“It is not a left lost in technocratic circles, it focuses on action.” This is how the new European party to which Podemos joined was presented: the Left Alliance for the People and the Planet. Irène Montero and representatives of La France Insoumise, the Portuguese Bloco, the Left Party (Sweden), Razem (Poland), the Finnish Left Alliance and the Red-Green Alliance (Denmark) defended the need to promote a “reunified” left. the “Now the People” platform launched in 2018 by Pablo Iglesias, Jean Luc Mélenchon and Catarina Marins, and which marks its distance from the Party of the European Left (PIE), although they share a parliamentary group in the European Chamber.
The promoters of the new party assure that their objective is not to promote a new parliamentary group, but they admit disagreements with the PIE, where the creation of a new party did not go well.
The representative of the Bloco, who, along with the Danish party, abandoned the other party, assured that these differences had lasted for a long time. “We think that the European party should have very concrete ways of engaging with citizens across Europe, that it should have really concrete ways of engaging on workers’ rights, on climate change, on feminism, and that he should be able to build common campaigns.” they can talk to all generations, including the youngest, about the change we want and have a party that focuses on campaigns and issues that can dialogue with citizens across Europe,” explained Marins, who considers that the PIE has “another type of organization.”
“We like a left that does not oppose itself, we like a left that can dialogue,” said Marins in a harsh criticism of the PIE in which he declared that the integration of new formations was not possible. Although he did not mention it, the emergence of Podemos is an example of a divide within the European left, where Izquierda Unida is under the umbrella of the PIE.
“We need strong links with unions, with NGOs, and this is one of the first objectives of our alliance. The second objective is to carry out concrete campaigns on taxation of the rich, on the right to housing, on the climate and transport, on the ceasefire in Gaza,” declared Manon Aubry, of France Insoumise, who is also co-president of the left group in the European Parliament, took the opportunity to harshly attack the socialists and the Greens because they are part of the majority which supports Ursula von der Leyen “They have accepted the coalition which is probably the one. The most far-right Commission we have seen in history,” he lamented.
“European elites responded to the crisis with a grand austerity coalition. Fourteen years later, these same elites are imposing a broad global consensus across Europe, with the support of social democrats, greens and right-wing parties,” said Irene Montero, who deplored the increase in military spending and support for “military escalation” instead of “protecting health care, education or feminist rights.” The grand war coalition was a pretext to bring Meloni’s far right to the heart of the war. decision-making process in Europe and will constitute a danger for the advancement of social and fiscal justice, feminist rights and policies for the care of the planet. This great war coalition wants us to believe that there is no. alternative, let them do it,” added the former Podemos minister.
Participants at an event in a hall of the European Parliament in Brussels called for a ceasefire and the fight against “genocide” in Gaza. They also demanded the breakdown of the trade agreement between the EU and Israel. But where disagreements arise is around support for Ukraine. While the Nordic or Eastern parties support the military support provided by the EU, forces like Podemos or the Bloco believe that the war should not be financed. But the contradiction itself exists within national parties, as in the case of the Finnish left, which was divided during the vote on the country’s entry into NATO.
“We are an anti-NATO coalition,” Aubry concluded. “The question is that once we say that we do not want to depend on the United States, (…) the question is: what do we replace them with? And how can we guarantee mutual aid within the EU? And this is what we are working on as an alternative proposal to the EU defense system which, for the moment, as proposed, is fully aligned with NATO principles, with NATO objectives and , therefore, on the United States”, explained the French MEP on the question of the strategic security of the EU, which presents divergences between the countries of the East and the West which are largely transferred to the national parties.
