The Weekly Forum - 20 February 2026
23 februari 2026 | Forum for Democracy Intl
At least since Schiller’s essay ‘The Theatre considered as a Moral Institution’ (1784) there has been a tendency to claim that art can improve humanity. This link between art and civilisation took a severe knock in the 20th century – Hitler loved Wagner but also used the operas as a political vehicle. In the post-war period, the same politicisation of art has continued, but in the opposite direction, as a vehicle for political correctness. Today culture is perhaps more politicised than ever. According to Peter van Duijvenvoorde MP, art has ceased to mean civilisation and has become instead a bearer of ideology. But art, education and science cannot resolve all social issues: to burden them with an impossible task is to distort them fatally and to render them unfree. Peter asked the minister of education and culture what he thought about these weighty civilisational issues. Is it unfair to assume that the poor minister had never even thought about it? Only FVD asks the questions.
Watch Peter’s speech here (translated by AI)
It’s official – the EU has become totalitarian. When two European citizens were placed under EU sanctions – they were forbidden to travel and their assets were frozen, making it impossible for them to access their own money in their bank accounts – Gideon van Meijeren MP put down questions to the Dutch government about this manifest injustice. How can you sanction someone – punish them – if there has not been a trial and no right of defence? In his answers, the Dutch Foreign Minister confirmed that the basic elements of the rule of law are being abandoned in Europe: he accepts that sanctions are imposed for acts which are not illegal; that the presumption of innocence does not prevent persons from being sanctioned; and that the Council has ‘a wide margin of discretion’ in deciding whom to sanction. The minister even has the gall to reference, in support of this last argument, a case last year where a sanctioned individual’s appeal was rejected! And when asked whether he was prepared to argue that sanctions should not be applied to journalists or political commentators, the minister replied, ‘No. Sanctions are administrative measures aimed at behavioural change.’ This is incidentally also what the spokesman of the German Foreign Ministry also recently told a recalcitrant journalist: stop asking difficult questions or you’re next. You have been warned.
Read Gideon’s questions and the minister’s answers here
FVD International’s director, John Laughland, was a guest on Pascal Lottaz’ ‘Neutrality Studies’ podcast this week. Pascal is a young lecturer at the University of Kyoto, originally from Switzerland, whence his interest in neutrality. His podcast is superb. John and the other guest, Peter Lavelle, discussed the Sovietisation of the EU and the intellectual trajectory which had led them to be sceptical – critical, even – of NATO, the EU and the collective West in general. John emphasised that the root of the problem is the burgeoning power of the security services which currently wield a stranglehold over European governments – just like in the old Sovietsky Soyuz.
John also spoke at a big gathering of sovereignist parties in Paris last week, organised by the economist Philippe Murer. There are several pro-Frexit groupings in France and most of them attended the event, including their respective leaders. Philippe is convinced they need to work together – not always an easy task. The subject of the discussion was Brexit and John was joined on the panel by a brilliant expert on the subject, Jean-Michel Salmon.
Watch John’s panel discussion here (in French, with automatic subtitles)
Mark Sleboda and Steven Jermy were our guests on The Forum this week, to discuss the changing nature of war. From nuclear weapons, which Mark and Steve think could soon be used, to drones, which have dramatically changed how land warfare is waged, they ranged over the different issues. For Mark, the looming attack on Iran is the litmus test of whether or not the West will retain its hegemony.