DiEM25 Italia: Salvini's threats must be countered!
Salvini’s perfidious calculation: He provokes a government crisis in plain summer and could not be blamed for the chaos the adoption of Italy’s new budget will unevitably bring about in September. Because people want to see implemented what Salvini’s Lega promised at the cost of further debts for Europe’s second highest indebted nation. Be sure that we will hear him shout: with me this wouldn’t have happened! And guess who will win the following elections.
Here is DiEM25 Italy’s comment on this situation:
In DiEM25 Italy we follow, with extreme attention and concern, the development of Italy’s governmental crisis, triggered by the arrogance and opportunism of the Interior Minister Matteo Salvini while he continues to ride the wave of consent shown by recent polls.
Arrogance, because Matteo Salvini asked for “full powers”, disregarding the institutions of the Republic and our constitution, particularly the layout of Italy’s parliament.
Opportunism, because a government crisis inmidst of August relieves Salvini’s Lega party of the responsibility to adopt the national budget in September which must avoid an automatic VAT increase to 25%.
The current crisis of government also jeopardizes the choice of who shall be the Italian member of the European Commission. This position has to be assigned by August 26.
For this reason, we hope that the Parliament – the only institution which by constitutional rules is responsible to form and unseat governments – will not decide for snap elections. They would put our country and the whole of Europe in serious trouble.
Although Matteo Salvini’s Lega had emerged from the snap elections back in 2018 only as the third political force, they soon managed to impose Lega’s trademark on the entire executive, which has in fact become the first xenophobic and nationalist government of Western Europe.
We believe that the anti-immigration policies pursued by the Lega are presumptuous. Although they are focused on demonising migrants, minorities and NGOs, the Lega hasn’t ever shown any interest in solving this issue, as demonstrated by Salvini’s desertion of the debate on the reform of the Dublin Convention in the last European Parliament legislature.
In fact, the real objective of the Lega’s policies – in coherence with the Berlusconi governments and Donald Trump’s tax reform – is dismantling the principles of social redistribution, progressive tax and the welfare state.
Instead, they demand the implementation of one or two tax brackets, which would only benefit high and very high incomes, thus further widening the range of socio-economic inequalities.
The lack of coverage (an estimated 50 billions) for the so-called “flat tax” for super rich foreigners looking to live in Italy (which is more or less the same as for the non-dom tax in the UK) is another reason for Salvini’s timing of this government crisis: in his absence from government, it will lead to another severe clash with the European Commission because it violates EU budget constraints and will create new threats to the stability of the single currency – caused by a political force that has more than once evoked the return to monetary sovereignty for Italy.
These threats to the Italian institutions, to minorities and to European unity must be countered.
We therefore urge progressives to react on this highly troubling scenario. Let’s propose a different agenda, a new way of thinking, showing that there is a third way between the European establishment and nationalism and that different sorts of social relations are possible. In order to contrast Salvini’s policies, we badly need alternative and distinctive proposals which are both radical and feasible.
We propose policies capable of filling our watchwords with meaning: ecological transition in the first place (beginning with abolishing contributions to fossil fuels which amount to 19 billion euros per year), promotion of a circular economy, investments in research, culture and education and the fight against austerity policies which cause growing poverty, wage and social dumping as well as increasing inequalities.
These policies will not be possible without a reform of the European Union. DiEM25 as a transnational movement was born with this aim, with its feet in different countries and its head in Europe, to reform both.
MeRA25: “We will deconstruct each and every of your toxic proposals!“
Ιt’s now a month since the result of the Greek national elections put MeRA25 inside the Greek Parliament, the first DiEM25 electoral wing to pass that threshold, blazing the trail for others to follow. So what have MeRA25 been doing inside the corridors of EU-dictated legislation? What we have always been doing: battle on many fronts.
The newly elected New Democracy government really hit the ground running, firing legislation from all cylinders, opting for a “shock and awe” legislation carpet-bombing that would take as many hills as humanly possible before “the enemy” had a chance to form an army. The heavy use of military metaphors is not an accident. This is the most male-gazing, patriarchal, clan-operating, status-quo worshiping and pro-troika government in recent history.
MeRA25 set its mission statement during the Programme Declarations, the opening day of Parliament, when every party sets forth its mission statement for the upcoming four-year period.
Yanis Varoufakis’ first speech started with a bold declaration: that MeRA25 will signal the end of the “we’ll sign everything” era that turned the country into a debt colony. He went on to describe MeRA25’s role in this parliament: not only to deconstruct each and every toxic proposal of the government but to put forward more coherent, technocratically sound counter measures. MeRA25 is also planning to bring back political civility by actually voting in favour of any government measures which are in accordance with our programme and helpful to the many.
A few days later, it was time for the test run: the first pieces of proposed legislation from the government revolved around minor but significant patches to the Taxation system. Namely, a more rich-friendly reconstructing of the real estate tax ENFIA and a slightly polished version of a legislation introduced by the SYRIZA government, thanks to which indebted professionals could settle their debts in 120 installments.
On these, our response was a socially fairer version of ENFIA, and, in tune of our promise to vote for helpful legislation, the approval of the 120 installment plan. BUT: we declared it loud and clear that none of this would be any good if a key measure wasn’t immediately taken – the abolishment of the 100% prepayment of next years’ taxes, a truly sadistic measure that cripples the economy. The government’s response was to reject our proposal as being “unrelated to the legislation in question“. (Just to add insult to injury, the government incorporated a totally unrelated tycoon-favouring regulation inside that very legislation).
Next week, the last before Parliament closes for 10-days summer vacation, the Mother of All Legislation will be presented to the Parliament for a flash vote. It includes everything AND the kitchen sink – from Local Authority regulations to the abolishment of Academic Asylum. This behemoth was distributed for reviewing Friday evening, and MPs are expected to study and vote on it in only a handful of days. This is continuing the tested tradition of the Memorandum era, when 400 pages long legislation written by Troika technocrats were incorporated into law by MPs who didn’t even bother to read them.
And just like in the Memorandum era, Yanis Varoufakis and a small but dedicated group has vowed to give them a hard time!
"Boris Johnson is locked into a No Deal, Trump Deal Brexit" – Yanis Varoufakis on BBC Radio 4
Interview with DiEM25 co-founder and MeRA25 MP, Yanis Varoufakis, on BBC Radio 4 about Brexit and Boris Johnson, new UK Prime Minister.
Click below to listen.
What the Labour Party-DiEM25 collaboration is all about – speech (audio) by Yanis Varoufakis
On Sunday July 14, the Labour Party and DiEM25 leadership teams agreed to embark upon a common agenda for Europe and beyond.
Later that day, the collaboration was announced at the closing plenary of the International Social Forum convened by the Labour Party at SOAS, London and opened by Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party. Introduced by John McDonnell, Labour’s Shadow Chancellor of the Excequer, Yanis Varoufakis explained the task ahead.
(Photo taken after the event during a joint interview by Corbyn, McDonnell and Varoufakis)
Against the fossil huggers!
Green is a symbol of hope — but it is also a source of great social wealth.
In his How are we going to explain this, Dutch journalist Jelmer Mommers shows that a truly sustainable transformation leads to millions of new jobs, lower health costs, less climate damage and growing incomes.
According to Mommers, the current, weak Dutch climate agreement nonetheless provides 39,000 to 72,000 full-time jobs; seven green jobs for every fossil job that disappears. Expected costs up to 2030: just under two billion euros per year.
By way of comparison: every year the Netherlands spends about eighty billion euros on healthcare and social security, about ten billion euros on defence. “With this little two billion, we can take the first steps to clean up the urban environment, mobility, agriculture and energy supply. Not an unpleasant return on investment, for a country that is a quarter below sea level.”
Mommers then describes how investors worldwide are currently missing out on billions because they won’t let go of their fossil fuels. An analysis of October 2018 shows that the New York State officials’ pension fund would have raised 22 billion dollars more if it had sold its investments in fossil energy companies ten years earlier. This would have yielded 19,820 dollars per pension participant. Another analysis shows that British public pension funds have also lost nearly one billion dollars due to the decline of coal.
That’s why in Trump’s America more coal plants are being closed than under Barack Obama. Established energy companies such as Shell and BP will find it increasingly difficult in the coming years to grow in their old oil and gas market. According to Mommers, the most important question is: who gets the growth? And the answer in the energy sector is increasingly: the sustainable alternative. In 2017, 45 percent of the global growth in energy demand was supplied by electricity from the sun and the wind.
Mommers concludes that an existing sector is already starting to shrink not long after a good alternative has presented itself. Take the Kodak photo rolls. The growth that the Kodaks of this world had expected was absorbed by the digital competition.
The Democracy in Europe Movement 25, DiEM25, aims to introduce such a fast, job-creating, green transition in Europe by 2025. DiEM25 has drawn up a well thought out, ambitious and crystal-clear political programme in which the necessary 500 billion euros are invested annually in green infrastructure and green industry. This rapid transition will be financed by green bonds issued by existing European investment banks. These bonds will be covered by an alliance of European central banks.
The need is obvious. Even the economic interests are clear. But established short-term interests do not give way. This is not new. What’s new is that this time it’s a matter of urgency if we want to keep our planet liveable. DiEM25 is the only European political movement that has a plan for the whole of Europe, hundreds of times more ambitious than the Dutch climate agreement. But the media and politicians are silent about it. In this way they fail to make our current billions of losses known to the general public. And to give a unique climate plan the attention and thus the votes needed for European growth, jobs and clean air.
MeRA25 as the only ray of hope on the day the recalcitrant Greek Right returned to office
Greece’s Tories, the New Democracy party and its leader, Mr Kyriakos Mitsotakis, today are the victors in our general election. However, their victory that was set in motion on the night of the referendum (July 5, 2015) by Mr Tsipras, the outgoing Prime Minister.
Lest we forget, it was immediately after the Greek people’s magnificent NO vote that Mr Tsipras invited the leaders of New Democracy and pro-austerity forces to help him convert the NO vote into a YES. Thus, a referendum that had the capacity to confine New Democracy to the dustbin of history was annulled and the people overthrown by an alliance of Mr Tsipras and New Democracy. Is it any wonder, once Mr Tripras passed every austerity measure and privatisation bill demanded of him by the troika with the implicit and explicit support of New Democracy, that New Democracy is back?
Today, on July 7, the Greek people did what they have always done since their incarceration in our vast debtor’s prison: they overthrew a government that imposed a new troika bailout along with its poisonous preconditions. And so it is that another chapter of our debt bondage ends while another, darker one, is about to begin.
The only ray of hope in this bleak setting is the entry of MeRA25 into Parliament. DiEM25’s electoral wing in Greece was the pleasant surprise, entering Parliament with 9 MPs despite a total lack of funds and a sustained campaign of demonisation by the establishment and Mr Tsipras’ government.
Our commitment to the people of Greece, to the people of Europe is unwavering. We shall continue with a combination of constructive policy proposals and total disobedience to all those policies that hurt the many.
As of today, we embark upon a steadfast campaign against the most parasitic and cruel form of oligarchy that New Democracy will strive to erect upon the foundation of Mr Tsipras bailout agreement with the troika of Greece’s lenders.
Together with our comrades across Europe, and also as part of the Progressive International that DiEM25 co-founded, we shall fight both types of rising authoritarianism (that of the establishment and that of the racist ultra-Right), while connecting our resistance to the crucial campaign for a European and, indeed, an International Green New Deal.
Today, MeRA25’s share of the vote was a small number. But it was large enough to make a crucial difference – just like a small candle whose light is capable of penetrating the darkness.
The results are in – and we made it into the Greek Parliament!
The results are in!
MeRA25, DiEM25’s political party in Greece, has got into Greece’s national parliament with at least nine MPs, according to the latest official vote count as of 23:40 CET.
Yanis Varoufakis, newly elected Greek MP and MeRA25 leader, described the party’s result as “an amazing feat”.
We’re here, Yanis said, “to implement in practice our constructive disobedience, our European internationalism. We have a remarkable opportunity to break down this wall of silence, the troika-heavy and troika-dominated politics of this land, indeed of this Europe.”
For Yanis’ full statement see the video below.
DiEM25 Academy in Lisbon
On Thursday June 6, the day before the official start of the Academy, participants gathered for a welcome evening meet-up in one of the most diverse areas of Lisbon’s downtown, Intendente. Getting to know each other a bit in a relaxed atmosphere set us ready to go for a busy but promising next day.
The morning of Friday, June 7, saw us gather in the lovely event room of the Escola Secundária de Camões, one of the oldest city’s secondary schools. Members of the local DiEM25 Spontaneous Collectives (further in text DSCs), Lisbon and Oeiras, kicked off the morning with a Speed Meeting exercise, so we have the chance to make our introductions. A “Back to Basics” – Q&A workshop followed, during which we covered the internal organisation of the movement and its functioning bodies, with an open floor to all participants.
This paved the way to the next workshop, “Brainstorming & DSCs,” focused on the engines of ideas and action: the DiEM25 Spontaneous Collectives. We started with a reminder on how DSCs are created, what can they do and how can we join existing ones. The participants were split into groups in which they provided concrete proposals especially on how to help more members join into DSCs and how to apply some good practices in fostering fluid activity of their members.
After the lunch served in the sun-bathed school yard, the “Movement Building & Grassroots Mobilisation” workshop ran in two parts. During these two sessions we discussed the challenges and perspectives on action in a horizontally organised movement. Examples of experiences of the present DiEM25 members were presented and we learned techniques to reaching out to the new and already existing members, turning ideas into proposals and actions and building the movement further.
To make the best out of the fact the city of Lisbon is in the month of “Festas de Lisboa” (Santo António street celebrations) we went to the Lisbon old town Mouraria neighbourhood for a street party dinner organised by a local NGO. Working for a better future, we all learned, must be done with joy and in great spirits.
Academy’s second day, June 8, started with a workshop on “Municipalism and Rebel Cities,” where we had a chance to learn about ways of organising and acting on a city level. Members also formed groups to brainstorm and present their ideas “Gender and Diversity” workshop that followed spurred a very interesting and much needed debate, guiding us through real life stories and implications of the way our societies act and react regarding the session topics.
“Environment and Climate Change” was out next hot topic, in a workshop that combined thought-provoking presentation with audio effects, helping us locate ourselves as a species in the wider natural system and recognise the responsibilities we must assume in this respect.
We concluded the working day with “Migration and Refugees” workshop, going through actual individual cases depicting the migrant crisis in Europe and its consequences, both from a personal and a wider perspective.
We continued to exchange on various topics touched during the previous days at our dinner which took part in another Lisbon old town neighbourhood. From there, we headed to more local celebrations, mingling through the smell of sardines and jolly street parties
Our last Academy day, Sunday, 9 June, brought us to the lovely Gulbenkian park – an open air green oasis within the city, where we shared part of our picnic food with the local residents, the ducks, and attended a meeting with activists from different organisations acting locally: Consciência Negra (focusing on discrimination of persons of African descent, Climaximo (climate changes activists), a relatively new Union of Call Centre employees, some members of Extinction Rebellion Portugal, and Rede 8 de Março (Feminist network platform). Participants in the academy had a lot of questions and made close contact with the activists present.
After the exciting morning and picnic it was time for the Teambuilding & Wrap up session – which brought us very useful techniques and concepts to be applied in our future activities within our work groups – It couldn’t have ended any better!
To continue the good vibe and to digest all the acquired in this intense prolonged weekend, we joined the Outjazz festival party in yet another beautiful garden, allowing once more for our discussions to continue in a more informal manner.
All workshops in the academy were organised by grassroots members interested in a certain topic and the teamwork done proved to be even better than initially expected!
Grateful for all the experience and exchanges gained, we are looking forward to the next fruitful gathering,
Carpe DiEM!
DSCs Oeiras & Lisbon
Climate Strike Without Borders – Aachen, June 21
Tomorrow, Friday June 21, the first international climate strike of Fridays for Future will take place in Aachen, Germany.
Pupils, students, parents, scientists, teachers, artists and everyone else from a total of 16 countries are heading to Aachen to go out onto the streets to demand fair and responsible climate policies.
DiEM25 activists will also take part in the demonstration because the climate crisis is one of the most pressing problems of our time.
Aachen borders directly on the Rheinish mining district. With its coal-fired power plants, it is the largest CO2 source in Europe! In addition, the geographical proximity of the city to Belgium and the Netherlands directly emphasises that climate protection requires pan-European measures.
We call these measures a Green New Deal for Europe. That is why we are taking to the streets on Friday. What we need now is not another endless debate. Instead, we need a policy that meets the scale of the challenge humanity faces.
Join us in Aachen on Friday!
Time: Friday, June 21, 11:00
Location: Aachen, Germany, in front of the C.A.R.L. lecture hall