Weekend Economists Down Under May 23-26, 2014

[Demeter]

49. European Parliament Elections: Our choice between Euro-loyalists, Euro-sceptics & Euro-critics

http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2014/05/24/european-parliament-elections-our-choice-between-euro-loyalists-euro-sceptics-euro-critics/

In this European Parliament election, Europeans are confronted with a stark trilemma; with three competing narratives on the state of the Union one of which we must adopt and vote accordingly.

• The Euro-loyalist view The European Union, however frustratingly slowly, is nevertheless moving in the right direction. From blunder to blunder and from crisis to crisis, Europe progresses along the right path. Even if the institutional changes are too half-hearted, they are in the direction that will bring a better foundation for shared prosperity.
  
  
• Second Narrative: The Euro-sceptic view The way the European Union has been structured, it has become a steel cage in which Europe’s people languish. An irredeemably undemocratic bureaucracy that the people of Europe should dismantle forthwith, beginning with the Eurozone and proceeding to the insufferable Brussels bureaucracy.
  
  
• The Euro-critical view The Eurozone, and therefore the European Union, is not moving slowly in the right direction but relatively briskly in the wrong direction toward the fragmentation of its core, the impoverishment of its periphery, the weakening of its economies and the dissolution of its democracy. The only way it can be prevented from going down that hideous path, as it should be prevented, is if Europeans confront head on and decisively the dominant Euro-loyalist views of the Brussels-Berlin-Frankfurt triangle and the policies these underpin.
  
  Our vote in this election for the European Parliament will have to reflect one of these three views.
  
  
• Euro-loyalism is served by the political parties behind the candidature for the Presidency of the European Commission of Mr Yunker, Mr Schultz and Mr Verthofen. Christian Democrats, Social Democrats and Liberals are united in their loyalty to the view that Europe is on the right track.
  
  
• Euro-scepticism takes a great variety of forms: From UKIP and many of Britain’s tories to the Greek Communist Party, Ms Le Pen in France etc. They have no candidate for the Presidency of the European Commission both because it is impossible for such a diverse array of political forces to coordinate and because it would be paradoxical to run for an office which they want to see dismantled.
  
  
• Euro-critics are a much smaller force. Their project to save Europe from its establishment by confronting the latter’s Euro-loyalism is not an easy sell amongst the downhearted and confused peoples of Europe. The Euro-critics best, and possibly only chance, is the candidature for the Presidency of the European Commission of Alexis Tsipras.
  
  Our task is, before we choose whom to cast our vote in favour of, to clarify in our own mind whether we agree with the main thrust of the Euro-loyalists, the Euro-sceptics or the Euro-critics. I, for one, being a declared Euro-critic, will be casting my ballot tomorrow for Alexis Tsipras for the reasons explained in the video below and which I have codified at the video’s end in the form of a synopsis that is reproduced below. SEE LINK