But What if I Don’t Like Undemocratic EU-Imposed Austerity?

Anti-austerity Protests Unite Oppressed Majorities Throughout Europe

Special IssueMattha Busby — Published March 7, 2015

Europe is perhaps the most divided it’s been since the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The EU’s solution is largely more federalism and slow reforms at a time when many countries, including Greece, need radical change.

European students, voters and children don’t have much choice beyond voicing their discontent in the rues, roads and Straßen of Europe.

The President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, has been at the centre of Luxembourg’s “tax controversy.” He has faced questioning over corporate tax evasion schemes involving multinationals like Amazon, which the Luxembourg government approved under his leadership.

This nonchalance towards corporate tax collection is one which the lower classes and public sector workers of the (largely Mediterranean) states of Europe are, in part, paying the price for today.

Berlin imposed austerity on Mediterranean states with traditionally poor tax-collecting bureaucracies rife with corruption. Like it or not, they were part of the enlargement of the eurozone. But this is only going to further polarize politics where the centre ground refuses to reconsider austerity.

Saturday’s agreement between Greece and the EU—to “extend financial aid for four months”—is evidence that austerity can be prescribed with, at least, a human face. Alexis Tsipras’ outspoken opposition to austerity is proof that member states can at least negotiate with the EU over bailout terms.

This despite Juncker’s claims that “there can be no democratic choice against the European treaties. One cannot exit the euro without leaving the EU.”

There is no democracy within the high echelons of the European Commission. And the Parliament, which is elected by the voters in member states on a largely proportional representation system, is pretty impotent. It cannot veto or introduce the legislation which comes from the European Commission.

The EU, credit to them, has reached out to the citizenry of Europe and introduced the beginnings of what one may hope is a greater direct democracy. The European Citizen’s Initiative will allow 1,000,000 voters from at least seven EU states to introduce legislation through something akin to a petition. The threshold is so high, however, that one wonders if any group besides those with enough money to advertise their cause will be able to benefit.

The divide between rich and poor is growing, and so is the divide between the wealth of the northern states in the EU and those in the south. This has led to what Lluis Orriols describes as the “ideological divorce” between the PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain).

These states are edging towards the left, which tends to favour neoclassical economic policies over the neoliberal pro-austerity right.

Beyond the macropolitics of the EU, protest movements (which are often ignored by the mainstream media) are in full swing.

Anti-austerity student movements exist everywhere in the EU. Syriza, a party born from intellectual opposition to neoliberalism from the progressive left, was returned by the electorate as the government of Greece amidst student unemployment in half of that demographic group.

A party with similarly humble origins, Podemos, was formed out of the anti-austerity street movements, which have been frequent in Spain where over half of the youth are unemployed.

Podemos is leading at least one national poll in the run up to the general election this year, and some commentators are claiming they can muster enough support to break the stranglehold that the People’s Party and the Socialist Workers’ Party have exercised over Spain since the passing of Franco.

“Austerity means that the countries have no sovereignty anymore, and we became a colony of the financial powers and a colony of Germany,” said Pablo Iglesias, Secretary-General of Podemos, to Democracy Now earlier this month.

Other groups in Spain, such as Los Indignados (which Podemos was born out of) and ¡Democracia Real YA! continue to agitate for change. But the EU is merely the tip of their iceberg. What they truly aim to tackle is the glacier-like hunk of a political class which is indifferent to the will of the masses.

In Italy, as recently as this month, the L’altra Europa con Tsipras protest in solidarity with Syriza illustrated the opposition of both students and workers alike to Italian Prime Minsiter’s Matteo Renzi’s continued support for austerity, in addition to a lack of enthusiasm to his new Jobs Act meant to remedy youth unemployment to some degree.

Bulgarian students have been protesting throughout Sofia and elsewhere in response to few job opportunities and a general dissatisfaction with both their domestic government and the EU. Youth unemployment in Bulgaria was at 22.6 per cent in January, while Poland was at 21 per cent and Romania at 23.4 per cent.

In Italy, student protesters under the banner of “We Are The Great Beauty” have called for wider employment and improved education in their country. Italy’s youth employment is currently at 41.2%.

In the UK and in Germany, students are protesting against the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), which will erode the last remaining bastions against “free trade” between the US and the EU.

Students are protesting against it on the premise that multinational corporations will run amok as a result of this free trade agreement. A similar agreement, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, is currently on the verge of ratification between Canada and the EU, which is being protested against as well.

With regards to the elections to the European Parliament in 2014, it’s clear that Euroscepticism is on the ascent. It’s not that Europeans are skeptical of Europe—they’re simply suspicious of the EU.

In Spain, Podemos won five seats. Syriza won six in Greece and the street-based Five Star Movement in Italy, under the presidency of comedian Beppe Grillo, won 17 seats.

Europe isn’t just turning to the left, but also to the right. In France, the Front National (whose leader Marine Le Pen is—at the very least—xenophobic) won the European election. They now have 23 seats in the EU Parliament.

In the UK, the Thatcherite United Kingdom Independence Party won 24 seats. Polls showed a desire to leave the EU in the UKIP’s case and a general indifference in the case of the Front National.

The Austrian People’s Party (widely regarded to possess many neo-Nazi characteristics) won five seats, and Greece’s outrightly fascist Golden Dawn won three seats.

Even in the economically prosperous Germany, student grassroots movement Blockupy is growing in size and relevance, although German society largely favours the EU.

The democratic deficit in the EU, in addition to the austerity which is ruthlessly imposed upon states with poor tax-collecting bureaucracies (thus squeezing the public sector), is driving students towards polar opposites of the political spectrum, illustrating the failure of centrism.

In Ireland there are widespread protests against the government’s decision to institute charges for water usage (to which the Irish government is responding with political policing). These come after the anti-austerity student demonstrations organised by the Union of Students in Ireland in 2010, which the Irish Times described as “the largest student protest for a generation.”

Ireland is the only country to have had a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty (which moved the EU towards greater federalism, which the treaties of Amsterdam and Nice had begun). This agreement centralized the EU’s power, reducing national sovereignty. In fact, Ireland rejected the treaty.

Funnily enough, the EU sent the Irish back to the voting booths several months later on an altered premise which they then gave their assent to. This is how the EU’s priorities supercede nation-state democracy.

If the EU continues on the path to greater federalism, then this will have to go hand in hand with democratization. If it doesn’t, students will be forced to greater lengths to have their voices heard.

This democratization could take the form of a more powerful European Parliament, which would take power from the unelected bodies and referendums on EU membership and the Euro in states where the majority is clearly in favour of having their voice heard.

Marx predicted that capitalism would be succeeded by socialism when its contradictions became so stark that it created an arena ripe for change. If political parties, thinkers and movements alike continue to challenge capitalism, we may be in luck.

Austerity has failed Europe, the gap between rich and poor is starker than ever, and students are unhappy. No one knows what the rest of 2015 will bring, but I sincerely hope that we shan’t continue on the course of greater federalism without any accompanying democratization, austerity prescribed to states with little say in the matter and ever-growing student unemployment.