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Netherlands
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Sign via Petities.nl →The declaration
The Hodbomont Declaration
Democracy is dead, long live democracy!
Democracy is dead; we, the people, propose its resurrection.
As concerned citizens, we demand that our power be returned from supposedly democratic representatives. They have forgotten that the people are the true sovereign and that politicians must serve the people. We are witnessing a systematic erosion of our freedom, caused by an extreme concentration of power accompanied by propaganda, censorship and coercion. Democracy has become an illusion in which the res publica (the public affair) is no longer served by the political elite.
We regard this urgent appeal as a duty to ourselves and to future generations. The time when power was imposed from above is over. It is time to develop new political models of self-government that can truly be called democratic.
Our vision:
- Democracy protects fundamental individual rights and freedoms, such as the right to life, freedom of belief, freedom of expression, bodily integrity, property, and freedom of trade and association.
- Democratic decision-making and governance are organised as much as possible at the level of the smallest possible communities in order to avoid centralisation – the concentration of power “at the top”.
- Laws can be enacted, corrected and repealed through binding referendums initiated by citizens.
- Democracy provides an overarching structure in which shared values and common interests are safeguarded. It facilitates a peaceful pluralistic society in which groups and people with differing values can flourish.
- Senior public officials (such as the head of state, judges, mayors, aldermen and senior civil servants) are directly democratically elected, with an imperative mandate: an authorisation that can be withdrawn by citizens when the elected person does not adhere to the programme on which they were elected.
Do you want future generations to grow up in a free world in which broadly supported and conscientious leadership is the norm?
Then sign this declaration and join us in our endeavour to bring a genuine democracy into being.
Drawn up and signed on 3 October 2026 at Château de Hodbomont in Theux, Belgium.
Edwin J.F. Delsing, Jasper Mekkes, Paul Frijters, Robert Frijters, Erika Turkstra, Theo van Galen, Guido Schöpping, Bernard Legros
The place
A declaration with a home
Château d’Hodbomont lies near Theux in the Belgian Ardennes and is home to Academia Libera Mentis. Its setting and history give the declaration a distinctive place and identity.
Hodbomont
History as a background, not as decoration.
Academia Libera Mentis describes Hodbomont as a historic place connected with Theux for centuries. The academy currently uses the château as a campus and meeting place for education, debate and community building.
That is precisely what makes Hodbomont suitable as a namesake: a tangible European meeting place from which an international declaration can begin.
Take part
Sign the Hodbomont Declaration
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International
Sign internationally via Change.org, available to participants from almost every country.
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