“It is not a left lost in technocratic circles, it focuses on action.” This is how the new European party in which Podemos has joined has been presented: the Left Alliance for the People and the Planet. Irene Montero and representatives of La France Insoumise, the Portuguese Bloco, the Left party (Sweden), Razem (Poland), the Finnish leftist alliance and the Red Green Alliance (Denmark) have defended the need to promote a “reunified” left. around the ‘Now the people’ platform launched in 2018 by Pablo Iglesias, Jean Luc Mélenchon and Catarina Marins, and which marks distances from the Party of the European Left (PIE), although they share a parliamentary group in the European Chamber.
The promoters of the new party assure that their objective is not to promote a new parliamentary group, but they admit the disagreements with the PIE, where the creation of a new party has not gone down well.
The Bloco representative, who, together with the Danish party, has abandoned the other party, has assured that these differences have been going on for a long time. “We believe that the European party should have very concrete ways of dialoguing with people across Europe, it should have really concrete ways of dialoguing about workers’ rights, about climate change, about feminism, it should be able to build joint campaigns. “that they can speak to all generations, including the youngest, about the change we want, and have a party that focuses on campaigns and issues that can dialogue with people throughout Europe,” explained Marins, who considered that The PIE has “another type of organization.”
“We like a left that does not veto itself, we like a left that can dialogue,” said Marins in a harsh criticism of the PIE in which he stated that the integration of new formations was not possible. Although he has not mentioned any, the emergence of Podemos is an example of the fracture within the European left, where Izquierda Unida is under the umbrella of the PIE.
“We need strong ties with unions, with NGOs, and that is one of the first objectives of our alliance. The second objective is to lead concrete campaigns on taxes on the rich, on the right to housing, on climate and transport, on the ceasefire in Gaza,” said Manon Aubry, from France Insoumise, which is, Furthermore, the co-president of the Left group in the European Parliament. Aubry has taken the opportunity to harshly attack socialists and greens for being part of the majority that supports Ursula von der Leyen. “They have accepted the coalition that is probably the most extreme right-wing Commission that we have seen in history,” he lamented.
“European elites responded to the crisis with a brand or grand coalition of austerity. 14 years later, these same elites are imposing a broad global consensus throughout Europe, with the support of the social democrats, the greens and the right-wing parties,” said Irene Montero, who has lamented the increase in military spending and support for a “military escalation” instead of “protecting healthcare, education or feminist rights.” “The great coalition of war has been the excuse to bring Meloni’s extreme right to the heart of decision-making in Europe, and will be a danger to advance social and fiscal justice, feminist rights and care policies of the planet. This great war coalition wants us to believe that there is no alternative, that they are doing it,” added the former Podemos minister.
Those taking part in an event held in a room at the European Parliament in Brussels have called for a ceasefire and against the “genocide” in Gaza. They have also demanded the tearing up of the EU trade deal with Israel. But where disagreements arise is around support for Ukraine. While the Nordic or Eastern parties support the military support provided by the EU, forces such as Podemos or the Bloco consider that the war should not be financed. But the contradiction itself exists within the national parties, such as the case of the Finnish left, which was divided in the vote on the country’s entry into NATO.
“We are an anti-NATO coalition,” Aubry concluded. “The question is that once we say that we do not want to depend on the United States, (…) the question is: what do we replace it with? And how to guarantee mutual assistance within the EU? And that is what we are working on as an alternative proposal to the EU defense system which, for now, as proposed, is fully aligned with the principles of NATO, with the objective of NATO and, therefore, with the United States,” explained the French MEP on the issue of the strategic security of the EU, which has differences between the countries of the East and the West that are largely transferred to the national parties.
Source: www.eldiario.es
