DiEM25 Romania – Not "All Quiet on the Eastern Front"
On August 10, DiEM25 activists together with members of the Romanian diaspora, organised a protest in Bucharest to highlight problems and grievances experienced by Romanians across the continent, most of all corruption as well as poor life and work conditions. Around 25,000 people gathered in Victoria Square, in a reenactment of a similar protest carried out last year. The protest was not partisan and supported neither a particular political movement or party nor targeted a specific political foe.
Diaspora’s Protest against conditions for mass emigration
Between 2007, the year Romania became member of the EU, and 2017 almost 17% of the total population of the country have emigrated. This places Romania in second place globally in terms of population loss due to migration, after Syria. This present wave of migration from Romania and other East European countries provides evidence for the unseen tragedies and hidden scars of the crisis – modern slavery, sex trafficking and the untold drama of children left behind by parents forced to migrate for work.
Yet, despite the promise of better wages abroad, the dream for many Romanians is still to return home, to reunite with their children and separated families and regain a sense of dignity and purpose that many of them couldn’t find as migrants. It is a dream stifled by the indifference and systemic corruption of Romania’s political Establishment.
Last year’s demonstrations ended up in a mess
On August 10, 2018, Romanian migrants organised to come home to protest against the inaction of these corrupted and indifferent politicians. However, the protest was infiltrated by those seeking to instigate violence and attack the police and security forces, culminating with clashes leaving many wounded. This compromised the protest and prevented the protesters from gathering, formulating and articulating their demands.
One full year to obtain the permissions for a new rally…
It was a failure the Romanians chose not to accept. Immediately after the August events, they begun a renewed effort to organise. Tommy Tomescu, a Romanian citizen living in UK and Claudiu Marginean, a DiEM25 member and coordinator of DSC Cluj, took the task of organising a new protest. They fought for a whole year against political bureaucracy attempting to prevent the authorisation of a new protest for the Romanian diaspora. They had to sue the Mayor of Bucharest to obtain the authorisation to demonstrate. Subsequently the record of the authorisation mysteriously vanished from the offices of the Mayor only to finally reappear after public pressure was exerted. These are just a few examples of the obstacles placed in way of citizens wishing to make their voices heard.
…accompanied by a great victory for small parties
This was not the first time that DiEM25 activists like Claudiu Marginean fought the political Establishment in Romania. In 2015, he contested the Romanian Electoral Law minimum requirement for 25,000 signatures for the registration of a political party, winning in the Constitutional Court reducing the requirement to only three (!) signatures.
One cannot have true democracy without real representation and the right to express one’s political will. This is what DiEM25 fights for in Romania, with the example of simple citizens standing up for their rights irrespective of the obstacles in their path.
This year, the protesters finally made themselves heard
On August 10, 2019, the second big demonstration of the Romanian diaspora took place without violence. Prior to the event, all of the public’s demands regarding the problems of the diaspora where collected and filed officially with the Romanian Government.
Among the 25,000 participants was the pianist Davide Martello who cancelled his concerts in Germany to be present to the protest in Bucharest. Davide is known for travelling in conflict zones to play his piano. “I’m sorry I have to cancel all my next concerts in Germany. There is a big demonstration on August 10 in Bucharest against corruption in Romania. Last year at the same peaceful demonstration police used teargas against their own people, I want to help them this time so they can hide behind my piano in case the police uses teargas again”, the pianist wrote on his Facebook page.
Similar protests also took place at the same time in several other cities in Romania, as well as abroad, mainly in European cities with large Romanian populations.
Foreign media made it a partisan protest – it wasn’t
While the protest collected many demands and grievances, especially against the corruption plaguing Romania, both demonstrations were not partisan. This is why DiEM25 activists have chosen not to involve any specific political party or movement but rather to invest their resources and effort as simple citizens – the very civic spirit of DiEM25.
But this was not the case for the political parties trying to gain ground and attempting to infiltrate the protest and use it to their own interests, the very politicians that form part of the corrupted system in the very first place. This is one of the reasons why last years protest was compromised, reduced to a political conflict between the reigning Social-Democrats and the political right fighting for power.
Right-wing extremists encouraged hunting their enemies
The organisers attempted to separate themselves from the right-wing extremists who chose to throw objects and intimidate volunteers. Four people were taken into custody by the police as teargas sprays and cold weapons were found on them. This didn’t stop right-wing populist leaders continuing to be present with their own support groups. The extremists’ slogans that were to be seen last year were present again, including sexually offensive slogans against the governing Social-Democrats and statements referring to “hunting humans” to the address of the supporters of the left party in government.
Even though the protest was not partisan, many media especially foreign outlets, chose to portray the protest as an anti-government one.
Fighting corruption in Romania is not about fighting only one political party or supporting populist politicians yearning for power. While it might be correct to attack certain politicians, attacking entire parties or collectively condemning people for their personal political choices is an attack against the very basics of democracy, free choice and representation. These aggression instigated and maintained by the right populist parties cease to be part of a normal democratic political debate and promote social hate speech, violence and radicalisation. These are part of the same rising offensive of the far-right and of hate speech across Europe and beyond, which DiEM25 is fighting against.
The most dangerous aspect however is that this increase in hate speech has been induced and transferred by the populist Right into the speech of civic activists and NGOs and even ordinary citizens, dividing society and turning citizens against one another. It is a vicious circle of increasing hatred and division that helps only political parties and corrupt politicians and keeps the citizens captive to choosing the lesser evil – a political Stockholm Syndrome for the population of entire countries.
This politics of hate and despair can be seen across Europe, with the Establishment and Right-wing populists, like jackals and hyenas feasting on what remains of citizens’ democracy.
Yet, if we the citizens don’t fall for their games, for their fear and hate, for their borders and races and classes – then there is nothing that we cannot accomplish, nothing that we cannot dream of.
Carpe DiEM
Florin Platon, DSC Bucharest and Claudiu Marginean, DSC Cluj
DiEMers from Sicily oppose their government
I am Giuseppe Schermi, DiEM25 city councilor and coordinator of the DiEM25 local group in my home town Augusta, Eastern Sicily. And unlike nearly all the people I know, this month I cannot go on holiday. With good reason: I live next to one of the largest and most polluted oil refinery harbours of the Mediterranean, Syracuse. And August is typically the month when industrial lobbies get their draft legislation passed.
And this is exactly what happened shortly ago: following the example of the Special Economic Zones in Poland, on August 9 the Sicilian government passed its proposal for their Z.E.S. (Zone Economiche Speciali, engl. Special Economic Zones), aimed at improving the logistics and commercial exchange with EU member states. Z.E.S. are administrative areas where economic activity can be conducted on preferential terms which first of all means: simplified license authorisations and tax exemptions.
The front page of the official document specifying the various Z.E.S. dimensions
Cheered by both the political establishment and the populists as a much needed boost for the economic development of the industrial site, the designated areas in the Syracuse region are actually a further threat to our fragile environment. Approximately 500 out of a total of 700 hectares lie either on farming land such as wetlands and citrus groves, or on oil-contaminated sites that need to be cleaned off first, including an on-shore oil deposit in the urban area of Syracuse.
500 out of a total of 700 hectars lie either on farming lands (wetlands and citrus groves) or on oil-contaminated sites
DSC Augusta 1 made the case and their members’ concerns public and sent out a press statement. And we got good local coverage. Read the articles at Error404online, La Gazzetta Augustana and Augusta News.
As the designated areas are subject to final approval by the national government, I urge everyone to appeal against such a draft taken without any local consultation. Based on our Green New Deal for Europe, my proposal is to link the benefits of the Z.E.S to the long awaited clean off of any contaminated industrial site first, and then to reconvert all industrial activities from fossils to renewable energies.
The results are in: here’s who was elected to lead our movement
The results of the 2019 CC elections are in!
DiEM25 members from across Europe and beyond have voted, and our renewed Coordinating Collective (CC) has emerged.
Meet the women (8) and men (4) chosen to guide our movement in the months ahead!
The results:
Yanis Varoufakis ♂ – 2802 (78%)
I am a co-founder of DiEM25 and member of the CC since its inception. It has been a long, winding but magnificent road. We had successes, failures, heart-breaking moments and moments of pure elation. Now, DiEM25 is more necessary than ever. Onwards!
Srećko Horvat ♂ – 1919 (53%)
I’ve been involved in DiEM25 since its foundation in February 2016. Together we have built a serious organisation and broad movement which not only has a growing membership, but a significant presence in Europe and beyond. Beside being part of the Coordinating Collective for the last three years, I’ve been organising and coordinating NCs, working with hundreds of members and activists, working on various campaigns (Julian Assange, Green New Deal, Progressive International, etc) and major events (Berlin, Vienna, Brussels, etc), including running as an MEP candidate for the last European elections in Germany, which was a quite important and fun experience.
Gianna Merki ♀ – 1329 (37%)
I have been actively involved in DiEM25 since March 2016 and have been an elected member of the CC for the past two years – where I gained very valuable experience on a personal, organisational and political level. I like to work in/with teams and make decisions collectively. I decided to run for the CC again as I would like to continue focusing on movement building and improving the structures, trying to make the best out of all the resources we have. My priority is therefore to continue building relations, facilitating, supporting the creation of teams, networks, contact points for a smoother dialogue and collaboration.
Simona Ferlini ♀ – 1263 (35%)
I joined DiEM25 in the spring of 2016, and soon became a member of the Translators Team, which still I am. In 2017 I was elected member of the first Italian NC, in the territory and organisation task force. In this capacity, I helped to grow new DSCs and to strengthen their connections, travelling throughout Italy and talking to people of our Manifesto, our Progressive Agenda, our GND, and of how DiEM25 works. I cared for Members’ empowerment and participation, and supported the DSCs of Turin 1 and Genoa 1, in connection with the French National Collective, in organising our participation in the transnational anti-borders events of Bardonecchia and Ventimiglia of summer 2018.
Erik Edman ♂ – 1183 (33%)
I started off my DiEM25 journey as a grassroots member in Belgium, where I helped set-up Brussels 1 DSC in 2016. Given Brussels’ political importance as the heart of the EU, we decided to organise a large DiEM25 event there called “The Real State of the Union”, which I coordinated. We also organised bi-weekly political meetings in Brussels, as well as other initiatives to introduce people to the movement. This effort was consolidated through the establishment of the Belgian National Collective, to which I was elected in 2017. In the same year, I was also asked to assist in the pan-European coordination of the movement as an ex officio member of the Coordinating Collective. When the membership voted for Electoral Wings around Europe I decided to quit my job in Brussels and join the MeRA25 team as its Campaign Manager. I also ran as a candidate for the party in both the European and National elections.
Daniela Platsch ♀ – 1163 (32%)
When I first heard of its launch in 2016, I instantly booked a ticket to Berlin. A truly transnational movement to democratize Europe? Count me in. When I left Volksbühne that night I felt angry and betrayed. It seemed as if hundreds of people from all over Europe had gathered for nothing. The idea was still noble but it didn’t sound as if there was a plan. DiEM25 should grow through a network of spontaneous collectives that would come to life by the self-organisation of individuals. Who would ever believe that this can work? This spring, I participated in the German Electoral Wing “Demokratie in Europa – DiEM25”. Hardly three years later, I have found myself speechless towards the achievements of DiEM25. As a candidate, I was privileged to meet many people behind DiEM25’s success in person. People who tirelessly organise local events. People who coordinate campaigns across borders. People who inspire others to be brave and speak up. There are more than 100.000 people who do their part and everyone is organising for the same reason as in the beginning: to democratise Europe before it falls apart.
Ivana Nenadovic ♀ – 1153 (32%)
I’ve been a member of DiEM25 since April 2016 and a DSC Belgrade’s Coordinator since May 2016. I’ve been both an ex officio and an elected member of the CC for the past two years, engaged in organisation of the events, and in September 2018 I’ve been appointed as a DiEM’s Financial Coordinator. Together with my DSC comrades, or as a member of the CC, I participated in a number of DiEM25 events and workshops, from ‘Time of Courage’ in Rome, in March 2017 to European Spring launch in BOZAR, in March 2019. I was the main organiser of DiEM Academy in Belgrade and, for the next editions, I worked together with the teams in Cologne and Lisbon. As I believe that DiEM Academies were a success and that they are a very important tool for connecting the grassroots, exchanging the ideas and making the action plans, I would like to continue the work I’ve been doing, bringing the Academies to another level.
Renata Avila ♀ – 1145 (31%)
I signed the initial manifesto of DiEM25. I am among its founding members. I have participated in different activities and initiatives of it, investing time, effort and enthusiasm in activities related to the Tech Pillar, in publications and also dialogues and training processes taking place in Berlin, Hamburg, Warsaw, Belgrade and beyond. I am the co-convener of the Progressive International and also an advisor to the Green New Deal in Europe. I do not hold a European Passport, but a Guatemalan passport, I think it is great you have allocated trust in me to help shape the future in Europe, serving as a member of the Coordinating Collective for two periods. This will be my last period if elected.
Síssy Velissaríou ♀ – 1116 (31%)
I stood as a candidate for MERA25 in the national elections. I have participated in the politics of the Left for 25 years. From 2000 until 2015 I was a member of the Central Committee of the Coalition of the Left (SYNASPISMOS) and SYRIZA which I left after the Referendum of 2015 that turned No into Yes. Along with other comrades who had also left SYRIZA we formed a small group but I realised that the malaise of leftist forms of organisation is reproduced even on a small scale. I joined DIEM25 for two main reasons: 1. because I am deeply convinced that the European malaise (debt, austerity, bureaucratic oligarchy, absence of democracy) can only be cured on a pan-European level through the mobilisation and participation of the European peoples. 2. because I am convinced that it offers groundbreaking, transparent forms of organisation, decision-making and participation, which challenge the strict hierarchies, centralisation and repression of dissident voices that characterise received types of party function and politics.
Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk ♀ – 1107 (30%)
I have been a DiEM25 member since 2017. At the time I was also a member of the Executive Board of the Polish party Razem (I left both the Board and the party last February). Through my political involvement I met members of DiEM25;s CC. From the very beginning of my engagement in DiEN25 I put all my best efforts to be the voice for women’s rights. I urged DiEM25 to further the efforts in the area of women’s political representation. That was also the topic of my first public speech during the DiEM25 Rome event, when the European New Deal was presented. I strongly believe in women’s leadership, representation and political participation. I want to – and will – promote it in every organisation I will be involved in. Since March 2018 I was involved in creating European Spring, the first paneuropean, transnational list for the European elections in 2019. I co-chaired European Spring until last February. Even though the election results came short of our expectations, I strongly believe that international, political, and organisational cooperation of grass-root, progressive, feminist, ecological, and leftist movements is crucial to successfully fight for socially just, fascism-free, sustainable Europe. I want to help DiEM25 become the platform for such cooperation.
Mame Faye-Rexhepi ♀ – 1095 (30%)
I started following Yanis’ work whilst in London, after being inspired by the unusual integrity demonstrated by him during the Greece-EU stand off. After living a few years in Berlin I reached out to the Berlin DSC; and having found a group of like-minded people with lots of hope for the future, despite the depressing political climate, I quickly became more active, mostly in the DiEM25 Berlin women* group. With a group of Berlin DSC members, I planned, organised and moderated a pilot citizens’ assembly, as part of the European May campaign. I also noticed and brought to the attention of the Berlin DSC, an omission in the European Spring manifesto (to explicitly denounce racism) and with the support of the women* group I pursued this matter, working together with the German electoral campaign team, and the CC, to collectively found a solution. Finally, I participated in the Lisbon Academy in June, where I co-organised a workshop on Gender and Diversity. I am in the middle of relocating to Prishtina, and with the aim to join the local DiEMers, I’m looking forward to helping expand our movement there.
Jordi Ayala Roqueta ♂ – 1071 (29%)
I have been around DiEM25 since the very beginning when I was invited to the talk about DiEM25’s economic analysis and policy framework in the launching of the movement in 2016 in Berlin. It was extraordinary to gather together with so many activists and so much energy. Since then I have been focused in Barcelona as the economic CEO of the City Council where we have been able to put into practice some of the policies DiEM25 defends in Europe like a progressive fiscal policy, rising taxes an extra 6% to the wealthiest; the issue of the first local green and social 35 million euros bond in Spain; a new and strict fiscal fraud control that has already made appear more than 70 million euros; and a new budget and financial transparent web with all the information at the maximum detail. We have also promoted the small and medium enterprise especially including the cooperative and social economy opening the traditionally opaque public procurement and increasing in more than 6% the number of suppliers. All these policies need to be applied in Europe and DiEM25 can be the tool.
While the following candidates did not win election to the CC this time around, we thank them all for participating and hope they’ll continue working with us. DiEM25 needs you and your commitment to make our movement better!
Runner-up candidates: Costanza Sciubba Caniglia (29%), Rosanna Martens (27%), Fotini Bakadima(25%), Dolores Bajo Alonso (25%), Silvia Terribili (23%), Andrea Pisauro (22%), Jacques Terrenoire (22%), Eirini Mítsiou (21%), Eleonora Vasques (21%), Pawel Wargan (21%), Nikos Vakolidis (20%), Michele Fiorillo (20%), *Nicolas Dessaux (19%), Brice Montagne (18%), Jochen Schult (17%), Rodanthi Aristea Bairaktari (17%), Aleksandar Novakovic (14%), Germinal Pinalie (14%), Ioannis Manomenidis (13%), Christos Dellasoudas (11%), Georgios Gokas (11%), Dimitris Gkomozias(10%).
The power of grassroots
By making their voices heard in this pivotal internal democratic process, our members have sent a loud message to the status quo: at DiEM25 we really mean it when we say that we believe in grassroots power!
This is exemplified by the 34 DiEMers who ran for a seat in the CC [twice as many as in 2018!], as they all represent the pan-European, grassroots essence of our movement: women and men from very different backgrounds and countries, and from across the political spectrum. They all stand together ready to fight for the movement we all believe in. No other political organisation can pride itself on this level of openness and inclusivity, at such an international scale.
Background to the vote
Following DiEM25’s Validating Council’s decision 2, all 12 seats in the movement’s CC were up for renewal this summer. Candidates could send their submissions from July 8 until August 10, and the voting period, which started on August 13, ended at midnight on August 28.
Candidacies to the CC were open to all DiEMers who adhered to basic criteria like how long they have been a member of the movement, and how much time they could give to working on the CC, among others.
Similarly, to ensure transparency and a genuine democratic process, voting was open to members that joined the movement before June 1. Additionally, members’ accounts needed to be verified and active, for them to be able to vote.
As with all DiEM25’s internal democratic procedures, all transnational votes had equal value and were anonymised upon being cast. Furthermore, the results of the vote are in line with our OP’s gender-balance principles.
Carpe DiEM!
DiEM25 United Kingdom: "Most anti democratic action in living memory"
Today, the UK government has asked the Queen to suspend Parliament – just days after MPs return to work in September, and, most of all, only a few weeks before the Brexit deadline.
As BBC reports, House Of Commons Speaker Jon Bercow who does not traditionally comment on political announcements, called it an „constitutional outrage“. He said it would be “an offence against the democratic process and the rights of Parliamentarians as the people’s elected representatives“. He added: “Surely at this early stage in his premiership, the prime minister should be seeking to establish rather than undermine his democratic credentials and indeed his commitment to Parliamentary democracy.“ Also senior Tory Dominic Grieve called it an “outrageous act“.
And according to BBC, a number of high profile figures, including former Prime Minister John Major, have threatened to go to the courts to stop it, and a legal challenge led by the Scottish National Party’s justice spokeswoman, Joanna Cherry, is already working its way through the Scottish courts.
Here’s the comment of DiEM25 United Kingdom on this move:
In no other parliamentary democracy in Europe could an un-mandated Prime Minister ‘ask’ an unelected monarch to suspend the activity of an elected, and sovereign, Parliament, in the midst of a political crisis.
This is the ultimate proof of the constitutional nature of this historical crisis. The fact that the Prime Minister can legitimately do it is the ultimate proof that a democratic discussion around the British Constitution that goes beyond Brexit is as urgent as necessary.
All those who want to defend the principles of representative democracy in this country need to be ready to defend the role and prerogatives of the British Parliament, and to mobilise accordingly.
DiEM25 UK condemns the Prime Minister’s move as the most anti democratic action in living memory. We continue to believe that the wisdom to resolve this democratic and constitutional crisis, not just Brexit, is to be found in the proper and energising process of Citizens’ Assemblies.
More than prayer is required: the EU can put economic pressure on Brazil
The wildfires result, partially, from unmitigated deforestation, spearheaded by landed rural elites who endorsed Bolsonaro’s Social Liberal Party in return for support of their ranching and logging empires.
Recent German and Norwegian divestments from Brazil denote a step towards the right political pressure on Brasilia. But where was this response during the campaigns against education, journalism and human rights of favela-dwellers?
The EU can show persuasive power in defence of climate and human rights, by making clear, swift severance with current Mercosur-EU negotiations. The Mercosur-EU trade proposal, by promising massive South American exports of raw materials to Europe, not only perpetuates the classic model of impoverishment of Latin America, but also rewards the arsonists-in-chief: Bolsonaro-voting, Bible-thumping ranchers and timber-barons who torch the Amazon jungle that sprawls throughout Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, and other countries affected by Brazilian actions.
Brasilia’s response for now could resemble that of Bolivia’s government, which hired emergency water tankers. Brasilia will only reinstate rule of environmental (and other) law under international pressure: and that’s where the EU can offer more than prayers.
DiEM25 petition: Suspend Free Trade with Brazil!
To the EU Authorities,
We demand that the European Union freezes the EU – Mercosur agreement immediately. Europe cannot enter into a partnership with countries which are acting against the future of humanity. The plans of President Bolsonaro show that we are not dealing with a sovereign country wrestling with a catastrophe caused by nature, but the determined execution of a man-made plan, with the support at the highest level of the Brazilian authorities.
Brazil is not a reliable trade partner and its current leadership is a threat to the future of the planet. The newly elected European Parliament must exercise all its powers to defend our global natural commons. Inaction is not an option given the responsibilities they bear, and they must act immediately.
DiEM25 gives the EU Authorities until August 28 to respond to this worldwide outcry and:
- Issue a statement declaring that the EU-Mercosur trade agreement is suspended indefinitely, due to the crimes against climate perpetrated by the Brazilian authorities.
- Urge the other Mercosur trade partners to take immediate steps to mitigate the climate tragedy the Amazon is facing.
- Schedule a hearing on Brazil in the next EU Plenary, inviting indigenous leaders and environmental experts to assess the damage to the Amazon, the mitigation strategies they need to implement and the ways EU citizens can collaborate to reverse them.
In solidarity with the Brazilian people, especially the indigenous peoples whose home is burning: Europe must act without delay.
Sign this petition!
Read it also in French, Greek, Italian and Spanish.
Yanis Varoufakis: "I Am Not Boris"
Leading Brexiteers, starting with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, have sought to portray Greece’s former finance minister as one of their own. And while they clearly know better, they must be delighted that many Remainers have embraced the same lazy analogy.
ATHENS – Ever since Boris Johnson moved into 10 Downing Street vowing to re-negotiate the United Kingdom’s withdrawal agreement with the European Union, the conventional wisdom among many Brexit opponents has been that the UK’s new prime minister is “doing a Varoufakis” and will be crushed in similar fashion.
The BBC’s Katya Adler reported from Brussels that she met with EU officials who spoke of “Varoufakis the sequel” – namely, “lots of pointless meetings with Prime Minister Johnson – as they believe was the case with Greece’s controversial finance minister at the height of the Greek debt crisis.” Lord Adonis, a former Labour transport secretary and schools minister, added to the comparison his admiration for Germany’s Chancellor: “[Angela] Merkel is treating Britain like Greece and Johnson like Varoufakis,” he tweeted.
Johnson must be greatly amused by all this. He knows that in the run-up to the June 2016 Brexit referendum, we were in opposing camps. While he was touring Britain in his infamous bus leading the Leave campaign, I was running up and down the UK alongside politicians like Labour’s John McDonnell and the Greens’ Caroline Lucas, calling on voters to resist the Brexit sirens.
Johnson is too smart to care
But Johnson is too smart to care. Confirming that hard Brexiteers are far more strategically savvy than Remainers, Johnson, his right-hand man Dominic Cummings, and Michael Gove, a senior cabinet minister and arch-Leaver, know how to divide and rule over their opponents.
Writing for The Times two months before the Brexit referendum in 2016, Gove waxed lyrical about a book in which I sketched the evolution of the EU from a common market into a harsh, anti-democratic monetary union – conveniently neglecting to mention that I opposed Brexit or any other move to break up the EU or the euro. Likewise, a year ago, Johnson, referring to my book Adults in the Room, wrote in his Telegraph column: “As…Varoufakis has explained, the tragedy of the Greeks was that they never had the nerve to tell their EU masters to get lost,” forgetting to mention that Grexit was not my aim.
More recently, the pro-Brexit Telegraph reminded its readers that: “Early on in the Brexit process,…Varoufakis predicted that, if the UK entered negotiations over Brexit, Brussels would seek to browbeat us in the same way and that we would do better just to walk away…” Then it added: “Boris Johnson…has taken his message on board.”
The bigger lesson to be learnt
The only lesson that Johnson seems to have learned from me is that one should never enter into a negotiation unless one is prepared to walk away without a deal. But surely this is a lesson that all sensible people know, with the sad exception, evidently, of Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, and former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. The bigger lesson that needs to be learned now is that the stand-off between a resolute Johnson and a constitutionally inflexible EU is about to inflict great damage across Europe.
Commentators and politicians love to milk the Brexit-Grexit parallel for all it is worth. The fact that both countries held referenda that went against EU leaders’ wishes makes the parallel easier to peddle. But the analogy is a lazy one that impedes understanding the crucial issues facing our countries, and, worse, could bring a mutually damaging no-deal Brexit closer.
All we demanded were sensible policies
To be clear, I never espoused Grexit (and I have lost countless friends on the left as a result). Greek voters elected us in January 2015 to end the unnecessary misery imposed on them by ridiculous policies that turned an economic recession into a humanitarian crisis. Neither they nor I, as official negotiator with the EU, wanted to clash with the bloc. All we demanded were sensible policies that would allow us to remain in the monetary union viably and with a modicum of dignity.
Three days into my tenure, the president of the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, threatened me with Grexit if I insisted on re-negotiating our impossible public debt and the self-defeating austerity that went with it. I replied: Do your worst! It was no bluff. While I did not want Grexit, a majority of Greeks believed, as I still do, that debt bondage within the euro was a worse outcome.
Brexit is home-grown, Grexit wasn’t
Grexit, in short, was the weapon the EU forged and used to force successive Greek governments into accepting their country’s incarceration in the neoliberal equivalent of a Victorian workhouse. Brexit, by contrast, was a home-grown aspiration, rooted in the structural incompatibility between laissez-faire Anglo-Saxon capitalism and continental corporatism, and invoked by a coalition comprising sections of Britain’s aristocracy that successfully co-opted working-class communities wrecked by Margaret Thatcher’s industrial vandalism. These voters desperately wanted to punish the cosmopolitan London elites for treating them like long-devalued livestock.
Ironically, the EU establishment’s treatment of Greece contributed considerably to Brexit’s wafer-thin majority. Many sympathetic attendees at my anti-Brexit rallies, especially in England’s North, explained why they would ignore my pro-Remain pleas: “After seeing how the EU treated your people, we can’t vote to stay,” many of them told me.
They do their cause no favors
Conflating the two acts of opposing the European establishment is, therefore, pure folly. When Remainers, like Lord Adonis or a BBC journalist embedded in the EU bureaucracy, depict Johnson as the new Varoufakis, they do their cause no favors. Theodore Roosevelt rightly said it was unpatriotic not to oppose a US president who fails his country. Similarly, succumbing to the Eurogroup’s Grexit threat would have been the most anti-European thing I could do. My goal was to strengthen Europe by turning it from an austerity union into a realm of shared prosperity. Unlike Johnson’s government, we had a fresh democratic mandate and a large majority, as evidenced by the July 5, 2015, referendum in favor of a progressive Europeanist strategy that told Europe: we do not want Grexit, but are prepared to take it if necessary.
Had I succeeded, today Europe would be stronger, more united, and better able to oppose Johnson’s natural ally in the White House. But, of course, unlike Johnson, I was a mere finance minister. Tsipras folded, and the result was another four years of crisis, fresh wind in Brexit’s sails, and a weaker EU as comprehensive austerity contributed to the eurozone’s economic malaise.
Those who assume that opposing the EU elite is axiomatically anti-European don’t understand that lazy acquiescence to that elite is a hard Brexiteer’s best ally. They are helping Johnson do a Dijsselbloem, not a Varoufakis.
Originally published at Project Syndicate, Aug 26 2019
Published by Irish Examiner, Aug 27 2019
and on Yanis Varoufakis’ blog
DiEMers from Sicily oppose Special Economic Zones
Unlike nearly all the people we know, this month we cannot go on holiday. With good reason: we live next to one of the largest and most polluted oil refinery harbours of the Mediterranean in Syracuse. And August is typically the month when industrial lobbies get their draft legislation passed.
And this is exactly what happened right now: following the example of the Special Economic Zones in Poland, on August 9 the Sicilian government passed its proposal for their ZES (Zone Economiche Speciali, Engl. Special Economic Zones), aimed at improving the logistics and commercial exchange with EU members. ZES are administrative areas where economic activity can be conducted on preferential terms which first of all means: simplified license authorizations and tax exemptions.
Cheered by both the political establishment and the populists as a much-needed boost for the economic development of the Industrial site, the designated areas in the Syracuse region are actually a further threat to our fragile environment. Approximately 500 out of a total of 700 hectares lie either on farming lands, such as wetlands and citrus groves or on oil-contaminated sites that need to be cleaned off first, including an on-shore oil deposit in the urban area of Syracuse.
DSC Augusta 1 made the case and their members’ concerns public and sent out a press statement. Shortly after, “Error404online“ published the article “Augusta, ZES in full August does not enchant DiEM25: it cancels environmental constraints“.
As the designated areas are subject to final approval by the national government, we urge everyone to appeal against such a draft taken without any local consultation. Based on our Green New Deal, my proposal is to link the benefits of the ZES to the long-awaited clean off of any contaminated industrial site first and then to reconvert all industrial activities from fossil to renewable energies.
We Are Millions
The Courage Foundation, supported by DiEM25, have launched #WeAreMillions, a massive photo campaign to demonstrate global support for WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange as he fights extradition to the United States, where he would face unprecedented prosecution.
Filmmakers Ken Loach and Oliver Stone, rapper M.I.A, economist Yanis Varoufakis, theatre director Angela Richter, philosopher Slavoj Žižek, and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges are among hundreds who have already taken a stand for Assange.
Along with digital social media promotion, #WeAreMillions (wearemillions.org) will be presented internationally as a public exhibition on all continents, in big cities and festivals around the world.
The project got early support from DiEM25 activists on the last day of our Academy event in Lisbon. Here the campaign’s first photos were made, garnering an impressive response.
In a time when many gave up on Julian, following almost a decade of character assassination and media bullying, DiEMers stayed strong in support.
We remember the beautiful words that DiEM’s Advisory Panel member Julian wrote from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London for the DiEM25 launch in Berlin:
“There was a dream of what Europe could be, and that is a dream that Europe has lost, and the lack of that dream is producing its fragmentation, it permits rogue states in Europe, states that compromise the genuine interests of the European people (…). That collapse in the dream of Europe is something that cannot be permitted, we must fight against it. Otherwise, winter is coming, war is coming, the end of Europe is coming, and either we must seize the day, and divert Europe from the course it is on… or else we will have to suffer through a very harsh night.”
About the concept
Journalists and whistleblowers are in jail or on trial, and their ability to hold governments accountable is at risk around the world. We are using an art platform to promote the right to know, to defend press freedom and to stand up for Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.
Our participative art piece and exhibition is based on three main pillars:
- We define a visual language that emphasizes individual portraits and their facial expressions while displaying cross-borders solidarity. As these photographs are collected world-wide and contributed with very diverse lights, colors and production quality, we decided to limit them to Black & White, to bring a visual unity of international solidarity.
- We display a diverse multitude. Ordinary persons and very prominent cultural, artistic and political figures are mixed together. We express a synergy of people, old and young, known and less known, standing against mighty and brutal power structures that for a decade are working to kill a courageous journalist in slow motion.
- We illuminate through action something that dominant media corporations have been trying to conceal over the years. By exhibiting this multitude of portraits in public space, our intention is to show the support of courageous individuals to the causes defended by Assange, beyond the attacks against his persona. We also demonstrate civil disobedience – the exhibitions are not always authorized – and a form of resistance to the dominant discourse. Courage is contagious. We want to spread it on the walls of our streets and beyond, to engage everyone to become part of the efforts of those who fight for truth.
As one song from Laibach says: “We are millions and millions are one.”
Performance with Gitte Sætre on a second opening of the exhibition in Media City after being censored initially. See more
Setting up the first exhibition in Media City with DiEMers and SAK’en (Art Collective). See more photos
Recent reply from Julian to a supporter, from Belmarsh prison’s hospital where he has spent recent months with deteriorating health, as a result of psychological torture and several years of detention without serious care.
We need to act now, to stop extradition and to save Julian’s life.
Start messaging and calling your friends to join the #WeAreMillions campaign and display it in your town. Several DSCs are already organizing exhibitions. Partner with the local organizations for Human Rights and Freedom of Expression, Art Collectives and galleries.
Bring people to take a photo with a sign. Join here!
We are all Julian Assange. We are his family and last resort for help.
Thank you for taking this seriously.