German parliament offers democracy lesson in Arabic

BERLIN: The German parliament launched an Arabic version of its website Tuesday in a bid to reach out to democracy movements in North Africa and the Middle East, its speaker said.

Norbert Lammert said the Bundestag lower house aimed "to offer information and experience in the Arabic language with basic facts about democratic processes and parliamentary procedure."

Lammert, from Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats, said in a statement that the page was intended as "specific help for people in Arab states fighting to achieve freedom and democracy and develop a parliamentary culture."

The Arabic page lays out the duties and function of the German parliament, which was developed with the help of the United States after the fall of the Nazi regime, as well as the work of deputies and the way laws are created.

Users can also read about the German electoral system, representative democracy and the role of the Basic Law, Germany's constitution.

The G8 world powers including Germany threw their weight behind the Arab Spring last month, intensifying the pressure on Libyan strongman Moamer Qadhafi to quit and pledging billions for fledgling democracies in the region.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2011