Interview with Feride Istogu Gillesberg on Nørrebro Radio. 

Broadcast on Monday, Jan. 24, 2005. (Translated from the Danish.)

Q: Feride Istogu Gillesberg. You are running in the eastern district of Copenhagen, or the Southern?

F: In the eastern district.

Q: For your own party, or what?

F: No, I am running as an independent candidate

Q: OK. As an independent candidate. What does that mean? Did you have to collect signatures?

F: Yes, I have gotten over 150 signatures – 195 signatures. And I am running as an independent candidate because I do not think that any of parties express what I want to bring up.

Q: OK. So, what do you want to bring op?

F: I want to bring up that we need to give a signal to the US. We ought to have a strategy for how we come out of the war in Iraq, and in that way, break with the neo-conservatives in the US. Because I am active in something called the Schiller Institute, named after the poet of freedom, Friederich Schiller. In the US, I work together with the American economist and statesman Lyndon LaRouche, who is the personality with the greatest credibility to fight against the neo-conservatives in the US.

Q: And he has run as a presidential candidate?

F: Yes, he has run since 1976, and in the last presidential election, he supported John Kerry after the convention, to try to everything to ensure that Bush were not reelected. We have mobilized people in the lower income levels with our youth movement, a youth movement that calls itself the LaRouche Youth Movement.

        And we have mobilized a lot, for example, in the ghettos, to get people to vote, people who normally don't vote, because they don't feel represented by the politicians, or the parties. And it has been very exciting, also because we had a big effect -- because after the Democratic Party's convention, Kerry decided to include Lyndon LaRouche among the people who were advising him about what he ought to do. The idea was to get Kerry to focus on the economic crisis, just like Franklin D. Roosevelt -- that the crisis is at home. There isn't any outside enemy, as the neo-conservatives alleged around the war against Iraq.

Q: Yes, and now maybe also against Iran?

A: Yes, actually, right now it is of great concern. A leading journalist named Seymour Hersh, has published an article, based on information from the military, which states that America already has a plan to invade Iran, as soon as possible.

Q: You advise Denmark not to support that.

F:  Absolutely. What will we do if we get a war against Iran – what then? How can we have a government, which acts caringly and with love for its own people, if we have a policy, which promulgates a war policy, which promulgates an unjust war?

Q: Yes, but Feride, what has made you run as a candidate, because you are not an American?

F: No, I'm not, but I have gotten into this situation because the fate of the world is so dependent on what leading nations do, and since the US is one of the leading nation in the world, it is decisive to change the US, so that we can change the situation, whether it is in the Balkans, or here in Europe. There is a faction in the US around Lyndon LaRouche, which is fighting for the ideals upon which America was created, namely, that the general welfare is the foundation of the reason for the existence of a nation. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the last president who really acted upon that. The fact that there is an opposition in the US, which can change the direction, has made me understand that if I don't change something, with regards to a just economic policy, for Africa, of also for the Balkans, because I am originally from the Balkans -- or the whole question of peace in the Middle East, the whole question of where the world is going, where humanity is going, is dependent upon establishing cooperation with the good –- the other –- America. And, through that, to change the situation from within the US, and at the same time, there must be political leaders in Europe who really ought to step forward now. Just like Germany and France not going along with the war against Iraq, was a way to support the opposition in the US, and was a way to step forward during a time where the decisive thing is not only to go along, but to resist.

Q: You are right about that. And at the end of this presentation of you as a new, active candidate -- it's exciting -- we would like to hear more, and have invited you as a guest. But what is your vision for Denmark's future?

F: My vision for Denmark is that Denmark ought to be a country which takes responsibility, because of the seriousness of the situation, on the level of being a catalyst, to stop the neo-conservatives in the US, to withdraw their troops from Iraq, to create a leadership where Denmark says, "Hey, let's work together with the Middle East, actually, let's build up the Middle East. Let's cooperate with Russia, with China, because our interest, as a country, I think, is what do we do for the outside world. What are we doing to get a Marshall Plan policy, for example?

Q: What?

F: A Marshall Plan. A policy after WWII, where the US built up Europe, and now we have the level of technological progress, level of production, where we could actually help build up the rest of the world. To take the lead to create cooperation between sovereign nations.

Q: That sound exciting. It does. We wish you good luck in the election campaign. Let's just repeat. You are running in the eastern district (of Copenhagen), and people can vote for you in that district.

F: Yes, and I hope that people vote for me in order to send a signal to the US.

Q: Thank you very much.

F: You're welcome.

end.