragraph 3 ( “In the event of [the] termination of the office, the Members of the state government to continue their office until the successor takes office. ” ) Of the state constitution , Rüttgers continued government business with the meeting of the new state parliament on June 9, 2010 and until Hannelore Kraft (SPD) was elected Prime Minister on July 14, 2010.

On June 18, 2010, after a meeting of the CDU state executive in Düsseldorf, Rüttgers announced that he would no longer run for prime minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and that he also did not want to become head of the CDU parliamentary group. On June 24, 2010, he announced his retirement from all political offices.

Private

Rüttgers is Roman Catholic , has been married since 1982 and has three sons. The family lives in Pulheim . He is a member of the Catholic student association KDSt.V. Rappoltstein Strasbourg to Cologne in the CV.

Political positions and controversies

Before the state elections in 2000 , Rüttgers sparked discussions with the election campaign slogan " Children instead of Indians ", which was attributed to him and which was intended to illustrate a preference of the CDU in favor of promoting young children rather than immigrating foreigners. Foreign IT specialists, especially from India, should be invited to Germany using the green card introduced by the red-green federal government . The background to this was an interview (by the AP news agency , published in the WAZ on March 8, 2000) in which he said: " Instead of Indians to computers, our children have to use computers ." This then became the headline " CDU politicians: Children instead of Indians to the computer ", which was reduced to the slogan " Children instead of Indians " and then adopted by the Republicans in the 2000 state election campaign.

At the CDU's 2006 policy conference, Rüttgers said that jobs cannot be automatically created by lowering taxes. Rüttgers called on the CDU to say goodbye to “neoliberal lies in life”, including the belief that further tax breaks for companies would automatically lead to more jobs. Because of these statements, Rüttgers was criticized by party friends, but also supported, for example by Heiner Geißler . In his pamphlet “ The market economy must remain social ” published on September 13, 2007, Rüttgers renewed his theses and criticized, among other things, the immigration policy of the grand coalition.

Rüttgers described Romanian workers as lazy and unreliable at two election campaign events in August and September 2009 before the 2009 federal election. After the publication of relevant excerpts from the speech, Rüttgers apologized.

Monitoring of the SPD opposition leader Hannelore Kraft in September 2009 led to renewed allegations. First it was claimed that the CDU NRW had Kraft monitored by a professional company via video. Then it became known that this surveillance was coordinated from the State Chancellery .

Sponsorship affair

On February 20, 2010, Spiegel-Online reported that the party headquarters of the NRW-CDU had offered companies, associations and other potential sponsors for their party convention in March 2010 so-called “partner packages in advertising letters , with which they could also rent exhibition space were able to arrange confidential talks with members of the state government. For example, a 20,000 euro partner package included a stand of up to 15 square meters in the anteroom of the party conference hall for 14,000 euros, then - for an additional charge of 6,000 euros - a visit by the prime minister with a "one-on-one" meeting at this stand, including a photo session. In addition, a seat could be bought at Rüttger's table for dinner. Fees for information stands (at party conventions) were also common among the other parties (except for the Left Party ) - but at a much lower rate and without the offer of one-on-one meetings. Due to the considerable amount of the amounts and the confidential talks promised for them, it was suspected that this was an attempt to circumvent the provisions of the law on political parties (party law) in order to allow the CDU to receive covert - illegal - party donations. The party lawyer Martin Morlok was of the opinion: “Selling talk time would be a violation of the law on political parties. ... This can be seen as a prohibited donation. "

On February 21, 2010, Prime Minister Rüttgers distanced himself from the advertising letters from his party headquarters and stated that he had not known anything about the advertising for sponsors. He had therefore "instructed his General Secretary Hendrik Wüst to end this immediately." He added: "In the past there have been no individual discussions in this connection."

In 2004 Der Spiegel reported on an invitation to a company presentation at the “1. Future Congress "of the NRW-CDU that year in Bonn. At the time, the sponsorship package for 14,000 euros included a “roadshow” in which Rüttgers, as the top candidate of the NRW CDU, would visit the sponsor company's stand.

Hendrik Wüst took over responsibility for the advertising letters and resigned from his position. Rüttgers asserted that he had no knowledge of such letters, but admitted that the affair had damaged the CDU in the state election campaign. He proposed Andreas Krautscheid as the new General Secretary.

Donation affair

The initiative “ Voters for Change ” collected money for posters and newspaper advertisements during the NRW state parliament election campaign in 2005 for the benefit of the opposition candidate Rüttgers. According to NRW-CDU General Secretary Andreas Krautscheid , his party was involved in the plans, founding and work of the initiative at a very early stage of the election campaign, which appeared to the outside world as independent. At the turn of the year 2004/2005, the NRW-CDU had signed a contract worth 40,000 euros with the Frankfurt communications agency Equipe, which ran for a period of six months. Equipe should set up and organize the voter initiative and supervise its work.

Since the voter initiative did not act independently, the income of around 31,000 euros should have been declared as income for the NRW-CDU, but did not appear in the NRW-CDU's 2005 report, although the initiative sent all its files, including accounting documents, to the party headquarters. The Bundestag administration issued a notice of a fine of 62,000 euros against the CDU for violating the party law.

honors and awards

Publications

  • More democracy in Germany . B&S Siebenhaar Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-943132-58-8
  • More Democracy in Europe - The Truth About Europe's Future Tectum Verlag, Marburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-8288-3806-2
  • What the digitization of the world means politically. In: Hubert Burda, Mathias Döpfner, Bodo Hombach, Jürgen Rüttgers (eds.): 2020 - thoughts on the future of the internet. Klartext, Essen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8375-0376-0 .
  • Jürgen Rüttgers (Ed.): Berlin is not Weimar: On the future of the people's parties. Klartext, Essen 2009, ISBN 978-3-8375-0290-9 .
  • Jürgen Rüttgers (Ed.): Who pays the bill? Ways out of the crisis. Klartext, Essen 2009, ISBN 978-3-8375-0196-4 .
  • The market economy must remain social: a pamphlet. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-462-03931-3 .
  • What is it about today? Bastei Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 2005, ISBN 3-404-60557-8 .
  • Turning point, turning point. The year 2000 project: the knowledge society. Siedler Verlag, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-88680-678-2 .
  • Dinosaurs of Democracy: Ways Out of the Party Crisis and Disenchantment with Politics. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1993, ISBN 3-455-08474-5 .
  • Jürgen Rüttgers, Eduard Oswald (Hrsg.): Protecting the unborn life: The Union in the debate of the German Bundestag on June 25, 1992. CDU / CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag, Bonn 1992.
  • Europe's Paths into Space: Programs - Protests - Predictions. Umschau Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1989, ISBN 3-524-69084-X .
  • Jürgen Rüttgers (Ed.): 40 years of the Young Union of Rhineland: History of a political youth association. Koenig, Bergisch Gladbach 1986, ISBN 3-923248-07-5 .
  • Siegfried Honert, Jürgen Rüttgers: State Water Act North Rhine-Westphalia: Comment. Deutscher Gemeindeverlag, Cologne 1981, ISBN 3-555-30191-8 ( Kommunale Schriften für Nordrhein-Westfalen. Vol. 42). 6th edition: Siegfried Honert, Jürgen Rüttgers, Joachim Sanden, Deutscher Gemeindeverlag, Cologne 1996, ISBN 3-555-30377-5 .
  • Siegfried Honert, Jürgen Rüttgers: ABC of wastewater tax: Enactment of the wastewater tax law in key words, taking into account the state implementation laws for administration and business. Deutscher Gemeindeverlag, Cologne 1983, ISBN 3-555-00409-3 .
  • The prohibition of party political activity in the company. Dissertation. Cologne 1979.

literature

Web links

Commons : Jürgen Rüttgers  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Institute for Political Science and Sociology University of Bonn Prof. Dr. Jürgen Rüttgers former Minister-President, former Federal Minister, lecturer at the Institute for Political Science and Sociology
  2. Constantin Magnis, Cicero March 2010: Juergen's small world. His path from rabbit-footed boy scout to prime minister. (Numerous photos in the print edition)
  3. a b c in-pulheim.de: Jürgen Rüttgers
  4. ^ Foundation africa action / Germany ( Memento of March 18, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  5. juve.de: February 28, 2011 Düsseldorf: Jürgen Rüttgers becomes of Counsel at Beiten Burkhardt
  6. http://idw-online.de/pages/de/news401712
  7. http://www.whoswho.de/bio/juergen-ruettgers.html
  8. Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung eV, members of the board, as of July 2011, http://www.kas.de/wf/de/71.4892/
  9. Expert for the future tense. The Bonn climber Jürgen Rüttgers amazes his surroundings with versatility . In: Der Spiegel . No. 47 , 1994, p. 24-27 ( Online - Nov. 21, 1994 ).
  10. ^ Frankfurter Rundschau, April 9, 1992
  11. Die Zeit: Let the citizen, what is of the citizen May 15, 1992.
  12. ^ Jürgen Rüttgers at the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia
  13. German Bundestag plenary proceedings 13/07 of 25 November 1994, http://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btp/13/13007.asc
  14. Jürgen Rüttgers, "The Responsibility of the People's Party", in: Bavarian Monthly Mirror No. 155, S23, http://issuu.com/bayerischer-monatsspiegel/docs/155
  15. ^ "Rüttgers: Master-Bafög from 1996 secures young skilled workers" ( Memento of September 21, 2003 in the Internet Archive ), in: Orthopädie-Technik 11/1995, p. 928.
  16. German Bundestag plenary proceedings 13/231 of 24 April 1998, http://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btp/13/13231.asc
  17. ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Budget of Section 30, Federal Ministry for Education, Science, Progress and Technology, 1998, p. 1215 ff. )@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.bundesfinanzministerium.de
  18. ^ "Jürgen Rüttgers - Lebensweg", portrait in the online newspaper, http://www.onlinezeitung.co/index.php?id=406
  19. landtag.nrw.de
  20. Zeit Online: " City of Extinguished Fires " from September 1, 2009.
  21. ^ Rüttgers splits the Union ”, in: DER SPIEGEL, October 20, 2007.
  22. ^ " Everything radiates to Rüttgers ", in: FAZ, February 9, 2007.
  23. ^ " For the time being no closure of Opel plants planned, Saab before bankruptcy ", in Wirtschaftswoche, February 19, 2009.
  24. ^ Election campaign: Rüttgers provoked with insulting Romanians , by Michael Schlieben, Die Zeit , September 4, 2009
  25. zeit.de from June 19, 2010: Rüttgers no longer wants to run for Prime Minister .
  26. Jürgen Rüttgers (CDU) says goodbye to politics Focus Online, June 25, 2010
  27. Ina Kerner: Differences and Power: To the anatomy of racism and sexism . Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-593-38595-2 , p. 343 f.]
  28. Heike Mayer: Rhetorical Competence: Basics and Application; with examples from Ahmadinejad to July Zeh , F. Schöningh, 2007, ISBN 978-3-8252-8361-2 , p. 162
  29. Volker Kronenberg : "Jürgen Rüttgers: A Political Biography" , Munich 2009, p. 149; Dirk Bitzer: " Biography of Jürgen Rüttgers " on geschichte.nrw.de from the State Center for Civic Education North Rhine-Westphalia , accessed on September 27, 2013; University of Tübingen: Children instead of Indians? ( Memento of October 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ).
  30. a b c CDU top Rüttgers buttons in: Spiegel-Online, August 22, 2006
  31. Stern: “Immigration does not solve the problem” .
  32. ^ Rüttgers after derogatory remarks about Romanians in the criticism ( Memento from September 11, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  33. Rüttgers' Prejudices - Lazy Romanians? ( Memento from September 11, 2012 in the web archive archive.today )
  34. wdr.de: Further allegations against Rüttgers (September 6, 2009)
  35. derwesten.de: Explosive e-mail exchange puts Rüttgers in trouble (September 24, 2009)
  36. ^ Spiegel-Online from February 20, 2010: Offer to sponsors. NRW-CDU sells meetings with Rüttgers .
  37. Spiegel-Online from February 22, 2010: NRW-CDU: Rüttgers comes in the partner package / photo series .
  38. Stern-Online from February 22, 2010: Sponsorship letter from the CDU in NRW: Rent a Rüttgers! .
  39. ^ Taz from February 22, 2010: Questionable CDU sponsorship. Intimate with Rüttgers for 6,000 euros .
  40. ^ Spiegel-Online from February 23, 2010: NRW state elections. SPD politicians are also being marketed .
  41. ^ Spiegel-Online from February 23, 2010: Rent-a-Rüttgers. In the shadowy realm of sponsorship .
  42. a b taz of February 22, 2010: Sponsoring affair about Rüttgers. Kicked out of office .
  43. s. also: German Bundestag. 27th meeting, March 4, 2010, plenary minutes 17/27, p. 2366 D - 2383 A: Additional item 2: Current hour at the request of the DIE LINKE parliamentary group: Donations and sponsorship practices by parties and the credibility of politics
  44. Wirtschaftswoche-Online from February 22, 2010: allegations of buyability. Rüttgers parted ways with CDU General Secretary Wüst .
  45. ^ German Bundestag. 27th meeting, March 4, 2010, minutes of the plenary session 17/27, p. 2366 D - 2383 A: Additional item 2: Current hour at the request of the DIE LINKE parliamentary group: Donation and sponsorship practice by parties and the credibility of politics; here: p. 2369.
  46. faz.net: Wüst resigns from February 22, 2010.
  47. ^ Spiegel-Online February 22, 2010: NRW Union. Sponsorship affair rattles Rüttgers the election campaign .
  48. Spiegel-Online from February 22, 2010: CDU General Secretary in North Rhine-Westphalia resigns due to sponsoring affair .
  49. Andrea Brandt, Jürgen Dahlkamp, ​​Konstantin von Hammerstein: Shadows of the Past . In: Der Spiegel . No. 18 , 2010, p. 18–22 ( online - May 3, 2010 , here: p. 19).
  50. ^ Spiegel-Online from May 1, 2010: Dubiose Wahlkampfgruppe. Red-green denounces the NRW CDU's financial trick .
  51. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung of May 1, 2010: Hidden party financing. NRW-CDU in need of explanation .
  52. Andrea Brandt, Jürgen Dahlkamp, ​​Konstantin von Hammerstein: Shadows of the Past . In: Der Spiegel . No. 18 , 2010, p. 18–22 ( online - May 3, 2010 , here: pp. 18–22).
  53. Detelef Burrichter: " Punishment for NRW-CDU ", in WA online, October 22, 2010
  54. List of award winners - website of the Düsseldorf Chamber of Crafts ( Memento of April 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on January 27, 2011
  55. DDP: Rüttgers receives craft price. In: Aachener Zeitung. November 18, 2004, accessed September 16, 2019 .
  56. ruhrnachrichten.de: Rüttgers appointed Commander of the Legion of Honor ( Memento of May 2, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) of October 3, 2008.
  57. Press release of the Order of Malta ( Memento of April 3, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) of March 31, 2009.
  58. Aachener Nachrichten / Dünnwald: Rüttgers becomes new AKV Knight of the Order , August 25, 2009. Aachener Zeitung / Kutsch, Esser: Rüttgers enters the fool's cage for the AKV ( Memento from July 21, 2012 in the archive.today web archive ), August 25 2009.
  59. derwesten.de: Carnival: Rüttgers receives the medal "Against animal seriousness" .
  60. ^ Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands: Jürgen Rüttgers appointed Grand Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau. (No longer available online.) July 13, 2010, archived from the original on January 27, 2012 ; Retrieved July 17, 2010 .
  61. State Parliament internal 9/2015, p. 19
  62. Extract from More Democracy in Europe