Last week, DiEM25 held its first-ever event in Athens, ground-zero of the Euro Crisis and of course our co-founder Yanis Varoufakis’ home turf. Here’s a timeline of what happened:
- The week started off with a bang: Greece’s opposition party shamelessly attacked us, so we responded in kind.
- The DiEM25 Greece team put out a series of short videos explaining why a new path for Greece is needed. Like this one (with English subtitles).
- On May 17, we gave our answer to the oft-asked question of whether we’ll compete in forthcoming Greek elections. (English subtitles via Youtube)
- On May 18, molotovs and teargas filled Athens’ Syntagma square, as the Syriza-led government voted in yet another round of austerity:
Molotov cocktail and tear gas in Athens against austerity bill being voted in the Parliament#Greece pic.twitter.com/1ZGPQIOLG6
— Savvas Karmaniolas (@savvaskarma) May 18, 2017
- On the morning of May 19, we held a press conference where Yanis commented on the vote, calling it ‘yet another debasement of democratic politics’.
‘Last night’s vote [for more austerity in Greece] was yet another debasement of democratic politics’—@yanisvaroufakis in Athens, just now. pic.twitter.com/0ynJohAuld
— DiEM25 (@DiEM_25) May 19, 2017
- That evening, our event kicked off! At the historic Sporting basketball arena in Athens, Jonas Staal’s brilliant set – based on the broken stars of the EU – dominated the court.
- First up was a politically-charged play by acclaimed writer George Maniotis.
- Then Yanis took the stage and for the next ninety minutes, introduced our speakers. Each person had around two minutes to speak, with a mix of live and video speeches.
- Speakers included local grassroots DiEM25 organisers like Apostolos Gogakos, Chrissa Ariadne Kousela and Fotini Riga, alongside progressive leaders like Naomi Klein and Noam Chomsky, world-renowned artists like Ken Loach and Jean-Michel Jarre, and politicians like Clive Lewis MP and Nessa Childers MEP.
- Yanis then gave a speech, in which he outlined our New Deal for Greece: six practical steps to help get Greece out of crisis:
- He finished on the following note: if our members vote for it, DiEM25 will compete in the next Greek elections. The crowd erupted into applause.
Next stop: Berlin, on May 25!
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