Dijsselbloem isn’t an unfortunate comment, it’s the expression of neoliberalism
Article by Neoklis Sylikiotis, member of the Political Bureau of AKEL and AKEL MEP
27TH March 2017
“During the crisis of the Euro, the countries of the North have shown solidarity with the countries affected by the crisis. As a Social Democrat, I attribute exceptional importance to solidarity. [But] you also have obligations. You cannot spend all the money on drinks and women and then ask for help. This principle applies to personal, local, national and European level.”
This unacceptable statement by the President of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem to the German newspaper “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” constitutes a real provocation for the peoples and working people. On the one hand because of its sexist and racist implications. On the other, because these statements inflame the patience which the peoples in the EU and workers have shown.
These are the same peoples of the periphery of Europe who have been impoverished by the imposition of Memoranda and austerity policies and who have seen their own human rights violated. The working people of the so-called “hard-core” of the Euro zone have also seen their wages and rights curbed and frozen over the last 15 years, while at the same time the profits of the multinationals companies in their countries have risen sharply. All this done in the name of supposedly “boosting competitiveness”, as if the working people are competing with each other and not big business.
The austerity policies and Memoranda have shown the true nature of this system of exploitation. The peoples are being driven to mass impoverishment. The welfare state is being dismantled, while human and social rights are under merciless attack. Debt is forced upon the peoples as a means of imposing their dependence, at the same time as the bankers and multinationals are blessed.
In the EU, the Euro and Economic and Monetary Union are precisely the tools being used to deepen and institutionalize these policies, with the economic crisis as the pretext. Within the EMU the creation of the so-called fiscal union, and Banking Union are continuing the practices of speculation against the peoples, and subsequently they are demanding from the peoples that they be the ones to pay the damages.
For example, within the framework of the banking union, a common fund for bailing-out banks has been established, which they themselves had to finance. But the 55 billion Euros the fund provides for cannot under any circumstances cope with a collapse of the largest systemic banks, otherwise termed as “too big to fail”. At the same time, a general finance minister for the Euro zone is being promoted, whose position will transfer even more powers towards Brussels to the detriment of the sovereign rights of States to determine their own economic policies.
In Cyprus, despite the so-called “success story” which the Anastasiades-DISY party government is constantly propagating and the formal termination of the Memorandum, the neoliberal “therapies” that subsequently followed have brought the same disastrous results.
Unemployment has reached historically high levels (14.3%) with 32.8% of young people jobless, leading to enforced mass emigration. Working people’s wages are declining and poverty has risen. General income inequality has increased by 5% since 2008. At the same time the prospects for growth remain reduced. The health sector is characterized by inefficiency, a fact which limits people’s access to proper and effective treatment, health and medical care. Finally, the people bear more debt through privatizations, while the state loses significant sources of revenue. The scandal of the privatization of the port of Limassol is now a characteristic example.
Neoliberal austerity policies and Memoranda are therefore a component part of the Eurozone structure itself. The President of the Eurogroup didn’t make some unfortunate sexist and racist comment. He spoke as a representative of neoliberalism and capitalism. That’s the reason why the Confederal Group of GUE/NGL joined our voice with those calling for his resignation. Of course this by itself isn’t the solution.
To counter neoliberal austerity policies and Memoranda a powerful left, together with a mass trade union movement and social forces, is needed to defeat and reverse this undemocratic and anti-social structure. There are no simple solutions. We need ongoing struggles and to search for those solutions that will safeguard the rights of peoples, their social prosperity, peace and real solidarity – not those of Dijsselbloem.
