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Francais
Friends and comrades,
It is a true joy to me that one of the first stops in our campaign for the European Parliament elections and for my candidacy on behalf of the European Left is here in Paris.
The Paris of the great social struggles, the great revolutions and the great disruptions.
A similar revolution, peaceful this time, a great disruption, is necessary for the peoples in Europe today.
Because today the European Union is in need of a radical re-orientation of its policy.
It is in need of a great change in the balance of forces, something which will constitute the first step towards a radical turn.
For its re-foundation.
And for its return to the values of solidarity, democracy, and social cohesion.
We are all present here today, all together, men and women, as fellow travelers in this great, in this difficult, but also fascinating voyage of hope and of change.
To change Europe.
To change our lives.
And in order for us to change Europe we need to re-immerse it in the principles and the values of the Enlightenment.
To the political imperatives of the French revolution.
To the very relevant today radicalism of the Eduard Herriot government—the government of the Coalition of the People of the Left.
Which around the beginning of the 1920’s put up a fight against the greedy bankers.
Against the “wall of money” that the Bank of France had raised to block the economic and social reforms of his government.
Today too, a new “wall of money” has been raised in Europe by neo-liberalism and its iron hand—the so-called “European Central Bank.”
Which is only a true replica of the Bundesbank.
We are dealing with a “wall of money” that far from stabilizing, it instead threatens the Euro-zone.
And it does so by favoring the spirit of national competitions.
Both economic as well as political.
And which it has taken two bloody wars for Europe to be liberated from.
They broke out, the first exactly one hundred years ago.
In 1914.
And the second one, seventy five years ago.
In 1939.
We have got to re-establish Europe.
By pulling down the new walls of division.
Between a wealthy North, with its trade surpluses.
And a poor South, with its trade deficits.
Between lenders and borrowers.
By pulling down the new walls that divides our societies.
Into societies of two thirds.
Which means, into societies where the two thirds of the population suffer continuously from the austerity.
And are moving at the brink of survival.
And where, on the contrary,
At the same time,
The other third behaves as though there is NO crisis.
And is becoming richer by and through this crisis.
There are many who think of us as excessively optimistic or even as word-mongers.
They are saying to us: you are not able to tackle such tremendous opponents, the banks and the markets.
But we know well that we can storm the Bastille of global neo-liberalism—that is today’s neo-liberal Europe.
All it takes is to draw upon the wisdom of the collective experience, stored through years of social struggle on the part of the peoples of Europe.
All it takes is to assess critically the lessons from the government milestones set by the Left during the 20th century.
Like, for example, the Popular Front of 1936.
Or, the government of the ‘common program of the Left’ in 1981.
Today, to be sure, the conditions still in existence around 1981 have been, unfortunately, overcome.
The socialists are shedding their progressive mandate.
And are instead co-managers in the neoliberal consensus with Mrs Merkel.
But we are obliged to put with no little force the following question to them, as well as to those social forces which have been following them till now:
On the side of which Europe are you?
Are you with the Europe of the markets and the capital, or with the Europe of the peoples?
The Europe of austerity that divides between North and South, through some virtual border along the Rhine, or with the Europe of social cohesion and solidarity that unites all peoples?
That is the dilemma.
And that dilemma is symbolized today in Europe, on the one hand by Mrs Merkel and her supporters, and on the other hand by SYRIZA and the Party of the European Left.
And when it comes to that dilemma one cannot be on board two boats at once.
Whoever proposes to do that, will end up in the water.
We have it as our goal to re-unite Europe, the very Europe that neo-liberalism is today pulling apart.
United.
All forces of the Left, everywhere.
Because what counts as leftwing today is everything that unites.
So we, in order to re-unite Europe, we must first unite our own forces.
We have done that in Greece thanks to SYRIZA.
And this unity has created a—surprising even to ourselves—self-reliant and strong social and political dynamic.
We can, together, change Europe.
We can work for a democratic, social, and ecological Europe.
With priorities:
The immediate termination of austerity and the cancellation of the Memoranda. In order to stop the most violent redistribution of income, wealth and power, done at the expense of the world of labor and in favor of capital.
The democratic re-foundation of the Euro-zone. In order that the European Central Bank should become a real central bank, meaning a lender of last resort and not only for banks but for countries as well.
A European Debt Conference. For a comprehensive and solidarity-preserving solution to the over-indebtedness by the Euro-zone.
A European ‘New Deal’. For the balanced and sustainable growth in the continent.
The ecological transformation of the process of production.
The reform of the European framework about immigration.
Friends and comrades,
Allow me to confess a deep faith of mine.
If the Francois Holland government was different, the entire Europe today would be different.
But, instead of counter-point and barrier against neo-liberalism and the “German Europe”, the Francois Holland government functions as a political multiplier of the government of Mrs Merkel.
As well as the preacher of the worst right-wing policy that Europe has ever suffered.
Because in the family picture of the European Right, Mrs Merkel sits on the right of Margaret Thatcher.
And even further to her right sits Mr. Samaras.
Only a few days ago.
Francois Holland himself.
Announced cuts of 50 billion Euros for the three years between 2015-2017.
Meaning, austerity, which reduce to recession an already anemic growth in France.
And because of France’s special weight in Europe.
The austerity of Francois Holland is for all of us in the Euro-zone another push towards recession.
Is it possible that Mr Holland has heard nothing about the international discussion with regards to the failure of austerity in Greece?
Can’t he see that the only accomplishment from austerity is the deepening of the economic crisis through the recession it certainly feeds?
While at the same time creating a democracy problem?
Because unemployment, poverty, and the hardship in survival generate fear and despair.
And let the ears open, unfortunately, of more and more people to the narrow and divisive political discourse of the extreme and populist Right.
Of the extreme and populist Right which does not represent a solution but is instead a great danger for the peoples of Europe.
With such an intolerant political program that limits itself to immigration and the regress of the democratic integration of the European Union.
Which particularizes the generalized fear from the crisis into a fear of the “Other,” the foreigner, the fellow man.
The fascists, the racists who are asking for the votes of those layers of the population hit hard by the austerity are raising immigration into a crucial dimension of the crisis.
Thereby declaring the neoliberal austerity not guilty.
Because on everything else the right-wing is completely neo-liberal.
It is for that reason that it functions politically as a tactical replacement force to neo-liberalism.
This is a role which it has proven in Greece.
With the neo-Nazi ‘Golden Dawn’ organization which pretends to be an anti-systemic force, while in reality it is nothing but the system’s longest arm.
It is for this reason that, in addition to Mrs Merkel, Mrs Le Pen too should be celebrating for the austerity imposed by Mr Holland.
Because it provides her with the necessary fuel for bringing the entire Europe under her darkness.
On May 25 then, the real dilemma is very clear:
On the one side, the political leaderships of the crisis.
The executioners of the neoliberal consensus. .
Of the policy of fear, recession, and democratic retreat in Europe.
The Right, along with the social-democrats of Mr. Holland and Mr. Schulz.
And on the other side, are the peoples of Europe.
Who, regardless of their ideological starting-point and their party preference are looking to us :
The European left of hope and change.
It is for that reason that we are addressing every active citizen, every democrat, progressive, left-wing, social-democrat, and socialist.
To participate in the elections.
To vote.
Because if she doesn’t do it herself, then someone else is going to do it for her.
Because that is the simple math of the ballot.
To vote with the mind and to vote with the heart.
The European Left is the only credible alternative force to seek to power against the neo-liberalism of conservatives and social-democrats.
To come with us in order to replace fear with hope.
To come with us in order to re-build the Europe of democracy and human rights.
Friends and comrades,
Today.
With your manifest presence.
You have offered a hope to change.
You have given strength to democracy.
You have given a prospect to the European Left.
On May 25 we will be the pleasant and positive surprise.
We will stand high in order to also RAISE high the democracy in Europe.
Farewell and thanks to you all.
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