by afew
Thu Nov 25th, 2010 at 07:18:34 AM EST
Speaking from Strasbourg as co-chair of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, Daniel Cohn-Bendit made some remarks about the Irish situation that can be heard in this video (in French):
Here's a rough and incomplete translation into English of the main points:
The Irish problem is complex... (laughter) No, I mean it's not a for-or-against matter...
What's happening is that European banks are being saved that gambled at the casino and lost. Usually, if you lose at the casino, you lose. That's life. But here, we are saving the banks, but also a whole system behind them, in which...
Remember that Ireland annoyed us for years as deregulation champion of Europe... Commissioner McCreevy only knew one word, deregulation... Ireland boasted they had the strongest economy in Europe, company tax was the lowest, low taxes were the best system - and now they're paying for it, they have a State that is incapable of reacting...
So, we are saving, not just banks, but a system that is in itself a system of bankruptcy, a political system... It's the failure of neoliberalism and of deregulation..
Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't, because it's true there's more to it, if European banks went bust the economy would go too and everyone would get hurt...
But we [presumably the Greens] are going to push for calling a spade a spade - Ireland represents the failure of economic liberalism and the failure of deregulation.
Cohn-Bendit also made remarks (not on the same occasion) after meeting the Greek PM Papandreou (h/t rootless2):
France, Germany Forced Greece to Buy Arms: MEP - Defense News
PARIS - France and Germany, while publicly urging Greece to make harsh public spending cuts, bullied its government to confirm billions of euros in arms deals, a leading Euro-MP alleged Friday.
Franco-German lawmaker Daniel Cohn-Bendit said that Paris and Berlin are seeking to force Prime Minister George Papandreou to spend Greece's scarce cash on submarines, a fleet of warships, helicopters and war planes.
"I met Mr. Papandreou last week. I was in Athens. I've known him for a long time," Cohn-Bendit told reporters, accusing Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel and France's President Nicolas Sarkozy of blackmailing his friend.
Cohn-Bendit accused France and Germany of making their contributions to an IMF-led rescue package for the debt-ridden Greek economy contingent on Athens honoring massive arms deals signed by Papandreou's predecessor.
Neither of these contributions from Cohn-Bendit is easy to find in media coverage. In fact, to all intents and purposes (and counting a passing mention from Deutsche Welle (in French, h/t Migeru), the two given here are, as of writing, the only ones.
Update [2010-11-26 11:29:26 by afew]:
Still no coverage of this (that I can find).
Though the video has gone the Internet rounds, the maker EUX TV's partner Euractiv has posted no report on it.
The only write-up is the one in French from Deutsche Welle - which is reproduced by an African news site, Afrique Actu.
In English, this story on ET is linked to by Florida Today.
So, interest in Africa and in Florida, but none whatsoever in Europe.
Nothing from the Greens/EFA either. Though it looks like a press briefing, they have produced no press release at the time of writing.
So, Dany: are the Greens "pushing" to get this message out, as you say, or is that just posturing?
