• Papadimoulis: "We do not want to dissolve the Eurozone - our program has nothing in common with the extreme right"
• "Six years now we are trying the Berlin recipe; it is high time we turn to development. votes of the Greek citizens on January 25th can be a starting point for a positive shift for Europe".
The Vice President of the European Parliament and MEP of SYRIZA, Dimitrios Papadimoulis, spoke today on behalf of GUE/NGL, for the Conclusions of the European Council meeting(18 December 2014). After his speech he replied to a question of David Coburn (UKIP MEP of Mr. Farage), on whether Greece should leave the euro.
– For subtitles press CC on the video
Below is the transcript:
Dim. Papadimoulis: "Mr. Tusk, welcome to the European Parliament, but I honestly do not understand why you and Mr Juncker, who just left for the Council of the 18th of December are celebrating. Yes, you finished with it very soon, but what exactly did you decide in it? You simply exchanged wishes "Merry Christmas" and "Happy new year". What did you decide on the participation of member states in the European investment package? Will you join? With which amounts? Under what criteria will investments be allocated?And will they go where there is the most disinvestment, recession and unemployment? Or will it be "business as usual"?
Do you know that in December the Eurozone had negative inflation - deflation? Do you know that all Nobel awarded economists note the risk of deflation and a new recession cycle? Do you know that the world economy considers the Eurozone as its weakest link? Do you know that in those years, from 2009 until today, poverty, unemployment and inequalities have increased within Europe and the Eurozone, between North and South, between rich and poor, between rich regions and the southern?
Until when will the European Central Bank look to reassure the objections and blackmails of the Bundesbank and will not be functioning as the European Central Bank of all Member States by buying government debt, promoting quantitative easing?
Where are the new, fresh resources, which will succeed to implement the "package Juncker" -or the "fund" call it what you like, Mr. Verhofstadt? No one believes that leverage 1:15 can be achieved in this Europe of stagnation and deflation. Only Jesus Christ has achieved such wonders and Jean-Claude Juncker is not Jesus Christ.More people are beginning to say that we have to finally be done with this dogmatic, one-sided austerity that brings recession, unemployment, poverty, and disinvestment. Six years now we are trying the Berlin recipe; it is high time we turn to development. Towards a "New Deal" that will bring jobs, recovery of the social state, in conditions of a welfare state.
In a few days, we are voting in my country, Greece, and the votes of the Greek citizens on January 25th can be a starting point for a positive shift for a Europe of democracy, social, with jobs, with development. My party, SYRIZA, does not want to break up Europe, but to restore Greece as a fair, democratic, member state of the Eurozone, with growth, jobs, and a welfare State. Thank you.
Martin Schulz: "Mr Papadimoulis, I think we all agree that Mr Juncker is not Jesus Christ! Anybody has any doubts about this? No. You have a blue card for questioning by MP David Coburn, agree? Good."
Dim. Papadimoulis: "Thank you, Mr Coburn for the question. That is the main agenda of Mr Farage and Mrs Le Pen. Apply it, if your voters will let you, in your countries. We want neither to destroy the Eurozone nor for Greece to abandon the EU. We want Greece, as a member of the European Union and the Eurozone, to have no unemployment, no poverty, to develop, and for the rich to be paying, not the poor. Because in Greece ship-owners pay four times less tax than their crews do. That’s the program of SYRIZA and it has nothing in common with the ultra-right-wing".