Will DiEM25 compete in elections across the EU? Our members will decide this week.
Wednesday, November 1 is the next step in our struggle to reclaim our institutions and transform EU democracy. Because that’s when our members will start voting on whether we will establish an ‘electoral wing’, which will enable us to compete in elections and bring our Progressive Agenda to ballots across Europe.
Here’s our Coordinating Collective (CC) member Erik Edman explaining the voting process and why it’s so vital to take DiEM25’s work to the next level:
Starting Wednesday and ending Tuesday, November 7 at 11.59PM, our members will choose one of three proposals on how our electoral wing should look:
- “Not Just Another Political Party“: A proposal developed by DiEM25’s Coordinating Collective, based on the conversation we have all been having as a movement since last spring, and updated with amendments and suggestions submitted by DiEMers from across Europe
- A first alternative proposal, submitted by Sergio Arbaviro (watch Sergio’s presentation of his proposal here)
- A second alternative proposal, submitted by Friedrich Naehring (watch Friedrich’s presentation of his proposal here)
- A third alternative proposal, submitted by Wessel Reijers (watch Wessel’s presentation of his proposal here)
Of course, members also have the option to vote against establishing an ‘electoral wing’ at all!
The CC believes that adding an electoral wing to our movement’s toolkit will strengthen our fight against the establishment. To learn more about why, check out our FAQ post and read about the collaborative process behind how the “Not Just Another Political Party” proposal came about.
But democracy starts at home, and this is a decision we must make together. Log into the Members Area on Wednesday to make your voice heard!
Report: Our third Germany-wide meeting in Frankfurt
Last weekend, DiEM25 held its largest Germany-wide meeting to date, in Frankfurt.
Almost 100 DiEMers and non-members descended on the country’s financial capital to discuss topics from the role and power of the ECB to the potential for a European Constitution.
The three-day event also addressed issues highly pertinent to the direction of DiEM25 itself: specifically, whether our movement should develop its own electoral identity. In one of the best-attended workshops, participants discussed the pros and cons of DiEM25 retaining its position as a movement, of becoming a party, and of establishing a so-called ‘electoral wing’.
Many members supported this latter proposal, while others recommended allowing the movement to develop organically and to reinforce its policy base, before embarking on electoral activities. All participants, however, acknowledged the urgency of putting forward a progressive resistance to the nationalist resurgence.
In other workshops, delegates discussed how to better engage and support women both within DiEM25 and in Europe in general. They explored the concept of Rebel Cities, and examined social and political theories on the environment, with particular reference to the ideas of the philosopher Bruno Latour.
The purpose of the Germany-wide meeting was not only to discuss and develop concrete actions, but also to allow DiEMers to network and share ideas.
One DiEM25 member commented: “At this meeting, we’ve broken new ground and advanced the dialogue on how to develop an alternative politics, not only for Germany but for Europe as a whole”.
Another said: “I came to this event in the hope of meeting and connecting with people from different cities and countries and to get some motivation, and that’s exactly what has happened.”
On Saturday evening a panel discussion took place, featuring speakers from a range of political and social movements focusing on how best to promote a progressive agenda on the European stage.
The event concluded on Sunday afternoon with the passing of an eight-point ‘Frankfurt Declaration’, the text of which will be published shortly.
A detailed report from the event will be available for members in due course.
Carpe DiEM!
DSC Frankfurt
Live chat with our co-founder Srecko Horvat on October 31
Dear friends and DiEMers!
The debate and vote on whether DiEM25 will create an ‘electoral wing’ is one of the most important decisions in our movement’s short (!) history. It is not only something that concerns all of us, but might shape the future of politics in Europe — and beyond.
So join me for a Facebook live chat on October 31 at 7PM CET to discuss all of this and more!
Like many of you, I never joined any political party and never wanted to. So why do we want to form an electoral wing, and why now? What could this proposal mean for our movement, and for municipal and national politics, and the European elections in 2019? How can we go electoral while remaining a movement, and how can we successfully combine ‘horizontality’ and ‘verticality’?
These are just some of the questions we can discuss on October 31. Ask your questions here. Look forward to seeing you there!
>> Srećko Horvat, DiEM25 co-founder
Photo: Oliver Abraham
Don’t take food at your local store for granted
The technological boost of our times is not limited to robot automation and artificial intelligence. A lot of progress is being made in the field of biotechnology with direct applications and implications in agriculture. Genome sequencing and genome engineering are just two examples of ways in which the field is to a large extent a beneficiary.
However, despite the ambition that drives them, such technologies are failing to eliminate malnutrition or to make the agricultural system sustainable on a global scale.
What’s worse is that capitalism takes over. A very recent detailed report from IPES outlined the current trends in agriculture and the food industry and identified the key causes: concentration of power/money and growing inequalities. The title sums it up all too starkly: Too big to feed. Based on this report, recent mergers give a few huge firms the power to dominate, control and profit from the industry.
Surely this is not the way forward. We need a global people-centered food policy, fighting against capital interests — if we are to have the food we want, to drastically decrease malnutrition, and to create a sustainable food industry that the planet urgently needs.
Europe has a lot of power to go against the tide in this way, but the EU is disintegrating. All of us need to take action and not let things deteriorate further on our continent.
Aris is a member and volunteer of the DiEM25 movement.
Eurogroup changing of the guard: where is the democracy?
Hoping for a change in politics, people across Europe, among them Greeks, Spaniards and Irish, will be celebrating the news that Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem, and German finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble, are stepping down from the Eurogroup. Dijsselbloem announced he will leave politics but will remain president of the Eurogroup until the end of his Eurogroup term. Schäuble participated in his last Eurogroup meeting before moving to his new office in the German parliament. We may be at a crossroads with this change of personnel, but policies are likely to remain the same.
What strikes us about this Eurogroup “changing of the guard” is the how out of kilter member-state politics is with Eurogroup membership. A few weeks ago, there was no clue and little to predict if, when and what it would take to see such change. The only hint was that the president’s term ends at the end of the year.
But is it OK to be president of the Eurogroup if you are not an active politician back in your country? Is it OK to participate in the Eurogroup and take decisions while negotiations continue on forming a government back in your country? The counter-argument is that in such cases these people do not get involved in making the final decisions. But, do we know that? Are minutes taken and if so, published?
The whole story manifests the absence of democracy in the Eurogroup. This oxymoron, Democracy and Eurogroup, is the essence of our movement. We need to build a democratic Europe where all the decision-making and all the institutions are fully transparent to Europeans. It is urgent that we do it now. Join us at DiEM25 and let’s make it happen.
Aris is a member and volunteer of the DiEM25 movement.
Photo: EPA/STEPHANIE LECOCQ/dpa
Not to be forgotten: refugees still need us
Winter is coming and the most vulnerable populations will experience it the hardest. Especially refugees, who are essentially trapped in the misnamed “hotspot” camps throughout the Greek islands, living under cruel conditions with scant medical and mental help, meagre food and other provisions and inadequate shelter. What is worse, to say the camps are overcrowded is a euphemism. The camp of Moria on Lesvos island has a capacity to host 2,000 people: currently, around 5,000 people live there. Six people died in Moria last winter because of inhumane living conditions. It is our responsibility not to let this happen again this coming winter.
The EU’s inhuman and shameful deal with Turkey is still on, with money ostensibly on offer to help refugees. However, a large portion of these funds never reach the people in need, as even UNHCR has noticed. Most of the actual help comes from solidarity movements from Greece and all over Europe.
At DiEM25 we campaign against the EU-Turkey deal and for a humane, fair and responsible and respectful treatment of people in need. We call for solidarity and support for all refugees, for an open Europe without fences. Our motto: #Let_Them_In.
Aris is a member and volunteer of the DiEM25 movement.
Get in touch!
The European Parliament is a democratic façade — it needs the right to initiate and pass legislation
We built DiEM25 to crush the authoritarian and anti-democratic dogma of Euro-TINA; that There Is No Alternative to the current version of the EU.
Not often does our mission receive support from Brussels, the capital of the ailing EU. But last Thursday, the ENVI and LIBE Committees of the European Parliament reminded us that there is still decency there that deserves to be preserved. Hundreds of progressive women and men voted through ground-breaking resolutions to:
- overhaul the problematic Dublin Regulation towards a more solidarity-based system
- object to the Commission’s proposal to renew glyphosate’s licence for 10 years, condemning the Commission for endangering the environment and lives of Europeans
- adopt ePrivacy reform to modernise the EU’s aging legal framework
AAll of the above was achieved despite strong lobbying by powerful private interests. As Elly Schlein, MEP and DiEM25 member, said of the Dublin regulation overhaul, it sent: “An important signal to the Council, and to all European citizens, [..] that at least one of the European Institutions is proposing common solutions to a common challenge.” It is this progressive force and its ability to challenge the status quo that the Establishment fears most.
Yet, the European Parliament is the only parliament in the world with no power to initiate legislation: an affront to democracy that is not accidental. And the certainty that the European Council (made up of all EU member state governments) will block these progressive resolutions is a brutal reminder of the power balance in Brussels. The European Parliament is a democratic façade for an institutional environment that excludes democracy from its decision-making — at all costs.
The excellent work of European parliamentarians on these resolutions, which is nonetheless doomed to fail, should act as a rallying cry across Europe! There are decent people with powerful visions for our collective future and they must be granted the power that their democratic mandate deserves.
This is why DiEM25 calls to all progressives and democrats across Europe to:
- Push for the establishment of transnational lists for the European elections, allowing Europeans to vote for common representatives, regardless of national borders
- End the affront to democracy at the heart of the European project and give the European Parliament sovereignty: the right to initiate and pass legislation
At national level, all Europeans recognise the same standard for keeping power in check: democracy. It’s time we started holding the EU accountable to the same standard – every day that we don’t is another day under an autocratic system that cannot and will not tackle our shared challenges.
Photo: FREDERICK FLORIN/AFP/Getty Images
DiEM25 members condemn attacks on art in Serbia
Last Friday, two artists — Vladan Jeremić and Uroš Jovanović — were arrested by Belgrade police. Why? Jeremić and his colleagues, performers, were standing in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art wearing masks of the Serbian President, Aleksandar Vučić. Jovanović tried to enter the museum with a framed photograph with the words: Vučić – the best artist.
The pair were interrogated because they “insulted the institution and credibility of the President of Serbia”. This senseless, authoritarian action — that took place on the anniversary of Belgrade’s liberation from Nazi occupation — shows the true face of the Serbian regime, that shows its pro-European side to Brussels while committing disgraceful acts of repression at home.
It is not big news that the US, the Troika and EU bureaucrats are happy to turn a blind eye to these authoritarian actions and their like, so long as strongmen like Orban or Erdogan continue doing ‘a proper job’. All those in the EU who keep quiet about these and similar arrests do not deserve to call themselves democrats.
Let’s be clear: there can be no political freedom without artistic freedom, and vice versa! We urge our progressive, democratic, left wing colleagues all over the Europe to condemn this barbarous act of the Serbian police.
Because it resembles the actions of those who burned books and sent the opposition to concentration camps, not that long ago.
Losing hope in social fairness?
The current state of affairs in Romania is extremely reminiscent of the “adventures” of Pinocchio in the city of catchfools. The ruling party, after winning the elections back in the fall of 2016 with a promising social agenda, gradually disclosed its blatant incompetence and greed for power. The two infamous overlords of the present political establishment, leader of the Social (sic!) Democratic Party and the prime minister bitterly and ironically resemble the fox and the cat respectively from Carlo Collodi’s story. After abandoning Pinocchio in order to pay for their meal – this was the Romanian government trying to amend the criminal law, back in February, which ignited the greatest protests since the fall of communism – now they are trying to persuade the ‘demos’ that if you are setting about burying your fortune for safe keeping, it will become much bigger if you pour water on it.
Ironies aside, this could open the back door for another imminent disaster, namely complete defeat of any social agenda and a restoration of fiscal conservatism. The current opposition, by mocking the inability of the Government to fulfil any of its electoral pledges on social reform, will clamp down on welfare measures. “The State cannot squander away our money ad infinitum” becomes a mantra in common parlance, not to mention the mounting disdain of mainstream “civil society” towards those who are “socially assisted ”. A book published in 2004, What’s the matter with Kansas?, masterfully described how a “hotbed” state for the American left-wing, became overwhelmingly conservative, culturally as well as economically. It depicted in exemplary detail how it was possible to shift the political matters at stake from social and economic fairness to conservatism, by the use of explosive cultural issues and economic sophisms. As the author, Thomas Frank, concurs: “the gravity of discontent pulls in only one direction: to the right, to the right, further to the right.”
Bogdan is a member of DSC Bucharest, but also a humble engineer living in Munich. His main points of interest are socio-political issues of South-East Europe, as well as promoting DiEM25 there.