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Katja Kipping

EU – A New Start for the Fight Against Right-Wing Ideologies

On the EU summit in Brussels on 9 and 10 March, Katja Kipping, co-chair of DIE LINKE declares:

The fight against right-wing ideologies and violence can only be won if the EU is ready for a European new start. Therefore we need a clear break with the actual policy which banks on freedom for capital and cuts in social services while neglecting democracy and freedom rights as national accessories. Those who talk about human rights and democracy must not be silent about seclusion and armament. Hungary’s right to vote in the EU has to be withdrawn as long as it keeps people in detention camps, deprived of their rights and their freedom.

The EU must no longer be a bystander if a member state says good bye to humanity, justice, and any basic civil values. By turning a blind eye the EU is actually contributing.

The founding idea of the European Union was to never again see Europe’s countries turn in war against each other and that all people shall live according to the values of humanity in democracy, freedom, prosperity and peace.

Sixty years later the project of the European Union has lost its charisma. Ruling politics fuel social divisions and economic injustice. I am worried about the way European governments operate the European project coldly and without inspiration. Instead of peace, prosperity and democracy it is all about seclusion, armament and deportation. Human rights are outsourced to states which themselves commit crimes against humanity. Instead of building Europe as a center of creativity, cosmopolitanism and freedom, lack of ideas and frustration dominate the EU governments. When claiming to fight for freedom and peace, one should not create a continent of division and isolation by an EU army and barbwire, by crimes against humanity, and cuts in social services.

This EU needs a relaunch. Socially, ecologically, democratically, and peacefully. Everything else is no European community of states but institutionalized finance and economy lobbyism, in which freedom, democracy, and social basics fall by the wayside.