DiEM25 demands citizenship and healthcare for refugees, migrants and the homeless
We demand, now more than ever before, that people such as refugee, migrants and the homeless, who are not considered part of civil society but are our fellow beings, have equal and full access to healthcare for all.
Like the contagious diseases that were spreading in Medieval Europe decimating towns and even countries, the Covid-19 pandemic has been levelling distinctions raised by wealth, class and privilege, hitting princes, heads of states and workers alike. The virus does not respect age, gender, race, religion, geography. But it is those who were already excluded from our societies (health-care, citizenship, etc.), that are the most vulnerable ones.
Precisely like the economic crisis that erupted in 2010, COVID-19 ridicules the notion that borders can solve the problem of contagion and proves dangerous the delusion that walls and fences can provide security. In the same way, The unhindered circulation of capital that, ironically like the virus, is not obstructed by borders and cultural differences of all kinds has now come to a standstill.
The COVID-19 crisis is therefore translated into a global economic crisis; unprecedented because it is the first time that not only demand but also production have stalled. At the same time, neoliberal governance has eroded or downright destroyed the welfare state, and lack of public services has also revealed the incompetence of public functionaries. Public goods such as health care, education, social security etc. have now become obsolete ideals, which due to public funding cuts do not have the capacity to deal with this mega-problem. This systemic dysfunction calls for an urgent return to governance that guarantees the preservation of the lives, the common good and the liberties of all people.
Fundamentally, however, this pandemic exposes the essential arbitrariness of the opposition between the ‘inside’ and ‘outside’, the ‘national’ and ‘foreign’, ‘us’ and ‘others’. History can be sarcastic, playing games that show that fear of others can be transformed into fear of ourselves. All of ‘us’ are potentially infected and a danger to ourselves and others. The indiscriminate virus simply ridicules the Greek state propaganda that at the beginning of the epidemic pointed to the refugees/migrants as a ‘sanitary bomb’, or Trump’s (and the US people’s) immunity to the ‘Chinese virus’.
All of ‘us’? It depends on what we mean by ‘us’. This all-inclusive category even in times of global emergency is not as catholic as it appears.
The refugees/migrants in Southern Europe: The Greek case
‘The unified world’ of globalization has established the free circulation of goods, but not of human beings. Thousands of migrants/refugees remain trapped on the Greek islands, behind barbed-wire fence, in overfilled ‘closed migrant camps’ under inhumane conditions; so are those in Turkey at the borders with Greece, instrumentalised by Erdogan as part of his geostrategic gaming (i.e. varying the number of refugees to cross to Greece with a view to increasing pressure on the EU to side with him in Syria).
While the state has imposed home confinement throughout the country in order to control the pandemic, the refugees/migrants stacked in camps under terrible living conditions and non-existent personal hygiene make sanitary rules and protection measures a mockery. The stacked people might as well prove a self-fulfilling prophecy, that is, they may become a ‘sanitary bomb’.
We are witnessing the microcosmic application of Boris Johnson’s Social Darwinism of the survival of the fittest or, even worse, a cruel biopolitics. If the centers are not immediately emptied and the spread begins, people could not be moved, while hospitalization within the camps is simply a tragic joke. Not only will the large majority of refugees/migrants contract the virus but the disease will spread on the local communities, given the few and insufficient hospitals and health structures on the islands.
What DiEM25 proposes is the immediate evacuation of the camps, a solution also put forward by Doctors Without Borders that demands and advises for immediate evacuations of the camps. The Greek government could use the 700-million-euro aid to the country by the EU, a ‘donation’ in exchange for the full transformation of Greece into the EU prison for the refugees/migrants, so as to offer them accommodation in empty apartments, tourist infrastructure, rooms to let and hotels while distributing them throughout the country.
The homeless, prisoners, elderly in nursing homes, vagrants, and the Roma
Because of the neoliberal logic of profit as the only value and the commodification of human life, socio-economic exclusion jettisons the unemployed, the homeless, the poor and the sick from a state which is re-organised on the basis of the deprivation of the right to employment and the extinction of social welfare. These people, precisely like the refugees/migrants, are superfluous because they can function neither as labour force nor as consumers. Within the nation state the notion of citizenship is emptied of content because it is not exercised by all the so-called citizens. So, the nation state retains and reinforces the invisible and therefore insidious borders that social and political ‘normality’ have erected within the social body.
The pandemic ravages those excluded from ‘normality’, the invisible ones, who are more likely to be exposed to the virus due to non-existent or deplorable sanitary conditions, a lack of access to healthcare structures, and forced confinement. Conditions are considered deplorable in asphyxiated prisons, Roma camps, nursing homes or shelters and the streets — these populations are therefore at the mercy of all kinds of affliction.
We demand that, now more than ever before, these people, who are not considered part of the civil society but are our fellow beings, have equal and full access to healthcare for all. We call for the homeless and vagrants to be housed in empty houses and hotels, putting at the same time in the political agenda the imperative need for the creation of social housing for the dispossessed. We also demand the prisons’ immediate decongestion and the release of prisoners who are serving sentences for less serious criminal offences. Their forced confinement is ironically replicated by the curfew imposed on ‘free’ citizens so it is high time we reflect on deprivation of freedom as a common bond that would sensitize all of us to the notion of a common humanness.
DiEM25 will continue to point the way to the only road to security with prosperity: Radical Internationalism and constructive disobedience. Our transnational getting together based on a common understanding that all epidemics (economic, financial) and all mass movements of human beings struggling to live are transnational in nature and, thus demand transnational solutions. Only global citizenship is a viable response to a global pandemics.
Sissy Velissariou is a Professor of English Literature and Culture at the University of Athens, Greece, and a member of DiEM25’s Coordinating Collective.
DiEMTV presents: Renata Ávila, Jeremy Scahill, Brian Eno, and more!
We are currently living through one of the biggest historical challenges of our lifetimes.
As the EU and the US have sealed off their borders and decided to turn inwards, we must — even if it is only online for now — turn our attention to building the World After Coronavirus.
It is important, as DiEM25 has done from the start, to insist on public and universal health care, mutual aid and global solidarity. We must all do our best to take care of the most vulnerable members of our societies, even if it means self-isolation for the weeks to come.
However, ‘social distancing’ doesn’t, and shouldn’t, mean the end of social cooperation. On the contrary, if coronavirus has shown anything it is the necessity of both micro-local and unprecedented transnational cooperation.
This is why we are starting a special DiEM25 COVID-19 Online Series that will consist of online lectures, public discussions and various other formats where we will invite our members, Coordinating Collective and Advisory Panel members, but also other experts, scientists and activists to share their thoughts on the current global crisis, and possible ways out of it.
Register for our upcoming events:
Monday, 30 March, 19:00 CET
Stefania Maurizi: Why we must save Julian Assange?
15 min introduction + 45 min Q&A
[Register]
Tuesday, March 31, 20:00 CET
Slavoj Žižek in conversation with Renata Ávila: Communism or Barbarism, it’s that simple!
15 min introduction + 45 min Q&A
[Register]
Wednesday, April 1, 20:00 CET
Renata Ávila in conversation with Saša Savanović: Digital Colonialism Now
15 min introduction + 45 min Q&A
[Register]
Thursday, April 2, 20:00 CET
Richard Sennett in conversation with Srećko Horvat: The Fall of Public Man 2020
15 min introduction + 45 min Q&A
[Register]
Friday, April 3, 20:00 CET
Brian Eno in conversation with Yanis Varoufakis: Brian Eno Reflecting on our Post-Virus World
15 min introduction + 45 min Q&A
[Register]
Saturday, April 4, 19:00 CET
Jeremy Scahill in conversation with Srećko Horvat: Capitalist Vampires, Coronavirus and the US Election
15 min introduction + 45 min Q&A
[Register]
Saturday, April 4, 20:00 CET
Astra Taylor in conversation with David Adler: Internationalism in a Global Pandemic
15 min introduction + 45 min Q&A
[Register]
As millions of Europeans are confined to quarantine, living under a ‘state of exception’, with restricted mobility and even curfews, we must focus on the broader picture. Aside from offering unprecedented short-term measures and courageous policy proposals, we must also look into the long term effects of COVID-19 on our economies, politics, psychology, and forms of social resistance — as well as on the future of democracy.
Join us next week, and in the weeks to come, online at DiEM25 TV: a radically hopeful and constructive Television programme which will be shaped by its members, journalists and the general audience.
Don’t wait for someone to ask you what you have been doing in 2020, join us by seizing this historic moment!
MeRA25 MPs are giving 50% of their salaries to support 3 hospitals
On Thursday, March 26th, as part of the Solidarity Day initiative of MeRA25, our party pledged to allocate the significant amount it would usually spend for its 1st Party Congress on social groups in need of solidarity. This aims to support the disadvantaged groups that have been overlooked by the Greek government.
The MeRA25 Parliamentary Group has now unanimously decided to support the party’s Solidarity initiative with an additional contribution of 50% of its MPs’ salary, as long as pandemic measures on are in place.
This amount will be allocated for the immediate support of three hospitals; one in Athens, one in Thessaloniki and one in Crete. More details will be announced, along with specific amounts, in the coming days.
Last month in DiEM25: March 2020
This month has unquestionably been dominated by the coronavirus crisis. It has tightened its grip on our societies, politics, and economies, making the present and future feel equally uncertain. Nor is the past safe, as horrendous human rights transgressions such as those that occurred in the Greek-Turkish border at the beginning of the month feel like a distant memory. However, DiEM25 has been as active as ever, finding ways to remain relevant even in quarantine.
A new world is tantalisingly close; its nature dependent on how we respond to the times of coronavirus. It is true that the coronavirus crisis is presenting us with unprecedented challenges, but these can be transformed into unique opportunities for progressives everywhere.
Here is a highlight reel of the most important activities of the movement and its Electoral Wings have been engaged in this month.
March 3rd: MeRA25 condemns the brutal treatment of refugees and migrants
the Turkish government allowed thousands of refugees and migrants to gather at the Greek-Turkish border and attempt a crossing. This came as relations between Turkey and the EU deteriorated due to withheld payments promised to Turkey from the EU, in return for the housing of refugees and migrants in the country (a deal which initiated the DiEM25 campaign: #StopTheDeal). Our Greek electoral wing MeRA25 was quick to respond with a strong condemnation of the Greek government’s brutal treatment of people, and made the reasonable demand: open the borders and stop the deal!
March 10th: Support for a Greek response to COVID-19
MeRA25 was quick to react to the threat posed by COVID-19 and proposed 7+1 policies to be implemented in Greece for combating the virus and ensuring the economic brunt of the crisis is not borne but the weakest in society.
March 13th: Free, Universal, Public Healthcare for all
In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, we called for “free, universal, public health care” for all!
March 14th: Release of Euroleaks
We came through with our promise to publish the full Eurogroup recordings from Yanis Varoufakis’ tenure as Greek Finance Minister: the Euroleaks! The event was covered widely by the media around Europe: Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Greece, Sweden, Russia and many more, and will inform political debates, articles, and academic research for years. Another important contribution to the struggle for the democratisation of Europe. You can view the full recordings and transcripts, as well as their explainers, on the Euroleaks website.
March 23rd: DiEMTV and a municipal election win!
We launched an exciting new initiative: DiEM25 TV! It brings together some of the greatest progressive thinkers to discuss what the coronavirus pandemic means politically, socially and economically, as well as what can be done to make the most of this new opportunity for radical change.
On the same day, DiEM25 member Nathalie Robilliart — who our movement endorsed in the local elections in the city of Mons-en-Baroeul — was elected to her city council. Furthermore, other lists we were a part of, or supported, did well and have a good chance at electing councillors when the second round takes (currently postponed due to measures pertaining to COVID-19). Félicitations Nathalie Robilliart!
March 24th: Calling for the immediate release for Assange
We supported Julian Assange’s application for bail and demanded his immediate release, which was infuriatingly turned down by the British court. Assange suffers of a chronic respiratory condition and is at great risk from COVID-19.
March 25th: MeRA25 continues its country tour
MeRA25 decided to continue their ambitious tour of the country that it had organised with its MPs by organising it online!
March 26th: 3-point plan for dealing with COVID-19 depression
Following the appalling, yet depressingly predictable failure of the EU to present a reasonable organisational and financial response to the COVID-19 crisis, DiEM25 published an ambitious yet immediately implementable 3-point plan for dealing with the economic depression caused by the pandemic.
26th March: Day of Solidarity
On the anniversary of the founding of MeRA25, our comrades in Greece established a Day of Solidarity with a powerful symbolic and practical gesture: they donated the thousands of euros they had raised to organise the Party Congress in May (which has of course been postponed due to COVID-19) to support those social groups most at risk during this crisis. (article in Greek)
March 29th: Supporting refugees and migrants during the crisis
We echoed our Portuguese NC’s initiative to support the Portuguese government’s decision to treat all refugees, migrants and asylum-seekers in the country as residents for the duration of the coronavirus crisis, extending much-needed support to these vulnerable groups.
Next Month in DiEM25: April!
Keep an eye out for these exciting initiatives in the next month:
- A new week of DiEM25 TV! REGISTER HERE.
- The continuation of the MeRA25 online tour of Greece
- A series of livestreamed calls with the Coordinating Collective of DiEM25
- And much, much more
If you wish to send a point to be included in the next newsletter, or want to help draft it, please contact us at [email protected]
Global warming will not spare Denmark
The current Danish government has been praised for being proactive in reducing carbon emissions. But the neoliberal methods it has embraced for this task are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
The enthusiasm was sky-high. The broad agreement between the newly elected Social-democrat government and all other political parties in the Danish Parliament on the 70 percent reduction of the greenhouse gases by 2030 compared to 1990 was described as no less than a great triumph.
The PR apparatus of the government even prepared a promotional video, in which the Danish Minister for Energy and Climate was creatively prepared to send the message through: “a turning point in the fight for the climate.” The real triumph was still in the waiting, but in a sense the agreement was a kind of a victory. A victory for the climate activists, who also in Denmark had made it clear that they had been fed up with empty promises by their politicians.
Despite this proclaimed ‘great triumph’, a few weeks earlier, the Social-democrat Prime Minister had declared to the industry lobby that a new climate agreement should not come at the cost of wealth, jobs and loss of the competition by Danish firms. Putting aside the embarrassingly obvious fact that if our civilisation collapses due to global warming, there will be no wealth to enjoy (or most probably no humans either), we still have to see concrete steps to reach the proclaimed reduction in CO2 emissions.
The devil is in the details.
There are of course a few positive aspects in the climate agreement. The first is that it is binding, which means that it applies to all coming Danish governments in the future. Second, a climate expert panel (Klimarådet) will act as an independent watchdog for its climate aims, advising the government and expressing its opinion regarding whether it is on the right path to achieve the climate goal. Third, the Parliament will judge the government’s climate achievements at the end of each year.
While this is all good in theory, we are still expecting to see some teeth put into the climate agreement. This process was due this spring, but the COVID-19 pandemic has postponed it to the near future. Nevertheless, a few interesting aspects of the climate agreement are worth mentioning.
The first is that it is not entirely true that there is a lack of concrete steps for the green transformation in Denmark. The first few are found in the government’s budget law for 2020. What is on offer in the budget? Well, the build up of a “Danish Green Future Fund” with an impressive budget of 25 billion kroner (3,35 billion Euros) for the purpose of “development and distribution of renewable energy and stimulation of green technology export.”
The budget report goes on to explain how this sum of money is distributed. Of the 3,35 billion Euros, almost 1,9 billions go to the Export Credit Fund. A couple of clicks in the website of the Fund and it is clear that the Fund is nothing else but a state subsidy for the Danish export firms.
As the website proudly announces, the Fund is going to “cover 90% of the losses of the export firm, in case the international buyer withdraws from the import agreement without paying “ or if the losses are due to a shift in the international affairs. In other words, the Danish export firms have their private profits from the export guaranteed, because the public will cover 90% of the losses anyway, in case the investment goes awry.
Another 134 million Euros will go to the Investment Fund for the Development Countries, which activists from the Global Action have uncovered as another scheme of state subsidy of the large corporations. In short, sixty percent of the Green Fund respects the neoliberal principle: the costs are socialised, the profits are privatised. As far as the rest of the rest of the green transformation is concerned, we are still waiting.
When push comes to shove.
On the 9th of March, the Expert Panel (Klimarådet) came with its analysis and advice on how best to achieve a 70 percent reduction of greenhouse gases by 2030. Their conclusions were interesting, but the most interesting was that the planned green transformation will cost up to one percent of the Danish GDP.
As they put it: “One percent of the GDP is a large sum, (…) but not a sum that threatens our country’s wealth”. Therefore, gone was the concern for the “loss of our wealth” (in comparison the US had used 37 percent of their GDP for war purposes during WWII).
Even more interesting were reactions to its conclusions. Among all the suggestions, the various industry and agricultural lobbies had decided to concentrate on the one — on which the economists agree as the method to reach “the environmental goal – of reduced emissions – in the most flexible and least-cost way to society”, namely carbon pricing.
Words like “devastating”, “a desk exercise”, and “it will have the opposite effect” were used to describe the conclusions. The same minister, who had adulated the new climate law a few months ago, now had his own reservations on the advice of the Expert Panel. By the way, this is the very same Panel which was supposed to act as a watchdog for the minister, according to the law.
COVID-19 and the future after it.
Why these reactions? Well, what the Expert Panel conclusions called for was that the polluters pay their fair share through CO2 taxation and a reduction of their state subsidies. That was a mistake. Maybe the experts are naive enough to think that we live in a free competition economy, but that is for the economics books. In the real world, corporations need state protection. Those who do not understand this can do as much “desk exercise” as they like. In the meantime, the COVID-19 pandemic has put off the discussion indefinitely.
What will happen now, and how much teeth the new law will have, no one knows. One thing is for sure: the powerful institutions do not like the idea. But what is also certain is that climate activists are not thinking about giving up the fight.
Just before the country was locked up, the Copenhagen DSC, XR-DK and other groups had planned to meet and discuss future strategies. The meeting was cancelled due to the COVID-pandemics laws, but we plan to continue where we left off, when the situation normalises again. The rest is up to us, and those who will follow.
Redi Pecini is a member of the Local DiEM25 Group (DSC) in Copenhagen.
Why are they saying no to the eurobond? The case for constructive disobedience in the EU Council
“This is why the Eurobond is essential: it is an instrument for Europeanizing part — at least — of the debt of member states. Without that, there will be no European Union in the days after the coronavirus.”
The virus didn’t ruin us – our economics did
We are in a recession. That much is now evident. You will see it being blamed on the coronavirus, which appears to have triggered it this time. A verbal war on COVID-19 is being waged by world leaders and the media establishment, denouncing its health and economic effects.
Statements like ‘the American people are at war with the coronavirus’, or ‘this economic and financial war will be long-lasting’ fill the airwaves and Twittersphere. Some politicians have even demanded that the United Nations declare “a global war on coronavirus”. But world leaders have yet to question the socioeconomic model that has provided fertile ground for this crisis in their societies, and that has aided the unthinkable speed at which the virus has spread outside of China.
Loans taken out by businesses and private individuals are unlikely to be paid back as intended. The banks will then have to either be bailed out or default — those are really the only options. We have seen it before. This time it was a global virus that triggered it – but if it hadn’t, something else would have.
We are once again heading into a full-scale, generation-destroying recession and, once again, the trigger of the crisis is seen as an outlier or mistake. In 2008, it was because of ‘irresponsible wall street bankers’, and in 2011 it was because the Greeks were ‘lying about their state finances’. The fault seldom falls on the system which has placed our economy and well-being into the hands of mystic market forces that, god-willing, will not crash our entire livelihoods.
Must we simply pray that nothing haphazardly destroys everything, so that during the ‘good times’ people at the top can hire us? How does this economic system represent the only alternative? The progressive left has long “highlighted the very problems that the virus has now exposed so starkly,” such as the precarisation of labour, wealth inequality, and housing. Surely there are alternatives to such an obviously flawed system.
The point is this: if it hadn’t been the coronavirus this time, it would’ve been a number of other events. Many economists had already predicted that a large recession will hit us this year, or at least in the near future — be it from ‘contagion from a global credit crisis’ or ‘sparked by automated trading systems’. Individual household debt being at record high levels, and banks proudly proclaiming record profits, are usually two good indicators that the proverbial shit is going to hit the fan.
So, how should we think of this recession, with all of the uncertainty about the future, and economic stress it will cause? I think of it like this: the coronavirus can be likened to Gavrilo Princip’s shooting of Archduke Ferdinand, which triggered the First World War. The war that followed had, however, been brewing for years.
The economic system did not change for the better after our previous crises — instead, it remained just as fragile, if not more, as before 2008. I fear that, unless real action is taken, much will remain unchanged this time around too. We can’t keep stacking cards in a bid to continue ‘business as usual’ as the house of cards is falling.
If the solutions are to be geared towards the pandemic and its effects, and proposals to talk about this fragile economic system are met with arrogant rebuttals along the lines of “unless you expect another pandemic anytime soon, it will all work out perfectly”, then we are set for another one of these recessions into an even worse austerity apocalypse. Focusing on the Gavrilo Princip every time we have a recession is what allows the economic system to remain this prone to crisis and bailouts. It is time to seriously reconsider.
DiEM25’s Progressive Agenda for Europe is a start.
Many are worried about being able to keep their job and being able to pay rent or buy food for their families. Some countries are talking about temporary basic income to alleviate these concerns. If we would’ve lived under the proposed European New Deal, we would not have the same worries about being able to obtain basic goods. Had we restored our social housing program, which is also proposed, we would be less concerned about rent or who has the resources to self isolate. Other policies included in the program, such as the jobs guarantee or the anti-poverty bills would limit your coronavirus anxieties to just the virus and its impact on you, your family and community.
But in the immediate face of the crisis, we need a rapid emergency response that minimises the damage this recession will do.
Last week, DiEM25 announced just the thing: a 3-point plan to deal with the recession. 2000€ for each person would at this moment be incredibly helpful to everyone who cannot go to work, or who got laid off due to the recession. In the long term, the financial security provided by another proposal, the Universal Basic Dividend, would provide that kind of security.
And, perhaps most importantly, the proposal to invest in a green transition to ensure that the recovery from this current crisis does not deepen our ecological crisis, which could unleash far worse ills than the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read more about the 3-point plan: DiEM25 presents 3-point plan for dealing with COVID-19 depression!
Does the EU have the courage to govern the future?
DiEM25’s 3-point plan offers the only way towards European unification.
At a time when timely responses to the coronavirus are needed, the European Council on March 26th decided not to take action. The summit of EU leaders meeting by teleconference, after Italy and Spain had rejected the initial draft, took their time. The President of the Commission and the President of the European Council will have to present long-term proposals, to be agreed with the other institutions, within two weeks.
During this time, euro area finance ministers are invited “to submit proposals”. The final document does not mention either the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) (which Italy and Spain have already said they will not even consider) or Eurobonds; and there are only general references to the seriousness of the situation.
Yet, on March 25th, 2020 — and on the 63rd anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome which established the EEC — an appeal was signed by 9 out of 27 countries to the President of the European Council Charles Michel which could remain in the annals of history. The signatories include the Prime Ministers of Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Slovenia, as well as the French President. Other countries, such as Slovakia and Cyprus, are joining this group.
For the first time, the Franco-German axis of rigour has been broken.
This gives way to an unprecedented group of counties that stands in stark contrast to the other two EEC founders – Germany and the Netherlands – opposed to eurobond. The content of the appeal sounds disruptive as it breaks the taboo of debt sharing. With his signature, Emmanuel Macron has returned to the spirit of the long and famous speech at the Sorbonne on the future of Europe in September 2017, in which he had advocated a European budget in an anti-cyclical function because: “no state can face an economic crisis alone when it no longer controls monetary policy”.
That speech had, however, remained empty rhetoric until March 25th when Macron accepted a proposal put forward by Italy. By doing so, he distanced himself from his historic ally, Germany, and opened up to sharing future — if not past — debts. It took months of strikes — which only social distancing measures stopped — an unprecedented level of unpopularity, and the threat of a disastrous recession triggered by a pandemic as deadly as, and perhaps more so than, the Spanish flu of 1918, to convince him.
The 9 leaders’ appeal contained a key passage, but it was rejected in the first instance: “In particular, we need to work on a common debt instrument issued by an EU institution to raise resources on the market on the same basis and for the benefit of all Member States, thereby ensuring the stable and long-term financing of policies to counter the damage caused by this pandemic.”
In this sentence, there is all the willingness to start using the markets in favour of common investment policies, instead of suffering the lessons of the flames on spreads, which increase the interest burden of high debt countries.
In short, in the appeal there is a first act of courage and resistance to the “discipline of the financial markets” which, since the sovereign debt crisis onwards (2011-2012), has drained from public finance resources that could have been allocated to health care, research, and training, as well as social cohesion, the resilience of the economies of member countries, and also health security itself.
In the absence of a “safe asset” — i.e. a sovereign supranational bond denominated in euro and guaranteed by the ECB — the markets ended up mainly rewarding the triple A bonds issued by the German State which, given the powerful scale of the measures to support the German economy announced by Merkel, would end up galvanising the bulk of international capital flows.
The alternative would be for all high debt countries — those forced into debt in order to finance families and businesses blocked by the lockdown, to subsidise stalled private consumption and investment and to ensure sustenance for those with neither income nor savings, as well as for the working poor and those without social safety nets — to submit to the punitive conditions of the ESM. DiEM25 was born out of a profound reaction to the moral, economic and social default inflicted on Greece in the summer of 2015 by creditor countries that imposed unsustainable “war reparations” on it.
This is why the 3-point plan presented by DiEM25 offers a way out of the cul-de-sac into which Europe has slipped.
The proposals that DiEM25 has put forward to prevent its dissolution are radical, but they are adequate in size to deal with the current shock and those that will follow:
- The European Central Bank (ECB) must issue a long-term Eurobond (30 years) for 1000 billions of euros fully guaranteed by the ECB itself. It must include the possibility of a further issue in case of need, with which to replace national debts in proportion to the recessions that the coronavirus will have induced and the costs that public health will have had to bear in the various countries.
- The ECB must credit 2000 euros in cash to each European resident in order to make up for the freezing of business and the loss of individual earnings due to quarantine measures. The ECB must provide cash to one bank in each Member State issuing numbered and anonymous debit cards, on behalf of local and national authorities, to all residents without bank accounts.
- The European Union must create a European post-pandemic green recovery and investment programme, financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB) (issuer), to address the many failures that will follow the lockdown and to redirect the production system. Europe must speed up the necessary reconversion process and pursue a technological leap to keep pace with China and the US. That is why DiEM25 has proposed that the European Council require the European Investment Bank (EIB) and its subsidiary the European Investment Fund (EIF) to issue EIB-EIF bonds amounting to approximately 5% of EU GDP, whose secondary market is made large and liquid by the ECB. In addition, the European Green Recovery Agency (EGRA) should be established with the statutory aim of channelling funds raised by the EIB-ECB alliance to the Union in green energy, public health provision, public education and other public goods across the Union.
It is only later that countries will be able to contribute to the financing of emergency measures, the carbon tax, the web tax, the taxation of major assets and the relentless fight against tax havens, in order to redistribute income in a way that also addresses the polarisation of inequalities and territorial gaps, as well as the environmental and health emergency.
Europe will unite or perish, overwhelmed by this unprecedented crisis.
Late responses, or responses that deal with it as a liquidity crisis (when it is a serious crisis of insolvency) would have the historical responsibility of leaving only rubble throughout the continent, depriving it of “post-war” plans for a new start.
The 3-point action plan of DiEM25 offers the only way towards future federal unification, where cooperation between Member States prevails instead of competition. The three measures proposed in the immediate term are feasible and consistent with the letter of the EU Treaties, all that is needed is the courage to govern the future, without the most vulnerable paying for the crisis.
Portugal's policy: the needed solidarity for migrants
‘The preservation of human lives is at stake’
In DiEM25 we promote an open Europe, recognising fences and borders as signs of weakness that spread insecurity in the name of security. As such, we are calling for all European states to regularise all migrants and asylum seekers so that they have access to social services and healthcare during the pandemic. Without these measures, we can expect a further rapid-fire spread of coronavirus.
Humanity is fighting an invisible enemy, the coronavirus. We have never been so vulnerable and, at the same time, in need to be present with our common humanity. Faced with a virus that knows no borders, ethnicity, religions, beliefs, sexual options or political tendencies, never has solidarity and unity among people been so necessary to fight this common enemy. Concrete actions taken at opportune moments will dictate the degree of human lives lost during this crisis.
Yesterday, on March 28th, Portugal published a decree regularising all migrants who had pending residence and asylum applications, promoting equal access to social services and support, as well as to the National Health Service. The decree begins by stating that this measure is necessary in order to reduce the risks to public health, both for workers of the Foreigners and Borders Service and for the users of these services themselves: “The policy also aims to reduce contagion risk by minimising contact between border control service staff and applicants”, the statement said.
The Minister of Internal Affairs says that this action is “the duty” of a “solidary society in times of crisis”. Under this policy, migrants are granted access to the national health service, welfare benefits, bank accounts, as well as work and rental contracts.
It is urgent that this action spread at a greater speed than the virus itself. The suspension of asylum applications and the relocation of asylum seekers has contributed to a volatile situation, with states such as Greece on the brink of breaking international law. As a UNHRC report states, governments may implement additional health and safety measures during the coronavirus crisis, but additional measures cannot be used to deny asylum or relocate migrants without appropriate evidence.
We call on the governments of other countries to follow Portugal’s lead and grant refugees and migrants social services and healthcare. The preservation of human lives, and perhaps our very own humanity, is at stake.
Every minute counts. The time to act is NOW!