Hudson, M. (2014) “EU Voters Turn Against Austerity“, Michael Hudson Blog, 29 May.
Reflecting on this topic, I add:
The US press and newscasts make it appear that Europeans have voted against poor immigrants and foreigners. What they voted against the super-rich, the oligarchy. The “foreigners” being opposed include the United States insisting on drawing NATO into its wars in Libya,Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan – and now, subsidizing Ukraine to confront Russia. The “nationalist” parties voted against the EU constitution written by the oligarchy to favor the banks against labor. It is a neoliberal constitution that prevents governments from running budget deficits of more than 3% of GDP – except of course to bail out banks and bondholders. It centralizes foreign policy in a US- and NATO-appointed bureaucracy of “technocrats.”
The US press characterized Sunday’s May 25 vote opposing this bureaucratic circumventing of democracy as a vote against “democratic Europe.” This is an Orwellian description of what happened.
Already in 2005, France and the Netherlands rejected the EU constitution. The EU’s response was to impose the right-wing Lisbon Treaty by fiat, not permitting any vote on membership. When Greek Prime Minister Papandreou sought a referendum, he was quickly replaced by a technocrat. Likewise in Italy, when Prime Minister Berlesconi sought a referendum, he was quickly removed by an EU “technocrat”.
This is not democracy. It is oligarchic extremism. And yet the anti-EU voters seeking to recover power for their national governments to run budget deficits to lower the unemployment rate below its current 10.5% is called extremist.
The underlying issue on May 25 was whether voters would support more economic austerity and privatization sell-offs. It is obvious that they didn’t.
Relevant posts:
- Ladi, S. & Tsarouhas, D. (2014) “The Politics of Austerity and Public Policy Reform in the EU“, Political Studies Review, 12: 171–180.
- Leonard, M. & Torreblanca, I. (2014) “The Eurosceptic Surge and How to Respond to It“, Policy Brief, European Council on Foreign Relations, 08 May.
- Vasilopoulou, S., Halikiopoulou, D. & Exadaktylos, T. (2014) “Greece in Crisis: Austerity, Populism and the Politics of Blame“. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 52: 388–402.