Germany and the SPD’s Future on a Knife-edge
Germany’s SPD finds itself in a world of woe this week. As recently as 7 February, spirits were running high in the centre-left party after it agreed a deal to form another grand coalition (or GroKo) with Angela Merkel’s CDU and its CSU sister party. But on February 13, Martin Schulz — who was elected with great fanfare as the SPD’s leader in only March last year — abruptly resigned after confusion over his own role in the proposed cabinet.
Over the last year Schulz has presided over a slow collapse of SPD popular support as the party failed to present a clear and distinctive programme to the public, which resulted in polling last week placing Germany’s oldest political party at a record low of 16 percent – a hairbreadth in front of the far-right AfD at 15 percent. The party is dealing with a bitter GroKo vs. NoGroKo fight before members vote in early March on whether to accept the coalition deal, at the same time as a leadership contest unfolds.
It is hard to attribute the SPD’s woes to anyone but themselves. Eight years of coalition with the CDU-CSU out of the last twelve has seen its traditional policy areas absorbed by its larger coalition partner, and Schulz’s leadership failed to deliver on its promise of a rebirth. The SPD’s inability to present a clear alternative to prevailing neoliberalism and austerity has been a boon to the AfD and a capitulation to the CDU narrative. The choices before the SPD appear to be either irrelevance in another coalition or possible annihilation in another general election.
The only rational alternative open to the SPD is a pivot to a genuine radical progressive agenda, like that outlined by DiEM25’s New Deal for Europe. The centre is where progressive parties go to die: to preserve the status quo in today’s climate is to preserve the way for the far-right. As DiEM25 have said before, it is time to make a choice. Like the rest of Europe, Germany urgently needs an authentic people-centric, not establishment-centric, agenda. To be a part of forming this agenda, in Germany and beyond, join one of the many DiEM25 Spontaneous Collectives (DSCs) across Europe.
Owen is a member of the DiEM25 movement, currently based in Beirut.
Photo: picture-alliance/Zuma Press/O. Messinger
Tired Political Games in Northern Ireland
Talks to restart a devolved executive at Stormont broke down this week, leaving Northern Ireland without government for 13 months running — and in urgent need of a budget. The Democratic Unionist Party leader, Arlene Foster, walked away from negotiations over reported problems with carrying her party and its grassroots on an agreement she had made with their power-sharing partners, Sinn Féin, on the issue of Irish-language rights.
Foster and the DUP leadership were surprised to find a fierce backlash from the unionist rank and file over proposals to give Irish Gaelic legal status in Northern Ireland. Animosity toward any perceived concessions to republican interests — following many years of fomenting fear of an eroded British identity and a creeping progressive agenda — have scuppered Foster’s plans to return as First Minister. The DUP’s reaction has been to immediately appeal to Westminster to reintroduce direct rule.
But a return to direct rule from Westminster would be reactionary at best and dangerous at worst. Such a move is anathema to almost every other political party in Northern Ireland and sector of Northern Irish society. It risks increasing sectarian tensions and places the 1998 Good Friday Agreement itself in jeopardy. It places enormous strain on the UK government and its ongoing Brexit negotiations.
Indeed, the call for direct rule wilfully stokes acrimony in the middle of discussions towards a solution to the Irish border question brought on by Brexit. In essence, the DUP’s actions are an abrogation of responsibility and an unwillingness to make the hard decisions necessary to govern in the interests of all its fellow citizens. It is politics as ideological grandstanding and myopic self-interest.
DiEM25 are championing a different sort of politics: one that seeks to take the long and broad view, that seeks to address the pressing questions of our time, and one that is radically democratic and open to all. If you think it’s time for that kind of politics, then it’s time to join us and work for a progressive agenda for Europe.
Owen is a member of the DiEM25 movement, currently based in Beirut.
Corruption in the Union: Orban’s ‘Cash Register’
Fresh allegations have emerged that EU Structural Funds worth billions of Euros have been awarded to friends and family of Victor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary. The alarm has been raised by the EU’s anti-fraud office, Olaf, which says it has found “serious irregularities” over EU contracts. Orban’s circle are accused of using the EU as a ‘cash register’.
The charges of corruption fit well with Orban’s cynical, right-radical politics. The PM is a vociferous right-wing critic of the EU. He has compared it to the Soviet Union, and he is currently running a ‘Stop Brussels’ campaign.
Yet they are also somewhat ironic, given Hungary’s lucrative position inside the EU. Hungary remains one of the largest per capita recipients of EU’s economic development funds. Hungary is due to receive 25bn Euros over a 7-year period to 2021. However, a lack of an open competition process is cited which has resulted in sole bids being advanced by Orban’s family and allies. Most notably, his son-in- law, Istvan Tiborcz, won a contract to supply street lamps but these were charged at above market prices according to analysis carried out.
The MEP who leads the European Parliament’s budgetary control committee, Ingeborg Grassie, spoke of a new type of “semi legal” irregularity emerging whereby oligarchs become politicians and benefit at the same time from EU and national money for their companies.
DiEM25 has consistently campaigned for EU financial reform. These new charges against Orban suggest even more urgency to these reforms – not only to stanch out corruption, but also to strike at the root of Europe’s radical right politics in the process.
Jane is a member of our London DSC and blogs at www.ambitiousmamas.co.uk on feminism, politics and race. You can also follow her on Twitter.
Photo: THIERRY CHARLIER/AFP/Getty Images
DiEM25 is history in the making – be part of it!
It truly is an extraordinary and rare occasion to spot a day on a calendar and say: “I was part of a historic moment”. For our members, it’s true: they can mark February 9 in their calendars as the date they, along with tens of thousands across Europe, launched a new, radical movement to change the future of our Union.
And last night, DiEM25 members across Europe overwhelmingly voted in favour of launching ΜέΡΑ25 (MeRA25), DiEM25’s first political party in Greece, and approved our participating in next March’s municipal elections in Belgrade, Serbia.
This is history in the making. And you could also be part of it.
Two years ago, we set out to rescue the EU by launching the first pan-European movement to draft policies, campaign, bring awareness and pressure elected officials and institutions to adopt a progressive and humanist agenda for our Union. Last night, building on our activists’ arduous work, we activated DiEM25’s transnational political force to bring that agenda to ballot boxes in every corner of Europe.
You can check out the results of the votes here, and read about the launch of MeRA25 here.
So, on March 26 Athens will see the birth of DiEM25’s first political party. But the real work will start on the following day, when our Greek DiEMers will take to the streets, knock on doors across the country and spread the word about the programme that will revive the spirit of the Greek Spring – and prepare to shatter Brussels’ toxic agenda in 2019.
Meanwhile, a thousand kilometres away, our courageous members in Belgrade and the grassroots movement Ne Da(vi)mo Beograd/Don’t let Belgrade d(r)own will cross swords with the Establishment when they jointly contest the elections for the City Parliament next month.
Our movement remains the backbone of our struggle to upend the status quo. The ‘electoral wing’ is but another tool to help us accomplish our goals. As we agreed in our all-member vote last November, this is “not just another political party”, but a never-before tried, grassroots initiative to extend our battle to a territory the Establishment has long taken away from us: the ballot box. Our movement’s decision last night signalled that we’re ready to fight to return that vital territory to the people as well.
We’ve come a long way, and the road ahead is as full of opportunities as it is full of challenges. With your continued support – and with the full strength of our growing base of activists – we can and we will build a new democratic Europe.
We’re counting on you to keep on making history. Transnationally. Bottom-up. Together.
We have white smoke!
DiEM25’s members overwhelmingly approved the name of our new Greek electoral wing – the political party with which DiEM25 will contest elections in Greece, returning the spirit of the Greek Spring to the place of its birth.
As with all major DiEM25 decisions, members voted from across Europe, confirming once again that another Europe is not just possible – but that it is here, within DiEM25! This is the splendid innovation that DiEM25 has ushered into European and national politics, turning European Internationalism into a reality and a European Demos into a tangible possibility.
And the name of our Greek party?
MeRA25
EUROPEAN REALIST DISOBEDIENCE FRONT | DiEM25
Why ‘front’?
- Because Greece is suffocating in a Europe that is deconstructing itself
- Because, as long as countries like Greece are suffocating, Europe will be deconstructing itself, thus reinforcing the suffocation of Greece
Only a broad, unifying, paneuropean front against our Oligarchy-Without-Borders, that is responsible for Greece’s debt-bondage, can ever give breathing space to Greece and relief to its citizens.
Why ‘European realist disobedience’?
- Because the only way to be a responsible Greek citizen today is to disobey the ludicrous policies that are responsible for Greece’s dessertification
- Because the only way of respecting Greece’s Parliamentarianism, Constitution and… common sense is to end the blind obedience to the directives of the troika and its domestic agents
Authentic Greek Europeanists, today, understand that they have a duty to disobey the incompetent pseudo-technocrats who, on the altar of narrow oligarchic interests, are sacrificing Greece while de-legitimising Europe.
Why MeRA?
Because ‘mera’ in Greek translates into ‘day’, or ‘diem’ in Latin. And because Greeks have had enough of the long night of debt bondage to which they have been condemned for so many consecutive years.
Until then, we call upon all European democrats who were cheered by the news of MeRA25’s impending birth, and who think this is a beginning worthy of their support, to visit this page and register their practical support.
This is merely the beginning. Greece is merely the beginning. Onwards to our pan-European campaign, culminating in the May 2019 European Parliament elections!
Carpe DiEM25 (and… MeRA25)
Is Europe truly recovering?
Nobel laureate Paul Krugman wrote an opinion article last Sunday arguing that Europe is recovering steadily from the 2008 financial crisis. Indeed, graphs and numbers suggest as much. But we should be sceptical whether this economic recovery will result in widespread economic gains, and even more sceptical that it will suppress Europe’s political shift to the far right.
Underneath the graphs and numbers, there is a much quieter story of daily struggle and disappointment. People are hesitant to believe that Europe’s future is bright. Even the International Monetary admits that income inequalities grew across generations in Europe. In the meantime, the rich are getting richer worldwide, boosting income inequalities even further. How can we call this a recovery if its gains go so disproportionately to the very top?
Even Krugman’s analysis acknowledges an exception: Greece. This raises additional challenging questions. How can Europeans really and truly recover if some countries are left with strict austerity for decades to come? Is Europe a ‘success story’ if youth unemployment is at 40% in Greece? This, of course, under the economic stewardship of the troika.
At DiEM25, we believe that a true recovery means radical and progressive European Integration and Democratization. All European institutions need to put the people of Europe as their priority. This will only be achieved if we organize and demand change collectively! Join us here and let’s fight together!
Aris is a member and volunteer of the DiEM25 movement.
Invest in bitcoins and all your previous financial sins will be forgiven
It was too good to be true: a currency for the people, by the people – and against the big speculative capital. Bitcoin was widely acclaimed by both sides of political spectrum for its radical potential: libertarians and right-wing marketers, who saw it as an escape from abusive state-controlled institutions, as well as by anarchists on the left, who saw it as basis for collaborative organization forms beyond Wall Street. Its radical potential cannot be overstated. As Scott Brett writes in his recent wide-ranging study, Bitcoin could have been not only a mechanism for grassroots financial transactions – it also offered a chance for countries in the Global South to extricate themselves from their dependence on the Northern banking oligopoly. Much of this was good, as in the case of Islamic Hawala’s cooperative schemes. And some of it was bad, as in the case of money laundering for terror networks and drug cartels.
Alas, Bitcoin appears to have fallen into familiar traps. Yanis Varoufakis warns us about the fantasies of “apolitical” money – the fundamental tendency for our currencies to create sharp fault lines between the aristocracy and a new “Bitcoin proletariat”. He clearly demystifies its original mantra “the more people drain into <>, the more stable will it become.”
But that does not mean that we should lose sight of the potential of the underlying technology. Blockchain can empower borrowing and credit purchasing directly between people and the state, as well as a lower cost alternative to the existing private bank system. Looking to the DiEM25 European New Deal, the Blockchain could provide crucial support to the Public Digital Payment Platform, presented in detail in Appendix 2 of the proposal. According to this scheme, the central European bank would retain its key role to regulate the money supply and to support, jointly with reformed European institutions, the public investment program at the core of our New Deal. But the Blockchain could radically expand access to these financial services – creating a new finance for the many against the few.
Bogdan is a member of DSC Bucharest, but also a humble engineer living in Munich. His main points of interest are socio-political issues of South-East Europe, as well as promoting DiEM25 there.
Join voices against the fascist cult of violence – “Long Live Life! Down with Death!”
Last Saturday in the centre of the Italian city of Macerata, a young man affiliated with the extreme-right opened fire on Gideon Azeke, Jennifer Otiotio, Mahmadou Touré, Wilson Kofi, Festus Omagbon and Omar Fadera. They were singled out because of the colour of their skin and their African origins.
Several days prior to the attack, several suitcases had been found in Macerata containing the mutilated body of a young female drug addict, Pamela Mastropietro. The principal suspects of the grisly murder at present are two Nigerian drug dealers. The gunman who perpetrated Saturday’s attacks said in his confession that he’d gone out hunting black people to avenge the young girl’s death, and with the intention of killing every immigrant selling drugs. The media were quick to portray the attacks as the acts of a mentally unstable individual or as crimes of passion, but the environment in which the attacks occurred weakens the case for either of these explanations.
On the contrary, rather than avenging the young woman’s murder, the gunman sought to send a clear message to his compatriots: immigration is a threat to all of us, particularly for the most vulnerable members of society.
Unfortunately, this message found itself an eager audience. Leaders of the Italian ‘far-right’, notably Matteo Salvini and Georgia Meloni, have seized every opportunity to hammer it home, stating that while the attacks were of course criminal, ultimate responsibility for them rests with “those who would fill Italy with migrants.”
Our response must be to call things by their right names: what happened in Macerata was an act of fascist terrorism, the most serious attack of its kind since Italy’s “Years of Lead.” This act was intended not only to sow terror among people of colour living in Italy, but also to play on the pervasive fears that haunt Italian political opinion concerning immigration. Furthermore, beyond matters of political opinion or party affiliation, the theatricality of the attacker’s surrender to the police displayed precisely those elements constituting the essence of an underlying fascist ideology: that is to say, fascism as an obscene death cult. Why then do Italy’s political leaders seem unwilling to recognise these facts?
The centre-left’s failure to recognise the racist and fascist nature of the shootings is nothing less than the culmination of a series of abdications of responsibility. These abdications, like self-fulfilling prophecies, have been the logical outcome of the assumption that Italian public opinion has been won over by a “xenophobic” or “anti-anti-fascist” common sense. Accordingly, progressive forces in Italy have tolerated the emergence of what Hannah Arendt called “race-thinking,” which is now in the process of solidifying into a genuine “racist ideology.”
Immigration tropes
The “immigration as a social problem” trope has become an established fact across the political spectrum, with the result that the divide between different political options has shifted from the question of the problem itself to that of its possible solutions. Therefore, the various political actors, while not necessarily engaged in “race-thinking” themselves, have come to adhere to a single discursive framework in which immigration policy becomes the fundamental problem.
It does not matter how much effort is put into statistical evidence proving the falsity of the idea that “native Europeans” are being invaded and replaced by African migrants. As Hannah Arendt reminds us, an ideology is not a theoretical doctrine, but an arm of mass persuasion appealing to the “immediate political necessities” of men and women, in other words to their lived experience and desires.
There is no point in calling for thoughtful reflection and silence, as did the mayor of Macerata, when, fearing further division and violence, he called for the cancelation of an antiracist and antifascist rally organised for February 10 in his home town. Rather than appeasing tensions, the silence the mayor calls for runs the risk of leaving an open space for the voices of those who sow hatred, because at the moment, it is those voices who occupy the foreground of public debate.
Silence no solution
It is for this reason that the struggle against the sort of barbarity we have seen in Macerata calls not for silence, but for powerful symbols. We must counter the pseudo-heroic acts of the fascist gunman with thousands of daily acts of resistance. We must counter the fascist death cult with the phrase used in the Zapatista communities of Chiapas to welcome visitors who come as friends: “Long live Life, down with Death!” With this in mind, we of DiEM25 Paris and DiEM25 France welcome the success of last Saturday’s rally, which, despite all opposition, drew thousands of committed citizens to Macerata and sparked solidarity demonstrations all over the world. We invite all who want to stop the race to barbarism on our continent to seize any occasion to speak up against racism and fascism, in a spirit of solidarity and constructive disobedience.
Viva la vida y muera la muerte!
Nicola Bertoldi is currently pursuing a PhD in history and philosophy of science at the University of Paris 1 and is an active member of DiEM25.
Translated by Simeon Gallu DiEM25 Paris
Photo: Danilo Balducci/Press Assocation.
DiEM25 returned to Berlin to celebrate its second birthday!
This weekend, DiEM25 returned to Berlin to celebrate its second birthday. Since its launch in February 2016, DiEM25 has grown into a network of thinkers, activists, and political challengers fighting for democracy across Europe. The Berlin birthday celebrated this progress – and set out an agenda for building on it in the run-up to the 2019 European elections.
Over the course of the weekend, we partied, held workshops, conducted panel discussions, and – of course – had brunch. Below is a brief recap of these events.
Thank you to all those who could make it, and we hope to see the rest of you at a DiEM25 event soon!
We began by celebrating our 2nd birthday on Friday night at Kreuzberg
The day after, Saturday, we hosted six workshops on the following topics:
1) Creative Resistance
2) Urban movements
3) Green Transition
4) Liquid Democracy
5) Electoral Wing
6) Democratic Technologies
The goal of the workshops was twofold: to learn together about how to build a new, democratic Europe, and to build ties across our movement. The workshops were open and informal, allowing participants to come together around these core themes and strengthen the links between DiEM25 members and local citizens.
The topic of the event “Future Structures” gathered a lot of interest, in particular, feeding into discussions on how to build DiEM25’s the ‘electoral wing’.
Our Coordinating Collective-members, Lorenzo Marsili, Agnieszka Wisniewska and Srécko Horvat and DiEM25’s Volunteer Coordinator, Judith Meyer, presented their ideas.
They stressed that the Electoral Wing is only possible with the insight of all our members in different countries, who help establish the right solutions for the different political landscapes.
The ‘electoral wing’ aims to bring our ideas to a broader audience. The European Parliament elections in May 2019 offer us a chance to ‘hack’ the space.
As Lorenzo Marsili put it: “We want to change the common sense in Europe, instead of sending some random people to the European Parliament”.
In the evening, we welcomed Meral Cicek, member of the Kurdish liberation movement, for a panel discussion.
She spoke about democracy, internationalism and feminism within the Kurdish movement.
When asked what we can do in Europe to support the region, she underlined keeping the connection between pro-democracy movements around the world.
She also said that Europeans should concentrate on their own struggles.
Srécko picked up on this, reminding everyone of how European and especially German weapon exports fuel Turkey’s military offensive in Afrin.
The weekend came to a close on Sunday morning with brunch at Technical University Berlin.
Sebastian Eis, the event’s principal organiser reflected: “It was an inspiring and enlightening event.”
Indeed, the event was a great success and another step in the right direction of our long and ambitious journey.
The workshops and discussions were recorded and will be published soon!
