Hace unos cuantos meses me uní a DIEM25 en Holanda. Como a algunos de vosotros/as os sonará, Yanis Varoufakis, ex ministro de economía griego durante el primer gobierno de Syriza, fundó a principios de 2016 este movimiento con el principal objetivo de democratizar la Unión Europea. Basándose en esta premisa, y con apenas un año de existencia, ya somos más de 44.000 personas adscritas en más de 56 países (incluida España, por supuesto) y con unas cuantas campañas a nuestras espaldas. Desde Holanda, y en mi caso como coordinador de Utrecht DSC y parte del equipo de contenido, estamos organizando un gran evento de presentación de DIEM25 en el país, con la presencia de Yanis y de varios prominentes políticos holandeses el próximo Domingo, 26 de Febrero a las 20:00 de la tarde. El evento se desarrollará en habla inglesa y será retransmitido en Live Streaming. La importancia estratégica de la fecha lo determina ni más ni menos que estaremos a menos de un mes de las elecciones generales Holandesas, donde el partido de extrema derecha y anti unión europea, PVV, junto con su líder Geer Wilders, parecen estar a un paso de ser el mayoritario en uno de los feudos más importantes de la UE. A continuación os transcribo un texto de producción propia (en Inglés) utilizado a efectos de enmarcar el carácter del evento en particular y de DIEM25 en general para el desconocedor del mismo:
A destructive crisis has severely affected World’s economy, having terrible consequences in Europe. Indeed, the bankruptcy of Lehman brothers in September of 2008 triggered sovereign debt problems in the EU: Ireland (2008), Portugal (2010), Spain (2012), Cyprus (2012) and, over all of them, Greece (2010, 2012 and 2015), were unable to finance their government debt, leading them to a de facto country’s failure. A lot of money was injected into their respective economies in order to rescue the situation (around 660 thousand million Euros in total) during almost a decade, and the problems are not yet facing a resolution phase. The European Union reacted with tardiness in most cases, deepening into the neoliberal recipes that provoke this situation and completely ignoring the voice of the people. Which means, us. Just some cyphers regarding the Greek crisis from 2015:
• During the first two rescues (110.000 and 240.000 million Euros, respectively), only 10% of this quantity remained in Greece. The rest 90% was used to repaid debt, from which a vast majority (around 70%) belonged to German and French banks. It could be considered that Germany and France were rescued at that moment. ;
• Unemployment, which was around 9,3% in 2009 rises until 27,9% in 2013 (by the end of 2016, 23,3%). During that year, almost 150.000 jobs were destroyed per month.
• Youth unemployment rises until 62% in the worst years (2012-2013) from 22%. By the end of 2016 it is still around 46%.
• The minimal salary was reduced from 818 Euros to 684 euros/month (Barely above the poverty line -600 Euros/month in Greece-).
• Today, almost 45% of the Greek pensioners perceived below this cypher because pension loans were reduced around 48% from 2010.
• The share of the population living at "risk of poverty or social exclusion" is 36% by the end of 2016.
• After the biggest rounds of privatizations in history enforced to the country, Greece today is totally intervened. It is a protectorate of the EU, in where no public assets remained under the property of the Greek government.
And Greece is still facing the most severe EU memorandum ever. The ideologists of these economic obligations were enlisted in the Eurogroup, an informal convention of all the EU economic ministers that decides the economic future of all the Europeans. But astonishingly, it is not accountable within the EU: officially, people cannot ask them for responsibilities. As an example, Greek people (61%) rejected in 2015 their duties in a referendum and, however, the EU did not listen.
Short time after this unfortunate episode, the crisis of the refugees definitely exploded in 2014. Almost 2 million illegal migrants reached EU lands, mostly running away from wars and a lot dying in their way across the Mediterranean sea (roughly, 3500 people, in 2014; 4000, in 2015; and 5000, in 2016). Showing this situation, how did the EU reacted? By the end of 2015, when more than 7000 people had already died, more than 1.5 million of asylum requests were registered and migrants were stacked under inhuman conditions in retention camps, the EU lands agreed a quote per land for the distribution of 160.000 migrant. Just for the 8%… In November of 2015, the terrorist attacks in France were the excuse for some countries to reject this agreement, arguing a lack of security, and some countries (Greece, Bulgaria, France, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia and Estonia) decided to start constructing walls to stop the migrant stream. Although specifically prohibited, the EU allowed it with an explicit silence. Moreover, in the beginning of 2016 and against all the recommendations, the EU designed Turkey as a “safe country” in order not to contravened the international law for the subsequent agreement for controlling the human flow. It allows the EU to send migrants to Turkey before processing the asylum request. The dictatorial derivation of the Turkish government compromised the deal and at present, no solution has been taken 3 years after the initiation of this humanitarian crisis, partly aggravated by the EU participation in the Syrian civil war.
Lastly, the 26th of June, 2016, the British people decided by a pyrrhic majority (51,9%) to leave the EU. The campaign for the “leave” was dominated by xenophobic feelings and political parties that favored them (UKIP and the conservative branch of the labor party, mostly). Partly influenced by the refugees crisis, the anti-immigration discourse surrounded the politic arena, being finally successful. It was a critical moment, because the irreversible character of the EU, strongly challenged by the Greek crisis, was definitely destroyed. And it could not be the only one. A lot of anti-EU and anti-immigration political parties are possibly reaching important quotes of power (if not the government) during 2017 in different countries, highlighting among others, the France (Marie Le Pen, Front National), the Dutch (Geert Wilders, PVV) and the German (Frauke Petry, AFD) cases. New referendums about the permanence in the EU could come with unpredictable results. Among others, these three important ephemeris generated the Leif-motif of DIEM25: the EU is going to disintegrate, probably in the near future, unless the situation changes. What kind of EU do we want? One sensible to the intervened economic misery of people or one concentrated in the devolution of a bad administered debt? One place of welcome or one place completely fortified with walls? One state enjoying people’s diversity or one condemning the foreigner to the poverty and criminality?
Además, en pocas semanas se publicará el New Deal Europeo de DIEM25 (podeis encontrar un resumen aquí), realizado mediante una consulta a nivel europeo de todos los DSCs existentes dentro del movimiento. Este documeno marcará la línea de actuación en los próximos meses no sólo del grupo sino también, quién sabe, de la política europea a corto/medio plazo.
Nada más. Decir que también escribo de vez en cuando alguna entrada en el blog de la organización. Si tenéis algún tipo de inquietud al respecto y/o os veis representados por el movimiento podéis sin ningún problema contactar con las miembros de DIEM25 cercanos y dar más difusión a los enlaces que aporto en la presente entrada.
Ya basta. Es tiempo de cambio. “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society” (Jiddu Krishnamurti).
