(Strasbourg) - “The Arab spring has been the propeller of changes of a truly historical extent. The events of 2011, aimed at pursuing freedom, have offered thousands of examples of unselfish courage”. Jerzy Buzek, president of the European Parliament, gives a preview of the reasons why tomorrow, during the plenary session of the Assembly, he will be giving the Sakharov Award 2011 for freedom of thought to five protagonists of the ”Arab spring”: Asmaa Mahfouz (Egypt), Ahmed al-Zubair Ahmed al-Sanusi (Libya), Razan Zaitouneh, Ali Farzat (Syria) and Mohamed Bouazizi, posthumously: the latter is the Tunisian young man who, a Parliament’s release explains, “set himself on fire to protest against the humiliations of the Tunisian authorities and whose death kick-started the Arab spring”. “The award that will be given them – Buzek goes on – is a collective symbol and a tribute to all those people who long for dignity, democracy and the respect of fundamental rights in the Arab world”. Yesterday, in the premises of the European Parliament, the president of the European Parliament received the Torch of Peace, which left fro Bethlehem and in the last fifteen years has also stopped in the premises of the EU institution, in Strasbourg.

© www.agensir.it - december 13th 2011