Interviewing current Party President: Markus Bell
Markus, you have been one of the important people that contributed in reforming the party to the current “Independent Party”, and you have been Party President since then. How do you feel the change has turned out?
The change could not have happened if it wasn't for a lot of events that occurred in the last days of the Libertarian Party, as well as a lot of support and help from Daniel Parker pushing forward the idea. A lot of people were stuck with old ideas and had completely forgotten what our party was all about; we were just a cool avatar and losing active members fast. We believe the change has incredibly helped the party, adding new and fresh fundamentals as well as ideas to the minds of our members, giving them new starts in politics.
Being a part of this change has been a great opportunity and I am happy and glad that I could be apart of it. But it was just waiting to happen.
In a short time, the IP has grown to an amazing 42 members. What has been the major factor for the current success of the party?
Our party expresses the fact that we are all about personal freedom and independent opinion. I think this is very appealing to a lot of people wanting to get into politics as other parties don't really offer this sort of freedom. We allow our members to discuss any political change and then debate about it.
Has the IP the potential to grow and eventually compete with the big parties, like LSD and IW?
It's hard to say but it would be great if the IP was one of the top 2 parties. However, politics isn't about getting the most members you can, some of the smallest parties in the Netherlands have supported our bigger parties and even most of the time come up with the most useful changes to our country. It's quality, not quantity, we strive to get. We also believe that the parties need to start cooperating more, putting together projects or work that multiple parties can work on.
About working together, the IP seems to be focused on practical solutions. An example is the Congress decision to advise the CP and PM to publish in an official newspaper, to make sure all subscribers also read the news of the next CP/PM. Also, the temporary “war taxes” were installed a while ago, and restoring the VAT back to normal levels was proposed by the IP, because the times changed and things got more normal again. Will the IP continue to think of and act on these practical solutions?
Yes, we believe politics isn't just about standing up for what your party stance is, which is the main problem with our old Libertarian Party: you only had one stance and there was nothing else you could debate about. Being Independent we can discuss many ideas and get to political solutions using practical methods rather than pushing everything one way while another party pushes another way.
Thanks for answering my questions. Do you have any final words to say?
I'd only add that our country can only strive if we work together in getting problems solved. We need ministries observing our markets and interviewing general managers, employees and politicians and finding out what the general overview or morale is. Recently Coolissport has set up a research organization. I think this is a great idea and needs a lot more support from parties, as it could potentially provide a lot of useful information in helping us grow as a country.
I'd also like to express that with our personal freedom we can give our ideas wings and the Independent Party is the only place you have this freedom, so if your truly interested in getting into politics then join IP :] Thank you.
Markus Bell
Party President Independent Party
Daniel Parker
Vice Party President Independent Party
Boklevski
Senior Party Politician Independent Party
"where ideas are given wings"
