Dr. Berbel Koffler is a German Bundestag Deputy from Bavaria and the Head of the German-Ukrainian Parliamentary Group in German Bundestag.

She was born in 1967 in Freilassing and worked as a bank clerk. She graduated from the Saltsburg University majoring in Russian and Spanish. In 1991 she entered the Social-Democratic Party of Germany. In 1998 she became a Doctor of Philosophy and was teaching German language in Moscow. Since 2004 Ms. Koffler is a Bundestag Deputy.

On 28 September 2008 the elections to the Landtag will also take place in Bavaria, the largest in territory and one of the most economically developed lands in Germany. The Free State of Bavaria (which is its full title according to its Constitution) has been ruled by the Christian-Social Union (regional, conservative, famous for its right-wing tendencies Party) for almost half a century. A Social-Democrat, Barbel Koffler is looking forward to changes to take place in her homeland Bavaria. She is very attracted by Belarus and expresses great interest about the situation in Belarus.

Q: “Ms. Koffler, why do you pay so much attention to elections? What do you expect from it? What parallels could be drawn between the Elections to the Landtag of Bavaria and the Parliamentary Elections in Belarus?”

A: “I think that in general terms, the elections should represent a competition of the best ideas. And as a result of this election competition, it should become clear what ideas are considered as the best by the people. Therefore there should be an opportunity to compare platforms of a variety of candidates and parties in order to realize what they have to offer to the electorate. I am convinced that the democratic countries should go through changes and that the leadership should change. It is all due to the fact that the democracy exists only because of the changes, i.e. when the new ideas receive a chance to be implemented via the Parliament”.

Q: “As you are well aware, the European Union has set up the 12 conditions for Belarus. One of the most important among them is to hold transparent, fair and democratic elections. The Parliamentary elections in Belarus will be monitored by the observers of an influential European organization, the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Do you have a feeling that these elections will be assessed as democratic and transparent?”

A: “I always hope for democracy. There is hope this time as well. In the recent past we could observe that many people in Belarus were engaged into the fight for democracy. Whether the elections will be assessed as democratic from the OSCE side, would depend completely on the election process per se and on the course of this process in Belarus. In compliance with our understanding in Europe, democratic elections, first of all, are the elections based on a competition between election campaigns of candidates, their wide and objective reporting by the media, equal access of by democratic candidates to the Media, so that anyone who is competing to become a Deputy could have an opportunity to deliver his or her point of view to the electorate. These are the criteria for assessing the elections as free, transparent and democratic. All that is in the hands of Belarus”.

Q: “It seems that the democratic Europe is so large and Belarus is a rather small country. Why is there such interest of Europeans to this small country where political situation has not changed for the past 14 years and the situation with the elections, the Media and the Human Rights is only deteriorating?”

A: “Naturally, there is a huge interest from the European side towards Belarus due to the fact that the processes ongoing in Europe at the moment are strongly interrelated. Since the times when the Cold war came to an end, we realized clearly that Europe extends beyond Western Europe. Indeed, we should be interested in our neighbours, because the situation existing on the territory of our neighbours may significantly influence our lifestyle. Everything is interrelated in civil, political and humanitarian fields. Therefore in Europe in general, as well as in Germany in particular there is great interest in our European neighbour, Belarus”.

Q: “In your opinion, what kind of information do Europeans lack regarding Belarus and the processes taking place there?”

A: “I think we are not talking about the lack of information here, there is enough information. We are more concerned about other issues, such as non-compliance by this country with its elementary obligations which the Belarusian authorities have to fulfill. For instance, it concerns non-compliance with the clauses of the International Convention of the International Labour Organisation regarding activities of free trade unions. Belarus signed the Convention however has not made any progress in this regard. In the meantime the most important thing is not what is written on the paper but whether the obligations are implemented in reality, i.e. not reported information but practical implementation. There is lack of implementation in Belarus”.

Ludmila Korsak