debating progressive politics in Europe and beyond
“Vous verrez, Antoine; dans quelques années ils feront comme si je n’avais jamais existé…” (You’ll see, Antoine; in a few years they’ll act as if I never existed…”) remarks the dying President Mitterrand to his idealistic young biographer in the Robert Guédiguian film Le Promeneur du Champs de Mars. Yet sixteen years after Mitterrand’s death, [...]
Business lobbies and conservatives have become extremely good at hijacking progressive policy concepts and perverting them into something that suits their own agenda. European economic governance is a perfect example of this. In the nineties, trade unions and progressive politicians were staunch defenders of economic governance. At the time, the idea was that if all [...]
Former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw recently argued forcefully that the European Parliament suffered from an ineradicable ‘democratic deficit’ and should be abolished, to be replaced by an assembly of national parliaments. Simon Hix argues that the evidence shows that the European Parliament successfully handles a massive policy agenda, and in most countries engages strongly with European [...]
In the aftermath of the most recent European Council, there was an avalanche of public statements which, in effect, put the Council’s policy package into serious doubt. One statement in particular deserves further analysis. In an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung on the 11th of December, Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann expressed the view that the [...]
And again, historians, sociologists, cultural studies academics and political scientists betray their academic duty. Earlier, they shied away from the problems of immigration, integration and Islam en masse. They turned traitor to their expert knowledge of human society by failing to signal the shadow sides of multicultural integration in a loud and timely manner. They [...]
The euro member states and the European institutions have not yet managed to come up with a convincing plan to surmount the crisis afflicting the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). This is due both to a false analysis of the causes and a reluctance to take decisive political measures. A review of Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung publications on [...]
The debate on Europe‘s future has become lop-sided. The fascinating idea of European integration, of finding a peaceful and cooperative order on a continent torn apart by wars and conflicts has deteriorated. We are left with a narrow-minded discussion on sovereign debt and its impact on interest rates and monetary stability. Developing a stable democratic [...]
What to do when pyromaniacs are extinguishing a house on fire? A house that has been set on fire by themselves. Do you leave them in peace or do you call them to order? That is one of the painful dilemmas of the contemporary eurocrisis. The metaphor of the EU as a burning house derives [...]
The financial crisis is threatening to destroy half a century of European integration. By nature, it is blind, brutal, literally inhumane. But in reality, it is primarily a test of the political will of the people in Europe and of those that they chose to govern them. In their great irresponsibility, the speculators have hit [...]
“I am appalled by the sums of money mentioned in the newspaper article. I believe that to work as a consultant, using one’s public image as a member of the European Parliament, is not compatible with the values of the Socialists and Democrats group.” This was the immediate, robust response of Martin Schulz, leader of [...]
The European authorities have had a year to address the sovereign-debt-come-banking crisis in the euro area. They have failed. The situation is much worse than a year ago, the latest manifestation being another downgrade of Greek sovereign debt. There is a real and present danger of contagion and the disorderly break-up of the euro area. [...]
How we view the world depends on our own perspective. Living in a mansion, for example, would give us a more benign view of life than if we were homeless. In politics, perspective is everything. It is what determines our priorities and drives our decision making. That is why the greatest challenge to a politician [...]
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