A good
example of neoliberal “rationalism”
EU
ELECTIONS
by system
failure
This was
probably the final conclusion that came from the debate for the
presidency of the EU at the end through the question from the
moderator Monica Maggioni. The answer by the head of the European
Greens, Ska Keller, who seems to have a special sensitivity on this
matter, was also quite revealing.
Keller said
clearly that the lobbies in EU are so deeply involved in various
decisions that there are times when their representatives forget to
remove the headlines with the names of the companies on the amendments
in Brussels' corridors! She also said that lobbies spend millions in
order to influence lawmakers and commissioners. This is the picture
of Europe today, further details are obviously unnecessary.
For the
rest, the debate was something that more or less someone should
expect. Even the positions of the candidates were signaling that the
people who organized this debate, knew from the start what the
candidates would say according to their political agenda.
Starting
from the left of the panel, Alexis Tsipras, representative of the
European Left, most intensively criticized the destructive policies
of the European neoliberal economic empire. He made straight
questions to Juncker related to the austerity policies, the recent
revelations for the backstage of the Greek crisis, the substitution
of the PMs in Greece and Italy with the banking puppets Papadimos and
Monti, and, the dark role of banks and their enormous
responsibilities.
Tsipras
didn't receive any substantial answer, as expected, but it seems that
he gained popularity with his straight speech. He also correctly
criticized the new plan for the banks, the bail-in - which
Verhofstadt defended with passion - since those who will be called to
pay for the banking crises first, are the depositors:
http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2013/07/why-banksters-laugh-with-recent-ecofins.html
Next
to Tsipras was Ska Keller. She clearly stood against the
transatlantic agreement between EU-US (in contrast with Verhofstadt
who defended it warmly). She also said that Europe should end banking
speculation. She stood against Putin and the annexation of Crimea,
claiming that Europe should stop selling weapons to Russia and that
should stop depend on Russia for energy supply. Her most successful
statement, of course, was that concerning the lobbies in Brussels.
In
the middle of the panel, the head of the European Socialists and
current president of the European parliament, Martin Schulz, spoke
generally, using a neutral rhetoric, saying for example that we need
a combination of fiscal discipline and development-fighting tax
fraud. This kind of rhetoric is frequently used by Socialists in
Europe, although due to their long presence in power, they completely
serve lobbies and vote for laws to serve specific interests against
the majority, mostly in periods of crises.
At
the right of Martin Schulz, Jean-Claude Juncker, from the European
People's Party, who strongly supports the neoliberal agenda, he
defended fiscal discipline in constant denial concerning the
destructive policies in Greece and European South. He stated openly
that, despite that corruption must be dealt in member-states and in
European level, no one can forbid specific teams to act according to
their interests! Someone should tell Juncker that these things are
going together. When you allow specific groups (mainly banking
lobbies) to act free and impose their interests to European
organizations, then you will get corruption.
He
also supported that Europe does not invest enough because the budgets
of the countries do not allow this, due to the high debts and
deficits. Someone should also tell him that, the Greek debt and
deficit are in worse position than in 2010, when Greece was excluded
from markets, and this is due to the policies as well as the banks'
bailout with billions - according to recent data from the Hellenic
Statistical Authority
(http://failedevolution.blogspot.gr/2014/04/greece-deficit-at-127-and-public-debt.html)
- which he supported.
Finally,
at the right edge of the panel, next to Juncker, Guy Verhofstadt,
from the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party, he
appeared as the purest representative of the neoliberal Right, as he
supported with passion the European completion and unified market by
purely economic terms in favor of the big companies. In essence, he
defended monopolies and the transatlantic trade agreement between the
EU and US. Like Juncker, he admitted that, no one can avoid
lobbyists!
He
insisted too on fiscal discipline and he said that the political
parties in Greece were supported by the banks because they were under
the Greek Public control. It seems that he doesn't know very well the
Greek situation as even the Bank of Greece is not under the Greek
Public control. Unless that he made such a shallow statement in order
to hide the fact that private banks and local big businesses in Greece
were doing "business" with the Greek political class of the
past decades, in order to blame the "bad" Greek Public,
which is responsible for all this situation in Greece, a position
promoted by the neoliberal propaganda since the beginning of the
current crisis.
He
stood clearly against Putin and read a statement from the famous
former chess player, Garry Kasparov, in which Kasparov called Putin a
dictator, but as expected, he didn't say a word for the support of
neo-nazis in Ukraine by the EU/US.
An
additional interesting fact from the debate was that the two
candidates at the left of the panel, Tsipras and Keller, were the
youngest and those who spoke with passion against interests, banks'
speculation and supported a Europe of solidarity putting people at
the center of the political decisions, while at the right of the
panel, the older Juncker and Verhofstadt, appeared more conservative
and "rationalists", defending "underground" the
neoliberal agenda. However, no one from the panel dared to speak
about the support of neo-nazis in Ukraine and to point the huge
hypocrisy of the West which supposedly deeply "concerns"
about the rise of the fascism.
The
whole debate here:
Recent history : Honduras > the Maldives > Paraguay > Ukraine > Greece
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