MeRA25

On Sunday 14th July, 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)

“We have to talk to people in a way that combines addressing these [economic] anxieties with the issues of the environment. Unless we manage to do that, we will fail.”

Kate Aronoff  Summer 2019
Yanis Varoufakis celebrating the anniversary of the Carnation Revolution in Portugal in 2018 (Pedro Ribeiro Simões/Flickr)

The left-wing party’s embrace of austerity created the conditions for a parasitic and cruel oligarchy to return
The Greek right is back: greedier, uglier and more focused than ever. The incoming New Democracy government is determined to reclaim full control of the state on behalf of the most parasitic segment of Greece’s oligarchy and, of course, of our country’s ruthless creditors.

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 (5th July 2015) by Mr Tsipras, the outgoing Prime Minister.

Amid the bad results for the Left in the European elections, the Greek outcome was particularly poignant. In the last such contest in 2014, Syriza rode the revolt against austerity to become the largest single party, in its final step toward national office. Five years later, in last month’s election, it finished ten points behind the right-wing New Democracy.

Nothing has ever been subtle with Yanis Varoufakis, the leather-jacketed, motorbike-riding economist who was finance minister of Greece for six of the most tumultuous months in that country’s history. Plain-spoken (to say the least) and a self-professed radical, he is, at 58, not nearly done waging war on Europe’s major power players.

For those of you interested in a glimpse into our Greek election campaign (European and national), here is a translation of MeRA25’s first radio advertisement for the forthcoming European and national elections (featuring, naturally, DiEM25’s theme music composed & performed by our very own Brian Eno). More radio and tv MeRA25 ads will follow soon.

For the youngsters who emigrated

For the youngsters who stayed behind

For the grandfathers who feel ashamed

For the grandmothers who sigh

For the parents who weep at the airports

On Monday 25th March, the EUROPEAN SPRING was launched at the Bozar Theatre in front of friends, supporters and hopeful citizens of Europe. For the first time in Europe’s history, a common list of candidates is presented across Europe promoting a single agenda – the NEW DEAL for EUROPE that we worked on together for more than two years. Europe has not had much to celebrate recently. Now we do!