The president of the Party of the European Left (PIE), Walter Baier, considers Donald Trump’s victory to be “terrible.” “The results of the US elections are dangerous for Europe. They are dangerous and bad for the planet and the climate and will negatively affect the working class, not only in that country but globally,” he said in a meeting with journalists.
For the Austrian politician, Trump’s return to the White House “emphasizes the need to emancipate Europe from the tutelage of the United States and NATO.” “Europe must take care of its own security. To have security we need peace in Europe,” added the leader of the PIE, who considers that on this path it is “a bad idea” to enter the arms race. Furthermore, he has denounced the “double standards” of the EU in its response to the war in Ukraine and the “genocide” in Gaza.
Baier made this statement within the framework of the forum that the European party is holding this weekend in Budapest. The organization has chosen the Hungary of far-right Viktor Orbán for the event as a gesture of support for the Workers’ Party in a country where the opposition has a difficult time. Also as a reaction to the “strategic weakness” that the European left has in Eastern countries, as explained by the communist leader.
In Hungary, where housing prices have increased by 156% in the last decade, Baier has spoken out about the crisis that is going through all of Europe and which is one of the priorities that the party has set in this legislature. As a diagnosis, he has assured that the failure is to address housing as “a commodity” and not as a “right.”
“Every person has the right to affordable and decent housing. Spot. And States, communities and municipalities have to take care of this by providing sufficient investments, guaranteeing cheap loans for people who want to buy apartments and are now trapped for decades of their lives paying back loans,” explained Baier, who has set the example of how the model works in Vienna.
But he also believes that things can be done at the European level and has called on the European Commission to promote a directive that forces member states to put a cap on rental prices. “It could create a European fund for public housing in which it would grant cheap loans to municipalities. “Everything depends on political will and the money you are willing to spend,” warned Baier, who compared that will with the commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defense.
In addition to housing, Baier has assured that the other “priority” is to “contribute to the creation of a broad and pluralist pacifist movement in Europe” at a time when the PIE – of which Izquierda Unida is a part – has faced competition with the creation of the European Left Alliance for the People and the Planet (ELA), of which Podemos is a part. The two parties coexist, yes, in the Left group in the European Parliament.
Source: www.eldiario.es
