SPEECH BY MR MEVLÜT ÇAVUŞOĞLU, PRESIDENT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY, FOR MR ALAIN TOURAINE, SOCIOLOGIST

(Strasbourg, Wednesday 23 June 2010, 15h30, Chamber)

Mr Touraine, it is a pleasure for us to welcome you in this Chamber.

We are pleased that you have agreed to address our Assembly in the context of today’s debates, which focus on democracy and the challenges to which it is confronted in our times.

You have never ceased to underscore the centrality of social ‘subjects’, the importance of the individuals’ direct participation in the decision-making process, the need to protect individual liberties and to promote democratic culture and mutual understanding and communication.

You have studied different forms of social unrest in their contexts, and you are an authority on questions such as the formation, the evolution and the fate of social movements, be it in Latin America – a part of the world that you know very well – in France or the United States.

Commentating on current events, you have addressed pressing issues such as the wearing of the integral veil, and you have been a member of the Stasi commission on the implementation of the principle of secularism in France. You have been an influential adviser for a number of French government agencies and you have received numerous awards and recognition for your contributions to modern sociological thought, including, recently, the Prince of Asturias Award for Communications and Humanities.

As law-makers daily engaged in making democracy a reality for our citizens, we look forward to hearing your views and listening to your advice.

Mr Touraine, you have the floor.