MeRA25 as the only ray of hope on the day the recalcitrant Greek Right returned to office – Election Night message

Yanis Varoufakis

https://www.yanisvaroufakis.eu/2019/07/08/mera25-as-the-only-ray-of-hope-on-the-day-the-recalcitrant-greek-right-returned-to-office-election-night-message/

Greece’s Tories, the New Democracy party and its leader, Mr Kyriakos Mitsotakis, today are the victors in our general election. However, their victory that was set in motion on the night of the referendum (5th July 2015) by Mr Tsipras, the outgoing Prime Minister.

Lest we forget, it was immediately after the Greek people’s magnificent NO vote that Mr Tsipras invited the leaders of New Democracy and pro-austerity forces to help him convert the NO vote into a YES. Thus, a referendum that had the capacity to confine New Democracy to the dustbin of history was annulled and the people overthrown by an alliance of Mr Tsipras and New Democracy. Is it any wonder, once Mr Tripras passed every austerity measure and privatisation bill demanded of him by the troika with the implicit and explicit support of New Democracy, that New Democracy is back?

Today, on 7th July, the Greek people did what they have always done since their incarceration in our vast debtor’s prison: they overthrew a government that imposed a new troika bailout along with its poisonous preconditions. And so it is that another chapter of our debt bondage ends while another, darker one, is about to begin.

The only ray of hope in this bleak setting is the entry of MeRA25 into Parliament. DiEM25’s electoral wing in Greece was the pleasant surprise, entering Parliament with 9 MPs despite a total lack of funds and a sustained campaign of demonisation by the establishment and Mr Tsipras’ government.

Our commitment to the people of Greece, to the people of Europe is unwavering. We shall continue with a combination of constructive policy proposals and total disobedience to all those policies that hurt the many.

As of today, we embark upon a steadfast campaign against the most parasitic and cruel form of oligarchy that New Democracy will strive to erect upon the foundation of Mr Tsipras bailout agreement with the troika of Greece’s lenders.

Together with our comrades across Europe, and also as part of the Progressive International that DiEM25 co-founded, we shall fight both types of rising authoritarianism (that of the establishment and that of the racist ultra-Right), while connecting our resistance to the crucial campaign for a European and, indeed, an International Green New Deal.

Today, MeRA25’s share of the vote was a small number. But it was large enough to make a crucial difference – just like a small candle whose light is capable of penetrating the darkness.