I hope our readers do not misunderstand what we mean here. We don't have any demands like the closure of "anti-democratic European Parliament." The demand, however, to close the European Parliament came at an Alternative for Germany (AfD) congress last weekend. Members of the AfD determined that the European Parliament is "anti-democratic" and there is no need for such a parliament. This is a something we would otherwise laugh at and pass by. But this time its different.

The party that has made this demand has 91 members in Bundestag. In fact, they form the third-biggest parliamentary group in the German parliament. They have a total of 193 congressmen in Germany's provincial parliaments.

In addition, it is expected that the AfD will raise its total number of congressman to 15 or 20 in the May 26, 2019 elections, from the seven they had in the 2014 European Parliament elections. So the party is actually seeing a rise in popularity every day and raising the number of seats it holds in the parliament.

In their election campaigns immigrants, Muslims and foreigners were their main propaganda materials. In addition, they are using EU opposition in their hunt for votes rather skillfully.

In their speeches over the weekend, their target was not only the European Parliament. They have set goals like a German exit from the EU, its return to the Deutsche mark from euro and the formation of a new economic and political union in Europe that will take the place of the EU.

They claim that the EU is not a democratic structure and it is occu

pied by a politically privileged class. They are especially hostile toward "uncontrollable bureaucrats." The AfD, which advocates that the next step after Brexit is Dexit (Germany's exit from the EU), is not alone in the EU.

In France, Holland, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Finland and Austria, their allies are becoming successful in elections. At the end of the May 2019 European Parliament elections, many EU opposing congressmen will become a part of the European Parliament that they want to close down.

Nobody should be surprised if they reach a number of around 200. Center parties who are responsible for the rising support of EU opposition from European voters, will not be able to stop the far right's rise in 2019. The main gripe of the EU opposition is the "values" of the EU which are very important for Democrats.

The AfD and similar parties have a big problem with the Copenhagen criteria of the EU. With a racist attitude, they oppose all the good, valuable and humane criteria of the EU. This issue is a big danger for the EU.

In reality, the problem is no longer in the EU. Our worries for social life and peace are rising as the far-right powers which are a danger for democracy, increase their numbers in parliaments.

By holding onto EU values, we should not let the far right to crush these values under their feet. Like all Europeans, conservatives, social democrats, greens, liberals, in short, all of us as Democrats, should not leave the stage to the AfD and their kind.

The European Parliament elections, set for May 23 to May 26, 2019, would be one of the most important and critical elections in the history of European democracy. For this reason participation in the election is very important.

Far-right parties are enjoying great success in every country where the participation in elections is low. Muslims living in Europe are aware of this danger and probably because of this, they are showing great interest in European Parliament elections for the first time. We hope that the rest of the European democrats are aware of this danger as well.