EUROPEAN SPRING

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

Yanis Varoufakis and the DiEM25 movement are making headlines with their call for a more democratic and just European Union. Varoufakis brings his experience dealing with the EU as the former finance minister of Greece to the table for the European Spring, a European Parliament electoral slate that includes an ambitious and audacious vision for Europe. Their recently-released manifesto can be found here.

Alphaville’s Jemima Kelly and Izabella Kaminska sat down with Yanis Varoufakis, former finance minister of Greece and current organiser of a trans-European group, DiEM25, of what he calls “radical Europeanists” — in favour of union, without deflation or austerity. Mr Varoufakis answers criticism from the left, pointing out that even if the euro or the EU were poorly conceived, leaving them now would have catastrophic consequences for the poor.

You can also hear the debate, if you prefer audio from video, click here

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!

The official story is one of creating a national champion, a German bank large enough to compete with American investment banks. The truth is far less heroic and a lot more sordid than that. Here is why Demokratie in Europa is campaigning against this merger.

In the last week of May European citizens will have their last chance to vote in a European Parliament election that makes a difference. It will be a paneuropean election where we can, perhaps for the last time, oppose both faces of authoritarianism across Europe: (A) The inane authoritarianism of the business-as-usual establishment, and (B) The authoritarianism of the xenophobic Nationalist International that is reinforced by the establishment’s policy of socialism for the bankers and austerity for the many.

For the whole podcast (that includes summaries of my answers in German), click here. For the English part only click here.

In der Nachspielzeit, die “Tagesthemen” warten schon, darf Christian Lindner noch einmal seinen Tweet zu den “Profis” erläutern, denen die Sache mit dem Klimawandel überlassen werden müsste. Wer schlechte Zähne habe, der gehe ja auch zum Zahnarzt.