This year, the Freedom Prize from the Friedrich-Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF) is being awarded to the Iranian people. According to “Der Spiegel”, the foundation, which has ties to the FDP party, presents this award every two years in Frankfurt’s Paulskirche.
Steffen Saebisch, the chair of the FNF board, told the magazine that the Foundation deliberately chose to honor the Iranian populace rather than a single individual. The award aims to celebrate the revolutionary spirit of hundreds of thousands of people who risked their lives in their struggle to overthrow what they view as the criminal Mullah regime.
The presentation is scheduled for November 7th. Saebisch announced that Bijan Djir-Sarai, a former FDP Secretary General and long-serving Member of the Bundestag who was born in Iran, will deliver the laudation for the “courageous will of the Iranian people.” However, he added that the person who will formally accept the prize in the Paulskirche remains to be determined.
The Naumann Foundation has been granting the Freedom Prize since 2006. Among past recipients are former Federal President Joachim Gauck and Peruvian writer and politician Mario Vargas Llosa. Notably, two years ago, the prize was awarded to Russian opposition figure and journalist Vladimir Kara-Mursel.
