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#12 SUMMER The AUTUMN 2019 3.00 € Progressive Post

SOCIAL, FISCAL & CLIMATE JUSTICE: the right-left cleavage is still alive!

Featuring contributions from :

Laurent Berger Wlodzimierz Cimoszewicz Wolgang Engler Geert Mak Luuk van Middelaar Frances O’Grady David Sassoli SPECIAL COVERAGE Maria Skóra 2019 EUROPEAN ELECTIONS Joseph Stiglitz LESSONS TO BE LEARNT …

NEXT LEFT NEXT ECONOMY 30 years after the fall The future: of the Berlin Wall the 4 days working week

NEXT SOCIAL NEXT DEMOCRACY NEXT ENVIRONMENT NEXT GLOBAL Urgent: social 'Power to the people': Participatory Regulating pesticide use Nuclear arms control infrastructure investments Budget & Direct Democracy in the era of Trump

July - Aug - Sept - Oct - Nov www.progressivepost.eu ProgressiveThe Post

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PUBLISHING DIRECTOR László Andor EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Alain Bloëdt DEPUTY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Olaf Bruns EDITORIAL COORDINATOR Karine Jehelmann EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Ania Skrzypek, David Rinaldi, Vassilis Ntousas, Maria Freitas, Hedwig Giusto, Charlotte Billingham, Laeticia Thissen, Justin Nogarède TRANSLATORS & PROOFREADING Nicky Robinson, Amandine Gillet, Alice da Costa Pereira, Louise Hanzlik, Stéphanie Bessalem PROOFREADING Louise Hanzlik, Stéphanie Bessalem TO READ - book reviews by François Segers, Olaf Bruns, Karine Jehelmann, Mafalda Dâmaso, Ania Skrzypek COORDINATION & GRAPHIC DESIGN Triptyque COVER ILLUSTRATION Peter Willems - Vec-Star PHOTO CREDITS Shutterstock, The EU’s Audiovisual Media Services COPYRIGHT © FEPS – Foundation for European Progressive Studies

N°12 - Summer Autumn 2019 ISSN 2506-7362 EDITORIAL Social, fiscal and climate justice: the right-left cleavage is still alive! by Maria Joao Rodrigues, FEPS President

The European project can only have a future if it over- ▪ Making Europe the leading case of green and comes the status quo imposed by conservatives and just transition in line with the Sustainable neo- and if it refuses to fall into the trap pro- Development Goals posed by national-populists. Regaining control over our lives in a time of globalisation is only possible if ▪ Defining the European way to drive the digital we address social, fiscal and climate justice and if we revolution rebuild democratic sovereignty at all levels from local to national and international, with the European clout ▪ Revamping the education system to prepare as a crucial one. citizens for a digital era

At the same time, the Social Democratic agenda can ▪ Developing the European Social Pillar to fight no longer be implemented in the limits of national old and new social inequalities and raise social borders. If we want to ensure a fairer welfare system investment in the age of energy transition and digital transforma- tion, we need to build regulation, re-distribution and ▪ Reshaping the financial and tax systems to sup- taxation policies with more European coordination. port this grand transformation That’s why we cannot escape a debate on social, fiscal and climate justice! ▪ Adopting a European budget to prepare for the future and to promote upward economic and We need to build on the encouraging message com- social cohesion, including in the ing from the recent European elections for more climate action, social and tax fairness and democracy ▪ Building up a European migration policy when we are now defining the starting point and the direction of new legislature in the . ▪ Organising a long-standing partnership with Crucial political battles on the way to govern the EU Africa for cooperation and development are and will take place: the growth strategy for the next 10 years, its translation into a multiannual finan- ▪ Updating the EU Global Strategy to strengthen cial programme, the new EU Global strategy, the way multilateralism and assert our values to deal with Brexit or the implications of no Brexit, the choices on enlargement, the partnership with ▪ Asserting a feminist Europe as a game changer Africa, the European migration policy, the ways to in all levels of the political system: local, deepen regarding defence, the regional, national and European Eurozone, taxation or the social dimension. ▪ Making the young generations’ aspirations our Against this background, some priorities should main to sail in troubled waters deserve particular attention to prepare the EU agenda for the next five years: #12 Contents

SPECIAL COVERAGE

P.32 The European elections: a step ahead for women’s rights by Zita Gurmai P.34 Out of the Doldrums by László Andor

DEBATES

2019 European Elections - lessons to be learnt

P.7 EU Governance in the new term by Enrique Barón Crespo P.9 Making the the guarantor of the independence of European citizens by David Maria Sassoli P.12 "The question about Europe is: NEXT LEFT will this ship be repaired in the middle of the storm?" 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall Interview with Geert Mak, by Olaf Bruns P.15 House of cards "European Version" P.36 "A decade before the Berlin Wall came down, the corrosion by Alain Bloëdt of the social welfare state started with the neoliberal turn" P.18 Sweden: an example for the recovered strength of Nordic Interview with Wolfgang Engler, by Olaf Bruns Social Democrats by Håkan A Bengtsson P.39 Social Impacts of Transition Eastern Europe: P.21 The Iberian driver for European Social Democracy a multiple transition crisis by Javi López by Mitchell A Orenstein P.23 The V4 after the EP election: glass half empty, P.39 Hungarian democracy from best in class half full by Maria Skóra to failing grade? P.25 "The technocratic approach is not credible anymore" by Péter Niedermüller Interview with Luuk van Middelaar, by Olaf Bruns P.40 From open doors to a closed society P.28 Young people are interested in more than “youth” by Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz by Maj Jensen Christensen

2 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 DEBATES

NEXT ECONOMY P.64 Direct democracy to empower parliamentarism The future: the 4 days working week and public discourse by Ralf-Uwe Beck

P.42 Continuing the fight for shorter working time by Frances O’Grady P.44 Towards a 4-day week P.46 It’s time for a 4-days working week! by Aidan Harper

NEXT SOCIAL Urgent: social infrastructure investments

P.48 Boosting long term innovative investment in social NEXT ENVIRONMENT infrastructure. A possibility to modernise social models Regulating pesticide use in Europe by Lieve Fransen P.51 Social investment for the full development of human P.65 Pesticides: Is there sufficient awareness? dignity by Giuseppe Provenzano and Andrea Ciarini by Karine Jehelmann P.54 Social investment if not now, when? P.66 Pesticides: regulations disconnected from by Anton Hemerijck and Robin Huguenot-Noel environmental challenges by François Veillerette

NEXT DEMOCRACY NEXT GLOBAL 'Power to the people' - Nuclear arms control in the era of Trump Participatory Budget & Direct Democracy P.68 The EU and lifting the shadow of nuclear proliferation P.58 Lisbon: A decade of participatory budget by Glyn Ford by Miguel Silva Graça P.70 Europe must stand up for its core security interests P.59 Grenoble: Initiative and referendum in a hostile context by Leo Hoffmann-Axthelm by Raul Magni Berton P.72 Nuclear arms: P.60 Learning about intensifying democracy saving the international rules-based system from other continents by Kate Hudson by Giovanni Allegretti P.72 Saving P.62 Empirical effects of direct democracy in the time system of Trump by Stefan Voigt by Adriano Iaria

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 3 #12 Contents

FOCUS

P.90 It’s time for systemic change by Saïd El-Khadraoui P.92 Global tax injustice: what are the solutions? by Antonio Gambini

Social, fiscal and climate justice: the right-left cleavage is still alive!

P.73 The deceptive opposition between nationalists and progressives by Anne-Claire Defossez and Didier Fassin P.96 Reforming tax policy: a European fight! P.76 Horizons and demarcation lines: what are the relevant by Joseph Stiglitz, Margit Schratzenstaller and cleavages for the next political battles? David Rinaldi by Ania Skrzypek P.100 Why ’s low tax policy has survived for so long by David Jacobson P.102 Strengthening social policies to counter nationalists Interview with Laurent Berger, by Alain Bloëdt

P.78 Defending : fighting for a more equal society by Patrick Diamond P.80 Ending inequality before it’s too late by Marissa Ryan P.83 Debt brakes -political narrow-mindedness at its worst by Heinz-Josef Bontrup P.86 The Eurozone crisis: an accident waiting to happen INSPIRATION by George Papaconstantinou P.106 TO READ P.88 The new European Parliament: tackling the triple injustice of climate change P.108 TO THINK by Celine Charveriat P.109 TO WATCH

4 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 The Contributors to The Progressive Post - #12

Maria J.Rodrigues Enrique Barón Crespo David Maria Sassoli Geert Mak Alain Bloëdt page 1 page 7 page 9 page 12 page 15

Håkan A Bengtsson Javi López Maria Skóra Luuk van Middelaar Maj J. Christensen page 18 page 21 page 23 page 25 page 28

Zita Gurmai László Andor Wolfgang Engler Mitchell A Orenstein Péter Niedermüller page 32 page 34 page 36 page 39 page 39

Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz Frances O’Grady Aidan Harper Lieve Fransen Giuseppe Provenzano page 40 page 42 page 46 page 48 page 51

Andrea Ciarini Anton Hemerijck Robin Huguenot-Noel Miguel Silva Graça Raul Magni Berton page 51 page 55 page 55 page 58 page 59

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 5 The Contributors to The Progressive Post - #12

Giovanni Allegretti Stefan Voigt Ralf-Uwe Beck François Veillerette Glyn Ford page 60 page 62 page 64 page 66 page 68

Leo Hoffmann-Axthelm Kate Hudson Adriano Iaria Didier Fassin Anne-Claire Defossez page 70 page 72 page 72 page 73 page 73

Ania Skrzypek Patrick Diamond Marissa Ryan Heinz-Josef Bontrup George Papaconstantinou page 76 page 78 page 80 page 83 page 86

Celine Charveriat Saïd El-Khadraoui Antonio Gambini Joseph Stiglitz Margit Schratzenstaller page 88 page 90 page 92 page 96 page 96

David Rinaldi David Jacobson Laurent Berger page 96 page 100 page 102

6 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 SPECIAL COVERAGE 2019 European Elections - lessons to be learnt © shutterstock

| 10th July 2019, Brussels: the President of the EU GOVERNANCE - still as a candidate - was grilled by members of the S&D group in the European IN THE NEW TERM Parliament, headed by Iratxe García. by Enrique Barón Crespo

The outcome of the 2019 elections to the European he first fact that stands out in these Parliament (EP) has opened a new term in elections is the increase of around 10 percent in participation. Citizens the governance of the European Union with a confirm their growing awareness of dramatic package of new appointments for the Tthe EU as their political space. We are witness- top responsibilities in the institutional triangle ing the consolidation of the EU as a shared civil society, based on the single currency and a (Parliament, Commission and Council), plus the European citizenship: steps on the way of cre- announced succession at the helm of the European ating a true European Demos. The Euro has not Central Bank at the end of the year. been an issue in the campaign because it is widely accepted, and the British participation in the European elections expresses our com- mon endeavour on democracy and its values.

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 7 SPECIAL COVERAGE

The second fact is that in the confronta- A progressive program for the next with no areas of unanimity and majority tion between those who are in favour of the Commission was debated by the Socialist voting in external affairs, reinforcing the European Union and those who are against Group with Ursula von der Leyen, the new Community method. it, there is a very clear majority of pro-Euro- President of the Commission. Her letter to pean forces that have elected David Sassoli the S&D group leader Garcia reflects her ▪ last but not least: our future relationship as President of the European Parliament. commitment, with the main priorities that with Great Britain. There is also a new Iberian impulse and a have become part of her program: growing gender balance, expressed by the election of Iratxe Garcia as S&D leader. The Doomsday of a nationalist and populist wave In all these fields, the new EP must dismantling the EU has not been confirmed, ▪ a climate neutral Europe, reducing CO2 develop and strengthen its role of co-leg- although we should not underestimate its emissions by more than 50 percent until islator, especially in those related to destructive capacity. 2030 taxing and budgetary powers, reinforcing the Community method. This means enlarging The Spitzenkandidaten system that stipu- ▪ a more prosperous Europe, with quality the field of codecision and fighting veto pow- lates that only one of the main candidates of jobs, especially for young people, a min- ers of individual Member States, in addition the European party families, and who actu- imum wage, a European unemployment to being the political public forum of the ally campaigned in these elections, can be benefit scheme EU. This would be a decisive step in building elected as President of the Commission, is an ever-closer union among the peoples of no matter of course yet. In a parliamentary ▪ the completion of the Banking Union, Europe, in the form of a vibrant democracy. democracy, the first candidate for the inves- taking the UN development goals into titure arises from the first political group, but account only under the condition to have gathered behind her or him a coalition able to form ▪ a social, fair and equal Europe with full a majority. implementation of social rights (fair min- imum wage, European child guarantee) The link between parliamentary elec- tions and the election of the President of ▪ a EU gender equality strategy with bind- the Commission was introduced in the ing equal pay and measures for the fight and it has been deepened against gender violence in the successive treaties. The , taking into account the elections ▪ the taxation of big companies and a con- to the EP and acting by a qualified majority, solidation of the corporate tax base proposes a candidate for the Presidency of the Commission. It cannot ignore the elec- ▪ upholding the rule of Law, tion results. The tension between the two sources of political legitimacy, the direct ▪ a fresh start on migration with a new pact vote of the citizens to the EP and the vote on migration and asylum and a new way for their national heads of states and govern- of burden sharing and moving forward on ments, which are members of the European legal migration, building strong European Council, is an important part of the checks borders, with a shared system of search and balances of our system. Now, it is time and rescue and dismantling organised to reflect on how to develop constitutional crime of trafficking conventions that will allow a more demo- cratic and efficient system. ▪ an open and fair trade agenda > AUTHOR A key question is a European electoral law ▪ a new neighbourhood policy Enrique Barón Crespo is a former with a right of initiative given to the EP and President of the European Parliament (1989– the reinforcement of the European political ▪ a conference on the future of Europe 1992). He is a politician, an economist, and parties as transnational bodies. Transnational with some key questions: the right of a lawyer. He’s currently the chair of the FEPS Scientific Council lists can be a part of this package. initiative for the EP, full codecision power

8 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 SPECIAL COVERAGE 2019 European Elections - lessons to be learnt @ Multimedia Centre EP. @ Multimedia Centre

| 3nd July, election of the new President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli in Brussels. MAKING THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT THE GUARANTOR OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF EUROPEAN CITIZENS by David Maria Sassoli

We are in the midst of historic changes: youth unemployment, migration, climate change, the digital revolution, new world balances, which in order to be tackled need new ideas and the courage to know how to combine great wisdom and maximum audacity. But we also need the institutions to take on these challenges, amongst which is the European Parliament. The new President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli argues that in the parliamentary term that is beginning now, the procedures need to be strengthened to make the Parliament the leading player in a full European democracy.

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 9 We need to recover the spirit of Ventotene We often think of the world we live in, of the people prospects, relaunch sustainable and the pioneering impulse of the Founding freedoms we enjoy. But let's say it to our- investments and strengthen the process Fathers, who were able to put aside the selves, given that others in the East or West, of convergence between our regions and hostilities of war, and to put an end to the or in the South, find it hard to recognise, that territories. failures of nationalism, giving us a project so many things make us different – not bet- capable of combining peace, democracy, ter, simply different – and that we Europeans The digital revolution is profoundly chang- rights, development and equality. In recent are proud of our diversity. ing our lifestyles, our way of producing and months, too many people have bet on the consuming. We need rules that combine decline of this project, fuelling divisions Let us repeat this so that it is clear to every- technological , business develop- and conflicts that we thought were a sad one that no government in Europe can kill, ment and the protection of workers and reminder of our history. Instead, citizens that the value of the person and his dignity people. have shown that they still believe in this are our way of measuring our policies. Let us extraordinary path, the only one capable of repeat that nobody in Europe can shut the Climate change exposes us to enormous responding to the global challenges we face. mouths of opponents, that our governments risks. We need investment in clean tech- and the European institutions that represent nologies to respond to the millions of young We must have the strength to relaunch our them are the result of democracy and free people who have taken to the streets, and integration process, changing our Union elections. Let us repeat that no one can be some who have even come to this Chamber, to be able to respond more strongly to the condemned for their religious, political or to remind us that there is no other planet. needs of our citizens and to provide real philosophical faith. Let us repeat that here in We must also work towards ever greater answers to their concerns, to their increas- Europe, girls and boys can travel, study and gender equality and an ever more promi- ingly widespread sense of dismay. The love without constraint. Let us repeat that no nent role for women at the top of politics, defence and promotion of our fundamen- European can be humiliated or marginalised the economy and social affairs. tal values of freedom, dignity and solidarity because of his or her sexual orientation. Let must be pursued every day within and out- us repeat that in the European area, in dif- We, as the European Union, are not an acci- side the EU. ferent ways, social protection is part of our dent of history. We are the children and identity. Let us repeat that the defence of the grandchildren of those who managed to life of anyone in danger is a duty established find the antidote to that nationalist degen- The @europarl_en in the by our Treaties and by the international eration that poisoned our history. If we are upcoming legislature: coming Conventions that we have signed. European, it is also because we love our back to the values of the different countries. But nationalism that founding fathers! Our social market economy model must be becomes ideology and idolatry produces David Sassoli, the new relaunched. Our economic rules must be viruses that stir up instincts of superiority @EP_President able to combine growth, social protection and produce destructive conflicts. and respect for the environment. We must equip ourselves with appropriate instru- We need a vision, and that is why we need ments to combat poverty, give our young politics. We need European parties that are

10 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 SPECIAL COVERAGE @ Multimedia Centre EP. @ Multimedia Centre

increasingly capable of being the backbone of our democracy. But we must give them Making the @europarl_en new tools. The ones we have are insuffi- the leading player in a full cient. This parliamentary term will have European democracy - to strengthen the procedures for mak- David Sassoli, ing Parliament the leading player in a full the new @EP_President European democracy.

But we are not starting from scratch, we are not born out of nothing. Europe is founded on its institutions, which, although imperfect and in need of reform, have guaranteed us our freedoms and our independence. With our institutions, we will be able to respond to all those who are committed to dividing us. The European Parliament will be the guarantor of the independence of European citizens! That is why we need reforms, greater transparency and innovation.

> AUTHOR David Maria Sassoli is the new President of the European Parliament, member of the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) and Partito Democratico (PD) in . He’s a former journalist.

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 11 SPECIAL COVERAGE 2019 European Elections - lessons to be learnt

"The question about Europe is: will this ship be repaired in the middle of the storm?"

Interview with Geert Mak, by Olaf Bruns

Geert Mak A way to make sense of the recent European elections is to put is a self-taught historian and writer. He is one of the most them into historical perspective. Geert Mak has investigated successful non-fiction writers in social change during the 20th century and various levels: a The Netherlands. His books have been translated into more than village in Friesland, in the northern Netherlands, a big city: twenty languages and include Amsterdam, but most notably in his Opus Magnus In Europe for In Europe, his masterpiece on Europe in the twentieth century. which he has travelled the continent criss-cross, during the whole He has won numerous awards in last year of the last century, 1999 investigating the places where The Netherlands and abroad. the history of the 20th century was made: ‘a final inspection of the 20th century’. Now, 20 years later, we are well into the 21st century - reason enough for a historian to start inspecting it.

Progressive Post: What was of people realised that these are not national prob- the one thing that has really lems anymore, but European problems. surprised you on these elections? PP: One of the first stations on your Geert Mak: I was very happy that so many people 1999 journey was Paris, where you went out and voted again! There was a beginning have been walking on the traces of the of real European politics on the level of European Paris of the early 20th century: a place citizens. And that is really a turnaround because of openness but also a place of anti- these figures have been going down for so long. But Semitism. When you come to France this spring, people were suddenly very interested after these recent European elections, and very involved - there was a kind of “European you come to a country where a far- coffeehouse”. right party has become the first party. Do you see a historical continuity? PP: What has brought about this sudden interest, or this “European GM: Not only in France, but also in and coffeehouse”, as you say? , there is a very strong anti-Semitic tradi- tion. Europe is full of old ghosts, sometimes they GM: We went as Europeans through the last dec- are hidden for a decade, or for a few decades, but ade from one long crisis to another. Perhaps a lot then they emerge again.

12 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 A longer version of this interview will be published online soon. www.progressivepost.eu SPECIAL COVERAGE © shutterstock

| We are living in a time with very fast developments, and people cannot handle that. This causes something I call a ‘cultural trauma’, and that doesn’t only happen in mining towns or cit- ies, where the mine suddenly closed.

PP: What would you say makes fuelled by nationalism. And now these ghosts hide away - and it’s precisely nationalism that is what brings them back to life? back again. Therefore: is it only about crisis and ? Or GM: The important point was the of is there something else going on? World War II. For our generation, World War ‘Culturally’, some would say. II was always there, often silent, but all our families have suffered. For the younger gen- GM: There is much more going on than just This spring, people erations, the distance is growing bigger. And economics. For a new book, I visited two that is also good: that is peace! The Second British cities in the North, a city called Wigan, were suddenly very World War gave politicians the courage to in England, and a Scottish city, Paisley. Both jump over their shadow and that made the are very similar: old mining cities, that have interested and very European Union possible. It was difficult and a lot of economic problems now. But in complicated, but people wanted to do this, Paisley, in Scotland, a big majority voted involved - there was because they didn’t want a war, ever again. ‘remain’ in the EU referendum, and exactly a kind of "European I’ve known a few of these elderly statesmen the same kind of city, just a hundred miles personally, people who never cried, but they south, voted with a big majority for ‘leave’. coffeehouse". did cry when they talked about the beginning This has everything to do with uncertainty, of the European Union. with the feeling that these people don’t belong to the centre of power anymore. The PP: The main lessons to be people in Paisley were strongly connected to drawn from the history of the Edinburgh: they have their own parliament. 20th century were of course the And the people in Wigan have a parliament two wars, and both wars were that is far, far away: in London. They really

A longer version of this interview will be published online soon. www.progressivepost.eu Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 13 SPECIAL COVERAGE

feel alone, alienated, and that is a huge it’s also a European problem and a symptom problem in a lot places of Europe. We are of a European problem. living in a time with very fast developments, and people cannot handle that. This causes PP: How can centre-left something I call a ‘cultural trauma’, and that politics offer an alternative doesn’t only happen in mining towns or cit- for all these people? ies, where the mine suddenly closed. It’s not Democracy is only about economics, it impacts the whole GM: I think the recent elections in of society: people’s traditions, their friends, are very interesting. I didn’t like that Social also an emotional family relations - everything is upside down, Democrats started to embrace right wing just because this mine, which brought every- anti-immigrant policies. But they did some- thing. Without body together, is gone. You see this cultural thing else too, and I think that explains a leaders, you only trauma everywhere in Europe, also in the large part of their success: they acknowl- countryside. In France for instance, there are edged that they had made big mistakes in get big buildings regions where most of the shops are closed the past, that they went too far with neo-lib- down now. eralism and they showed themselves again and anonymous as a party that really wants to protect the PP: Your first station in Italy working people and the poor. I think a lot of institutions during your 1999 trip was people with lower income have not felt that Predappio, Mussolini’s birthplace, protection for years and they felt betrayed and that doesn't where you discovered a souvenir by their old workers parties. stir democratic shop with all kinds of fascist and Nazi paraphernalia: PP: What’s your view on emotions. uniforms, swastikas and far leadership and its impact on right literature. Now, in the European Union politics? European elections, precisely in Predappio, Matteo Salvini's GM: Leadership is very important, because the European Union needs faces, real faces. far right Ligue made a stunning Like in national politics, to develop normal result of almost 44 percent! What and healthy European politics, you need does a place like Predappio tell leaders, people you can trust - or even a construction, is very out of balance, us about Italy’s recent history?. distrust – and talk about. In politics, insti- especially the euro, but also other parts tutions are very important, and rules are of the European Union are very vulner- GM: In Italy, fascism has never been far important. But without leaders you only get able constructions. And they have to be underground. These kind of souvenir shops big buildings and anonymous institutions improved. Otherwise we will not survive as in Predappio would have been impossible and that doesn’t stir democratic emotions. the European Union. But I expect that the elsewhere in Europe. But for me, it’s not Democracy is also an emotional thing. moment that this will be improved will once about fascism: Italy was, still in 2014, under more be when there is a new crisis: around , a very pro-European country, PP: It feels almost like a cynical Italy, with the euro for example, or again and within five years this has totally changed. moment: Europe has been trying around the question of immigrants. And then And that has a lot to do with the fact that to build this European public the European Union is forced to make deci- Italy didn’t get assistance during the euro space for a long time – and then it sions that they didn’t want to make in the crisis and it was also left alone during the comes into being during the crisis. beginning, but in the crisis, under pressure, immigrant crisis. So partly of course this they do. And again, the EU moves on a little extreme right is a typical Italian problem, just GM: These things always happen in cri- bit. The question is: will this ship be repaired like Brexit is a typically British problem. But sis moments. The European Union, as in the middle of the storm?

14 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 A longer version of this interview will be published online soon. www.progressivepost.eu SPECIAL COVERAGE

SPECIAL COVERAGE 2019 European Elections - lessons to be learnt

HOUSE CARDS by Alain Bloëdt

Like Claire and Frank Underwood, well known to fans of the TV Ursula @vonderleyen's series House of Cards, the Franco-German couple, formed by election as President of the Chancellor Merkel and President Macron, preferred to pursue @EU_Commission - thwarting the progressive agenda. their own petty domestic interests despite the ecological Alain Bloëdt @ProgPost_FEPS challenge and the crisis of representative democracy.

ome historians will probably say – Social Democrats and Greens in the lead, creation, voters nevertheless expressed that the concept of spitzenkandi- have not had their last word – did the heads optimism by turning out more than usual for daten (a German term that refers of state and government and the two main the elections. However, this revival of citizen- to the main candidate of the ticket brokers of these negotiations – France and ship proved insufficient for French President Sof a given party, who is set to become EU – really have to return to the old . As he had announced, Commission President if that party wins the practices of backroom arrangements, with- even before the election: knowing that his European elections) created in 2014, caved out transparency? European parliamentary group ALDE – from in even before the campaign began, when which he has since erased the liberal brand in spring 2019, MEPs rejected the ambitious In a context of an embattled European by renaming it ReNew – was not going to win idea of transnational lists. But, without Union, which is still considered distant and the election, it didn’t seem suitable to him officialising its final declaration of death technocratic more than 60 years after its to support the spitzenkandidaten system.

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 15 SPECIAL COVERAGE

The way was open for negotiations worthy environmental issues, and without ever pro- of Roman conclaves! posing fundamental reforms in this area.

Angela Merkel, for her part, as she has often done discreetly and effectively over , without a the course of her long political career, successor tried to solve her domestic problems by shifting them to a European level. Was she During these six-week-long EU negotiations, convinced by the candidacy of Manfred two other political realities, although for A few months Weber, a member of the CSU, the Bavarian European democracy, seem to have been party that is a complicated partner of her sidestepped by the European Council and its before the own CDU? It's hard to say. However, at the double-headed Franco-German leadership celebration of the Congress of the European People's Party in too: Brexit, on the one hand, and the divide Helsinki in November 2018, she decided between Eastern and Western Europe, on 30th anniversary to support him at the expense of another the other. candidate, the pro-European, multilin- of the fall of the gual, highly qualified former Finnish Prime A few months before the celebration of Minister , who was severely the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the beaten in his own capital. Then, during the Berlin Wall and the 15th anniversary of the negotiations and the final abandonment of Union's enlargement to Central and Eastern 15th anniversary the spitzenkandidaten concept, she also European countries, the absence of a repre- solved another domestic problem at the sentative from these 10 countries among the of the Union's German Federal Ministry of Defence where new occupants of the key EU positions rings enlargement the presence of Ursula von der Leyen was hollow. Admittedly, Hungary and Poland are becoming more and more difficult to man- currently no easy interlocutors, but they to Central and age due to numerous errors. remain a minority among the 12 countries that joined the EU in 2004 and 2007. While Eastern European the effects of the migration crisis have not The Spitzenkandidaten yet fully disappeared and economic models countries, the sometimes clash between founding coun- The skilled couple Merkel and Macron offered tries and those still catching up, the absence absence of a the good people, who were excluded from of a successor(s) to Donald Tusk as a rep- the negotiations, a token of satisfaction by resentative from the East is not the best representative from naming for the first time two experienced message sent by the founding countries, these 10 countries women, Ursula von der Leyen and Christine which are over-represented with a Belgian, Lagarde, to lead the EU Commission and the a French, a German and an Italian. among the new . But what about the others? Among the winners is the unsuccess- Merkel and Macron however did cave in to occupants of the ful Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel, a particular Eastern-European demand: as leading a care-taker government, since his a timely concession to the Visegrad Group key EU positions partner, the Flemish and Salvini's Italy, the Chancellor and the nationalist party NVA, refused in December President have sacrificed both spitzen- rings hollow. 2018 to sign the Global Compact for Safe, kandidaten, Manfred Weber and Frans Orderly and Regular Migration. The crisis was Timmermans, on the altar of divergent one too much for the coalition and Michel, national interests. who, in order to keep his position as Prime Minister, had accepted for four long years Among the excluded aspirants was another without objection that his Secretary of State major player of this Europe that some- for Asylum and Migration, Theo Francken, times wavers but without breaking up: monopolised the debates around the issue . Indeed, the Chief European of migration to the detriment of fiscal and Negotiator, responsible for preparing and

16 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 SPECIAL COVERAGE conducting the Brexit negotiations with the The Franco-German duo's lack of consist- #HouseofCards, #EU version: , has made a brilliant con- ency on ecological issues has fortunately the couple Merkel-Macron put tribution to keeping the 27 Member States been counterbalanced. Pushed by the their domestic interests over the of a European Union united for over three Social Democrats, they finally had to put years, despite the fact that further exits were water in their wine and, in exchange for the climate challenge and the crisis predicted following the British referendum presidency of the European Commission, of representative democracy - of June 2016. conceded some major pledges in the field Alain Bloëdt of law, social and environmental issues. Ursula von der Leyen has thus committed Difference in interpretation herself to providing ecological pledges within the first 100 days of her mandate and Beyond these essential political considera- has presented MEPs with more ambitious tions, Emmanuel Macron and emission reduction targets than in the past, also ignored the green wave that shook their as well as a Green Deal for Europe project, respective countries during the European not to mention projects for sustainable elections. European investment.

The German Greens managed to increase Reflecting current European politics, where their share from 8.9% in the last federal liberalism has succeeded austerity, the elections in 2017 to 20.7% in the recent Franco-German couple had a huge influ- European election and came out for the first ence on choosing the candidates for the time in their history as the second party of EU top jobs, skilfully placing compatriots or the country. The result confirmed - to the allies. Will this offer citizens the strong and detriment of the ruling conservative-Social ambitious Europe they want? MEPs were dis- Democratic coalition - the striking impor- appointed and the complicated election of tance of environmental issues in the German the new President of the Commission, with public debate. And although Merkel has the support of the very conservative Polish reacted in the past by starting, for example, PiS, Viktor Orbán's Hungarian and the the phase-out of nuclear and coal, these Italian Five Star Movement, M5S, does not issues didn’t have any influence on Weber’s bode well for a progressive agenda that is election-programme as candidate of the essential for a continent with growing ine- European People's Party. A lack of ambi- quality and a world where Europe needs to tion that shows how much the European play a key role. Conservatives still seem ready to defend the industries tooth and nail.

The French Greens, for their part, undoubt- edly obtained a third place in this European election. Although Macron’s party was able to attract some well-known environmental- ist figures to its list, just as it had been able to seduce many socialists two years earlier, during the French presidential and legislative elections, there was no convincing strategic shift towards ecology. Environmental issues never seemed to be the President's top priority and the doubt about his ecological com- mitment was reinforced among the French > AUTHOR after the resignation of the then Minister for Alain Bloëdt is Senior Communication Ecological Transition Nicolas Hulot, a symbol Advisor at Feps and the Progressive Post Editor in Chief. of the fight against climate change.

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 17 SPECIAL COVERAGE 2019 European Elections - lessons to be learnt

SWEDEN: AN EXAMPLE FOR THE RECOVERED STRENGTH OF NORDIC SOCIAL DEMOCRATS by Håkan A Bengtsson

In the night of the European elections, almost all Swedish parties celebrated. Perhaps they all felt the need to act as winners in front of the TV cameras, but in fact, for some of them there was indeed an increase in their share of the vote. Even the Social Democrats rejoiced, although the result was the worst achieved by the party in any election for more than a century. But the Party could take comfort from the fact that the decline was small (-0,8 percent) and that it is still, by a considerable margin, Sweden’s largest party with 23,6 percent of the vote. The trend is mirrored in the other Nordic countries as well.

he EU elections appeared to mir- 2014. The European election confirmed the those most in favour. One reason may be ror the current balance of power structural shift to the right in Swedish poli- that Sweden has performed quite well in in Swedish politics. The red-green tics and among the Swedish electorate. It is terms of economic development. Another block (Social Democrats, Greens also reflected in the increase in the number might be that Brexit seems to be a prob- Tand Left party) has lost ground primarily of those who declare themselves to be right- lematic political alternative. A substantial during the last decade. But the same is true wing since the last election in 2014, while majority – 77 percent - consider that Sweden of the right of centre parties. In contrast those on have decreased. should continue to be a member of the EU. the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats On the other hand, a substantial majority have achieved a high level of success. The It is worth noting that there appears to have are opposed to the development of the EU Sweden Democrats did not perform as well been a shift in Swedish opinion regarding the into a federal state. Few political parties in the EU elections as they did in the General EU. Participation in the election increased by could be described as ‘EU devotees’. The Election in September 2018 but still man- almost 5 percent and reached 51 percent. Liberals conducted a very EU-positive cam- aged to increase their share of the vote by From being one of the countries most crit- paign, but it failed to pay off: the party just 5.7 percent to 15.4 percent compared with ical of the EU, Sweden has become one of about reached the 4 percent threshold (the

18 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 SPECIAL COVERAGE © shutterstock

| The Social Democrats highlighted the social dimension, the environment and the struggle against right-wing populism as critical issues in their EU campaign. minimum required for obtaining an MEP) The Swedish Social Democrats have been An interesting pattern which we recog- and maintained its only representative in in power on a national level since 2014 and nise from several other countries is that the European Parliament. have governed since 2018 through a minor- the Social Democratic electoral base has ity government in coalition with the Green changed. During the past half century The conservative parties (The Moderates Party but relying also on support from the class voting has gradually declined, even and the Christian Democrats) are opposed two liberal parties and acceptance from the though the class voting pattern has survived to any increase in contributions to fund the Left Party. much longer in Sweden than in many other EU budget or to extending the EU’s power. European countries. With the entrance of the The Social Democrats have more or less Consequently, the Social Democrats have Sweden Democrats onto the Swedish polit- the same position. In general, the Social been forced into numerous compromises ical stage in the recent decade, even more Democrats have taken a more critical line which in turn has resulted in considerable of the working-class voters have shifted their when it comes to EU policy due principally internal criticism alleging that the Party has political allegiance to the right. to the mounting pressure on the Swedish been forced to accept policies which accord labour market and collective bargaining badly with social democratic values. Against Still the Swedish Social Democrats in Sweden model, which posted workers constitute this background, the European election are in a strong position - and so they are in to Swedish wage levels in several sectors was no catastrophe for the Party but rather the three other Nordic countries. In all four, of the economy. confirmed the status quo. It was feared that the Social Democrats are still the biggest the Party would be severely punished for all party, despite decades of decline. There are The Social Democrats highlighted the social the compromises it had endorsed with the a number of possible explanations for this dimension, the environment and the strug- Liberal parties to stay in power and shut out relative strength. The Nordic social welfare gle against right-wing populism as critical the far-right Sweden Democrats from political and labour market models, which to a large issues in their EU campaign. The Swedish influence. However, the recent election result degree are the creation of Social Democracy, Trade Union Confederation (LO), who sup- indicates also that the Social Democrats have have survived the stress of globalisation ports the Social Democrats, focused on failed to reverse the trend that has seen them despite its many challenges. In addition, Swedish workers’ pay and working condi- losing voters in election after election over a the Nordic economies recovered rapidly tions under the banner “take back control”. considerable period of time. after the financial crisis of 2008. Another

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 19 SPECIAL COVERAGE

explanation is that there is still a high level has not succeeded in reversing the negative of trade union membership among workers trend, but it has at least stabilised support and employees. for the Party. As always, future success depends on organisation, ideology, and The Prime Ministers of three Nordic coun- This is probably policy. tries are Social Democrats. Mostly, they rely on coalitions or other support agreements a lesson Nordic with a host of other parties: various left-wing parties, the Greens, centrist parties, parties Social Democrats with roots in the agricultural sphere, a range of liberal and even neoliberal parties. can teach their

This is probably a lesson Nordic Social other European Democrats can teach their other European counterparts: the centre-left’s capacity to counterparts: influence the development of society will the centre- be determined by its ability to create and build alliances with other parties. But also, left’s capacity by the question whether the left in general – and the Social Democrats in particular – are to influence the capable of setting the agenda, of formulating concrete policy proposals and of answering development of the big questions of how to organise soci- ety in the age of globalisation and after the society will be financial crisis. determined by its It is worth noting that in the general elec- ability to create tions in Finland and Denmark, the Social Democrats focused on the environment, and build alliances welfare and greater social equality. This resonates with the election strategy of the with other parties. Social Democrats in Sweden. This strategy

The Swedish Social Democrats’ recipe: a focus on the social dimension, the environment and the struggle against right-wing populism - @HakanABengtsson

> AUTHOR Håkan A Bengtsson is CEO at The Arena Group in Stockholm

20 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 SPECIAL COVERAGE 2019 European Elections - lessons to be learnt

THE© shutterstock IBERIAN DRIVER FOR EUROPEAN SOCIAL DEMOCRACY by Javi López

| If they both won the European election Today, the Iberian Peninsula is sending out a message of in their respective countries, the to the rest of the European continent. The Socialist parties Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa (p22) is currently in a clearer that lead the Portuguese and the Spanish governments have situation than Spanish Prime Minister both secured a remarkable 33 percent of electoral support Pedro Sánchez, whose PSOE party gained the most seats in April’s national in the recent European elections and are in a position to election but fell short of a majority. become a reference point for European Social Democracy as a whole.

n Spain, the electoral resurgence of the first successful motion of no-confidence such as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, for- PSOE (Spanish Socialist Worker's Party) in the four decades of Spanish democracy mer President of the European Parliament at the hands of Pedro Sánchez deserves – a genuine black swan – brought the third , and the Minister of Economy, a thorough analysis, since the country is Socialist, after Felipe González and José Luis the former Director General at the European Itoday the most populated European country Rodríguez Zapatero, to the Presidency of the Commission Nadia Calviño. governed by Social Democracy and PSOE has Government. won the four elections held in the spring of The policies implemented by Sánchez’s cab- 2019: local, regional, general and European. Over the last year, the PSOE has had the inet over the last year have been aimed at chance to roll out a strong ‘red’, ‘purple’ and the rebuilding of the welfare state and the Pedro Sánchez became President of the ‘green’ agenda with a clear pro-European Spanish Government in June 2018 thanks character and in favour of modernisation Spain and Portugal, two beacons to a constructive motion of no-confi- of the country which largely explains the of hope for European Social dence against the previous Prime Minister election results. Pedro Sánchez formed the Democracy - @fjavilopez Mariano Rajoy, after a harsh sentence for first Spanish cabinet with a large majority corruption which confirmed the existence of women, as well as ministers who were of systemic irregular funding in the cen- highly regarded in society, several of them tre-right Spanish Popular Party (PP). The having substantial experience in Brussels,

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 21 SPECIAL COVERAGE 22 enced by theSpanishpoliticalsystem and interact withtheprofound changes experi rent intheirabilityto lies assimilate PSOE and The virtue ofthe political formula ofthe cur of the country. that ensure green thenecessary transition against climateas well as policies change infavourfeminist policies ofgender equality constitutional order and the development of dialogue butstrong inthedefenceof against corruption, aterritorial agenda of der violence. priorities Other are thefight leave orincrease inspendingagainst gen increase inpaternityof democracy (22.3%), increase intheminimumwage inthehistory investmentsductive andmade thelargest budget proposal that consolidates pro oftheeconomy throughmodernisation a movement that themovement new generations across the globe are demanding. to adding items related traditional identity The traits of European PSOE haskept the Social Democracy Spanish feminist freedoms –while – redistribution and individual and the strong Progressive Post #12 -Summer-Autumn 2019 - - - -

© shutterstock mented political system. do notguarantee governance easy inafrag elections Good election in Andalusia. results have already seenafter the2018regional conservatives and the far-right, which we post-election agreements among liberals, fragmentation and the establishment of for Pedro thepolitical andPSOE: Sánchez inSpain,thereBack are two majorchallenges centre ofthe country. while occupying and redrawing the political onhisleftparties withprogressive policies to reach agreements inParliament withthe government of Antonio has managed Costa reduction The solvent of debt and deficit. and socialment of benefits salaries and economicrecovery,for itscountry: improve ment that hasachieved spectacular results government isaminority socialistgovern “Gueringonça government”. ThePortuguese isfollowingCosta asimilarformula: the The Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio the globe are demanding. movement that thenewgenerations across mentalism and the strong Spanish feminist to theirprogramme items related to environ freedomstion andindividual –while adding of European Social Democracy – redistribu they have kept thetraditional identitytraits trustworthy State party. time, thesame At but remain trueto theirtraditional role of reach agreements withtheirleft () - - - - - a whole. example forEuropean SocialDemocracy as common thingnowadays andcould setan its electoral Thisisnotavery position. the politicaltemperature hasstrengthened understanding, serenity, andawillto lower of theconservative forces, the PSOE’s betfor In a tense and polarised context on account draw theattention of the whole of Europe. ical partners inMadrid -should certainly -Macron’spart ofCiudadanos alleged polit in Spain.Thisbehaviour, especially onthe ofthenewfar-rightthe normalisation party rioration to due ofsomebasicconsensuses Pedro Sánchez’s government andthedete ahighlevelmaintains ofconfrontation with PPandthefar-rightCiudadanos, Vox that consolidated ablock formed by theliberal ments at regional and local level have time,thepost-election thesame At agree Foreign Relations). of theCouncilECFR (European Councilfor University ofBarcelona. HeisalsoaMember Social Management at the UAB -Autonomous and aMaster inLeadership forPolitical and from theUPF-Pompeu Fabra University the European Socialists.HehasaLaw Degree Presidency of PES – Party of Member (PSOE) -SocialistParty ofCataloniaof thePSC & He istheSecretary forEuropean Affairs European Parliament since2014(S&DGroup). Javi López > AUTHOR has been a Member ofthe - - - SPECIAL COVERAGE 2019 European Elections - lessons to be learnt THE V4 AFTER THE EP ELECTION: GLASS HALF EMPTY, HALF FULL by Maria Skóra

The 2019 European Parliament election brought a visible decline in the popularity of the centre-left and relatively good results for all kinds of right-wing populists are unsettling. Fortunately, this tilt to the right is not significant enough to meaningfully affect the functioning of the European Union. Looking at the election results in the Visegrád countries (V4), we see how much they were determined by the dynamics of the domestic political scene.

he left is in decline in East-Central in sight. In both countries, the once gov- Europe. In Czechia, the Social erning Social Democrats (SLD and MSZP, (ČSSD) received respectively) no longer play a significant a catastrophic result of less than role. To improve their chances in May T4%, falling below the electoral thresh- 2019, both parties decided to join forces in Viktor Orbán and old. This not only deprived Czech Social broader opposition blocks, either by joining Democrats of all their seats in the EP but a multi-party coalition (Poland) or seeking Jarosław Kaczyński’s also put their governing coalition with the alliances with the greens (Hungary). centrist-populist ANO in doubt. At the same influence at the time, even Andrej Babis’ victory wasn’t stun- In Poland, this decision proved to be a European level will ning (21%), and the Czech political scene strategic masterpiece: the SLD will send remains very fragmented, with no distinctive five MEPs to Brussels. In Hungary, similar be limited: Orbán’s alternative leader. endeavours proved futile: MSZP lost two of three seats, winning only 6,66% of all votes. Fidesz is struggling On the contrary, in Poland and Hungary However, the Socialists & Democrats Group to remain part of EPP the governing right-wing parties petrified (S&D) will still welcome representatives their poll positions. However, whereas in of other formations from the Visegrád. In and Kaczyński’s PiS Poland a deep polarisation is visible, as the Poland, a new left-liberal initiative Wiosna united opposition, the so-called European debuted in this EP election by winning three is affiliated with the Coalition, won 38,47%, against 45,38% for seats in the European Parliament. Four other unsuccessful ECR. the governing Law and Justice party (PiS), MEPs will join the S&D Group from Hungary, in Hungary, the hegemony of Fidesz proved representing the social-liberal Democratic untouched, with 52,14% of all ballots cast Coalition (DK), which won 16.18% of all votes. in their favour and no serious competitor

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 23 SPECIAL COVERAGE

V4: the visible decline of the Of all traditional social-democratic parties in centre-left and good results two Eurosceptic leaders – Viktor Orbán the Visegrád states, only the Slovak Smer-SD of right-wing populists are and Jarosław Kaczyński – cementing their managed to independently reach a mean- unsettling. @MariaSkora from power. Nevertheless, their influence at the ingful result of 15,72%. However, it still lost @DPZ_Berlin European level will be limited: with Fidesz 8% compared to 2014. Three MEPs from struggling to remain part of the European will join the S&D Group, losing one People’s Party (EPP) family and PiS affili- seat. Nevertheless, Slovakia still stands out ated with the European Conservatives and in the Visegrád Group, resisting Euro-sceptic Reformists (ECR). At the same time, there moods. At the same time, voter turnout was is a slight refreshing breeze in the V4, with the lowest there among all V4 countries: Thus, values such as freedom, democracy, new parties emerging and trying to coun- 22,74% as compared to exceeding 40% in human rights were represented and asso- terbalance the sinister Euro-sceptic mood. both Poland and Hungary and almost 51% ciated by other well-established opposition Nevertheless, the left, once so powerful, on average in the EU. actors. Also, in times of latter socio-politi- does not seem able to redefine itself, with cal transformations, the green agenda had their social agenda hijacked by right-wing It seems that in the V4 countries, the tra- to yield to bigger tasks of forming new state populists and progressive ideals seemingly ditional left - Social-Democrats - struggle institutions, launching functioning econo- more appealing if advocated by new faces. to survive, despite their popularity in the mies, resetting social structures. past. Radical or social left (even the most successful Czech communists - KSČM, not As of today, it seems the major beacons to mention the Hungarian Workers Party of pro-European hope in V4 are liberal or grass-root RAZEM in Poland) remain actors, like newly elected president Zuzana practically insignificant, with hardly any Čaputová and her Progressive Slovakia political influence. However, speaking of party, or two surprise wins: in fringes, the right wing is far more visible in Hungary and the Pirates in Czechia. In fact, the V4, like the Hungarian Jobbik, the Slovak the Czech governing ANO party, which also People’s Party Our Slovakia or the nationalist won the EP election, despite populist ten- Konfederacja in Poland, for whom the final dencies and corruption charges against its result of 4,55% was a close call to make it to leader, remains in the Alliance of Liberals the EP. Yet, even if they were able to enter and Democrats for Europe Group (ALDE). elected bodies, be it at a regional, national Moreover, the great anti-PiS mobilisation in or European level, it seems that the far right Poland was initiated by the liberals from the will remain a loud but impactless opposition. (PO) and the Modern Party (Nowoczesna), both joining either EPP or As of political alternatives, the green wave ALDE in Strasbourg. Even the Polish Wiosna that hit the political scene in Western and and Hungarian Democratic Coalition, Northern Europe does not exist in the V4 although joining the S&D Group, set on a states. Green parties are generally marginal liberal agenda not only regarding values there, some not even present in any elected but also some economic issues. It seems body. Most probable reason for it is of his- that in the eyes of the voters, there is more torical nature: When the environmentalist potential in this “fresh” left wave than in the > AUTHOR movement was forming in the European traditional social democracy. Maria Skóra is Senior Project Manager at Das Progressive Zentrum in Berlin. She holds core, the South and the East were wres- master degree in Sociology and a Ph.D. in tling with authoritarianism, be it far-right or To sum up, the political scene in the V4 is economics. authoritarian real socialism, respectively. visibly tilted to the right and polarised, with

24 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 SPECIAL COVERAGE 2019 European Elections - lessons to be learnt

"The technocratic approach is not credible anymore"

Interview with Luuk van Middelaar, by Olaf Bruns

Luuk van Middelaar How do the recent elections to the European Parliament affect is a political theorist and historian. From 2010 until 2014, the balance of power between the EU institutions? In his recent he worked as chief speechwriter book Alarums and Excursions - improvising politics on the and advisor to the European Council President Herman Van European stage, the Dutch historian Luuk van Middelaar Rompuy. The author of the analyses how a decade of crises – from the financial chaos of prizewinning The Passage to Europe, he recently published the euro and the Greek sovereign debt; the conflicts with Russia Alarums and Excursions, a over Ukraine; unprecedented levels of refugees from across ground-breaking account of the Union’s crisis politics. the Mediterranean and the turmoil created by Brexit – have shaped a new way of doing politics on the European stage.

Progressive Post: Your recent actors have to prepare for imminent action and book, first published in Dutch under hectic scenes and perhaps a battle. It evokes that the straightforward title De nieuwe moment right before action which I found appro- More and more, politiek van Europa (The new priate for the 10 years of EU crisis politics, which I politics of Europe), has in the English try to describe in the book. politics in the EU translation become Alarums and is being played out Excursions - improvising politics on PP: And then you open with a quote the European stage. Admittedly, I had from somebody who has been on on stage, in public to look up 'Alarums' in the dictionary! stage a lot: Miles Davis. 'I will play it first and tell you what it is later'. view, in the limelight. Luuk van Middelaar: I wanted to underline the importance of the theatre and theatricality in pol- LvM: With this quote I wanted to underline the Historically, a lot of itics. One of the key things we've seen in the past other important aspect, that of improvisation: for EU politics rather years is that more and more, politics in the EU is 10 years, EU leaders and institutions had to rush, being played out on stage, in public view, in the improvise and invent things on the spot. Nobody took place backstage. limelight. Whereas historically, a lot of EU poli- quite knew what they were doing. It was as if we tics took place more backstage. Then my English were running breathlessly from one crisis to the publisher came up with this expression 'Alarums next. And I thought, perhaps now, after 10 years, if and Excursions', which is in fact a stage direction you start with the financial crisis in 2008, it's time from the Shakespearean theatre, meaning that the to take a step back and to see what we collectively,

A longer version of this interview will be published online soon. www.progressivepost.eu Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 25 26 SPECIAL COVERAGE And problems,And you can solve. Either legally, for the EU construction. you distinguish three approaches versus a'federal' approach. But Analytically, it's a'supranational' which has just been elected. newly a rival actor: the Parliament, described as being in conflict with it's oftenUnion function, analysing howthe European is the European When Council. stage during these improvisations PP: Back in the 1950s, obviously Back it was a bril Hence thisMiles Davis quote: let's nowtake have conflicts,werather have problems LvM: make ofallthis. somesense idea toIt'sidea depoliticiseconflicts. basicallya liant idea: thefoundingEU membersliant idea: realised isprettyliticisation muchtheDNAofEU. together. Monnet ofJean theidea Thiswas that we,ascountries, donotnecessarily the commission asa technocratic, impartial technocratic-functionalist approach, where which Icallthe 'backstage approach' the was the CourtofJustice.Thestrategy ofde-po expert bodyiscentre stage, together with and Schumann thefoundingfathers. a look at theimprovisation andseeifwecan as theEU, have beendoinginthis time. The Indeed. Historically, the first approach The one actor that wascentre Progressive Post #12 -Summer-Autumn 2019 - - And itshows youAnd – two institutions that these between these institutions? elections indicate shift a power participation in the European PP: What you seethenisthat there are two Council andParliament –even ifthey may be as the body ofnational leaders.Council, Court andtheCouncil of Ministers. federalists and the con-federalist approach: politics and these could andthese politics asthe bedescribed rather politicalapproaches ofhowto doyour LvM: representing EU citizens, andthecon-fed ments, ithasnothing to bejealous of. But if you compare itto many national parlia both look forvisibility, they look forcontact lar because of the high turnout. Intermslar because of of thehighturnout. to… - sweep them under the carpet. tutionally by theEuropean Parliament, the federalist approach embodied insti with citizens, unlike the Commission,the they boththrive underthepubliceye, they or procedurally, to make or themdisappear clear winneroftheelection andinparticu of course a very powerful parliament. Evenof course avery powerfulparliament. competence, theEuropean Parliament is eralist approach embodiedby theEuropean at odds sometimes, alsoshareat oddssometimes, something: IthinktheEuropean Parliament isa Does the increased A longer version of this interview will be published online soon. A longer version of this interview will be published online soon.

© shutterstock - - - - And Ithinkthat is changing now.And The turnout, EPP, and theSocialDemocrats, S&D, which ment than the old monopoly – or 'duopoly' is very importantandalsothefact that there its weak spot has alwaysits weak been to be seen speaking onbehalfofallEuropeanspeaking citizens. as somesay –ofthe Christian Democrats, are more diverse voices withinthat parlia above thesymbolicthreshold of50percent, and to befound credible as a public arena, where ideas are fought European Parliament a more credible body where all voices, the presence makes the is represented and opinion in the EU, plurality of public The nationalists' out, rhetorically and politically. www.progressivepost.eu - And that'sAnd animportantdistinctionbetween an actor on that stage. very the whole 'theatre', to becoming opposition of principle against PP: PP: Parliament less of a 'Brussels Parliament' and more to sothey want bealegitimate oppo or'leave' destruction pean card –like UKIP, paradoxically, they may strengthen thelegit LvM: more of a real 'European it Parliament'. And LvM: majorities: theGreens theLiberals. has beenbroken downby stronger voices politically. that makes And theEuropean imacy oftheproject as awhole, because body where allvoices, theplurality ofpub lic opinionintheEU, isrepresented, and want towant destroy to we want be part of it it, they're buyinginto it with their dissonance. two institutions. two institutions. will alsomake itstronger vis-à-vis theother the European Parliament amore credible Because it makes Why? the parliament. them –paradoxically could strengthen the key difference. that again,And itmeans to bring downthewhole theatre, andthat is with a dissonant voice. not But one willing two kinds of opposition. these where are ideas rhetorically fought and out, or theprevious Front National –orwhether of new players which are also needed for of themselves, orplay apurely anti-Euro movementsopposition willonly make fools So, thekey kindof iswhetherthese question sition withinthesystem, don't saying 'we although many inBrusselsare worried about and we want toand wewant change someofthepolicies'. A longer version of this interview will be published online soon. A longer version of this interview will be published online soon. Even theirpresence, Iwould argue – An actor An onthestage andperhaps …because it shifts from an How about the nationalists? - - - - And then they said: 'if you still don't like 'ifyou stilldon't thenthey said: And it, And Ithinkthat ismoreAnd importantnowthan trap of the technocratic answer? groups without falling into the it'. How do we confront these you probably don'tunderstand that part of the European Union: approach: 'You are against this or has always been the technocratic voices on that European stage PP: What isneeded ispoliticalnarrative ofwhy for the approach of the moral high ground, parties andpublicopiniontoparties follow acertain LvM: probably you're notagood European!' This in the past. Because evenin the past. if I'm critical in the indeed nolonger credible, foralltheissues book of the technocratic approach, it was was partwas of a longstanding tendency to put which often people camesecond.First the EU is dealing withtoday.the EU isdealing istrue The same to disagree withinthesystem! with policies outside the order any critical voice. Voters don't understanddon't itandI'llexplain itagain'. certain decisions arecertain decisions taken, inthe nameof certain values, which can unite a majority of said: 'you don't like it, well, probably well, like don't 'you it, yousaid: are becoming alittle bitallergic to these approach. approaches now. There mustbeapossibility a certainviewofthefuture, to orappealing Ithink this technocratic approach is A wayto handledissonant www.progressivepost.eu Summer-Autumn 2019-The For a lot of the key that are issues with dealt China… – these are –these China… fundamentalissues, fair enough forlarge partsofbuilding an EU really Take values. therefugee crisis, it's val market forexample. israther It technical refugees. There, you needapoliticalstory not by bringing together 28national experts involving notonly matters ofexpertise, but identity. For thetechno kindofissues, these what wewill doandwhere weshowthat we towant do, butthisiswhat wecandoand together thisnolonger works: therefugee today by European states andinstitutions to invent rules for food hygiene! work withdifferent values to appeal to public ues ofsolidarity versusues security perhaps and opinion to say, what OKthisisperhaps we cratic approach is not credible anymore: it is crisis, theeuro, what to dowithRussia, with can then decide what to do with 1.2 million can thendecidewhat to dowith1.2 stuff to harmonise, for example VAT rates or also have some capacity to act. and alsopoliticalcompromise oraway to and people from thecommissionthat you credibility - gives the the new diversity of voices, as well as The high turnout, @Europarl_EN @LuukvMiddelaar SPECIAL COVERAGE Progressive Post more more #12 27 - - © shutterstock SPECIAL COVERAGE 2019 European Elections - lessons to be learnt

| Talking about the life situation of young people and how to improve it was something that did well in the debates.

During the campaign for the European elections, in several Member States there was no focus on young people. As parties are cynically busy with vote-maximising, it is hard to blame them: the population of Europe is ageing, and young generations only make up around 26% of the general population. Not only are they less numerous that other generations, but unfortunately they are also less likely to vote in the European elections. But that is also exactly the reason why it is so important for the progressive party family to make an effort to engage the new generations.

28 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 SPECIAL COVERAGE

YOUNG PEOPLE ARE INTERESTED IN MORE THAN “YOUTH” by Maj Jensen Christensen

#EP2019: the S&D parties @ TheProgressives had a good result with some young voters - but much needs to be done! Maj Jensen @YESocialists

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 29 SPECIAL COVERAGE

ooking at the detailed analysis of younger generation in some Member States the election results, the S&D Group that led to their improved results. came out as the winners among the young electorate in the recent However, all these numbers are aggre- We will not be LEuropean elections. A little more than 20 % gated projections for Europe as a whole. of people aged 18-24 voted for the progres- When going a step further in examining the able to do what sive group. This was a little better than the details, things turn out to be more diverse. is necessary if EPP and way better than the Greens, who got The result of 20% of the youngest voters less than 16% among the young. in Europe for the centre-left hides the fact we leave it to that S&D parties were indeed biggest among On the basis of those numbers you might young people in the UK, but only received, individual choices. say the “fair, free and sustainable Europe”- for example, around 7% of the young votes campaign has been successful among the in Germany, where the Greens’ huge support We need to regulate young, and I could end my piece here. But the among the young voters secured their elec- S&D is only biggest among the youngest group toral success. the big industries of the electorate: the “Generation Z”, those between 18 and 25. Among the “Millennials” The same goes for the “Fair, free and sustain- and the huge (aged 25-34) - and every other generation – able Europe”-campaign. It no doubt had an corporations. the EPP came out strongest. On the contrary, impressive impact in the Netherlands where the Greens may not be the biggest group our common candidate Frans Timmermans among any generation on European level, was on the ballot himself. But in several but it was their strong support among the other countries “Fair, free and sustainable”

30 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 SPECIAL COVERAGE

was not even the slogan of the campaign. The same goes for tackling the climate crisis. In Germany the slogan was “Europe is We will not be able to do what is necessary the answer” (Europa ist die Antwort), in if we leave it to individual choices. We need Denmark “Together we fight the fight in to regulate the big industries and the huge Europe” (Sammen tager vi kampen i Europa) corporations. and in the UK it read “Transforming Britain and Europe for the many, not the few”. Looking ahead, beyond the European elec- tions, this is exactly what we need: A strong In several of the national campaign, the focus on improving the life-situation, not just focus on young people was absent. If a for the young but for all. Recent years have Far too often party is cynically focusing on vote-maximi- seen setbacks in the quality of, security of sation (and most parties have to), it is hard and access to education, jobs, housing and “connecting with to blame it for not focusing much on the public service. We don’t want to fight for a young generations: the population of Europe status quo, we want improvement. All of this the young people” is ageing, and young generations only make is a job for the newly elected MEPs and the up around 26% of the general population. coming Commission. We want a Europe that is limited to having In addition, they are less likely to vote in the works for us - and you can make it! European elections than other generations. that token-one But perhaps exactly because of this is it so young person in important that the progressive family makes an effort to engage the new generations. the panel or that Far too often “connecting with the young one page on people” is limited to having that token-one young person in the panel or that one page “youth policy” on “youth policy” in the political manifesto. But our generations are not just interested in in the political “youth policy”. We are interested in all pol- icies concerning our generation: from the manifesto. cuts on education to the lack of decent jobs and affordable housing. And also: pension age as well as the amounts. And of course, the climate crisis - the very basis of our future on this earth.

Talking about the life situation of young people and how to improve it was some- thing that Frans Timmermans did well in > AUTHOR the debates. He touched on the precarious Maj Jensen Christensen is the newly elected Secretary General of the Young work situation for many young people and European Socialists (YES) - the biggest party explained that the solution for this problem political youth organisation in Europe. is systematic and political - not personal.

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 31 SPECIAL COVERAGE 2019 European Elections - lessons to be learnt THE EUROPEAN ELECTIONS: A STEP AHEAD FOR

WOMEN’S RIGHTS by Zita Gurmai

In recent years, numerous countries worldwide have witnessed the rise of powerful, transnational movements which campaign against what they call ‘gender ideology’. These right-wing, nationalist forces, like Fidesz in Hungary, Vox in Spain, Rassemblement National in France and others have successfully mobilised people against equality issues, such as women’s reproductive rights, LGBTIQ+ issues, gender equality policies, sex education, and gender studies as an academic field. This is not a new phenomenon. It is a pattern that was also reflected during the EU elections.

e saw a global network The Party of European Socialists was very of anti-gay, anti-abortion clear on this through their three-step and anti-feminist activists approach: first, a strong feminist Manifesto, gathering at ‘the World second, an outspoken feminist common WCongress of Families’ in March, in Verona, candidate and third, gender-balanced Italy. It is an old strategy: to spread distor- European lists. tion and hatred to reinstall traditional gender Gender equality roles, male privilege and maintain patriarchy. This approach was maintained during the But women and progressive forces did not debates of the European Campaign; as the has not been remain silent. On the contrary; an increased feminist PES candidate Frans Timmermans number of women and men took to the said, “it’s not only about the 14 women achieved, and will streets to call for safeguarding achieved Commissioners, but about the 250 million women’s rights and gender equality, and to women in Europe and what we will do for them”. not be achieved make sure no pushback is allowed. without actively Unlike the other European parties’ common In Spain, thousands of women and men candidates, Frans Timmermans advo- promoting and marched on 8 March to call for a feminist cated for going beyond a parity European Europe, a Europe of equality and justice. The Commission and talked about comprehen- implementing it fight for women’s rights has always been at sive policy proposals which will benefit all the core of the socialist movement and thus women, for example finally closing the gen- with the increased anti-gender movement, der pay and pension gaps and a European the European socialists were determined Directive to end gender-based violence. to stand by and with women with a strong While our common candidate spoke out #FeministEurope Campaign. about a feminist model for Europe, the

32 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 SPECIAL COVERAGE

| The women’s organisations of the Social Democratic parties need to remain critical, acting as gender equality watchdogs for the parties and within the parties. media refrained from going beyond the good gender-balance. The lack of quotas guarantee that a feminist European vision is quota discussion. A missed opportunity or women on eligible places gave rise to put into practice after the election. That is for a true gender perspective in reporting very poor results in terms of women’s rep- what PES Women will do, and will continue and analysis from the media. This said, we resentation. Another real achievement for to do, until gender equality is a reality. welcome the work and achievement of the the progressive women’s movements is the women’s rights movement in getting fem- election of the new President of the Group inism on the European agenda and as a Iratxe Garcia Perez, a strong feminist fighter. decisive issue for voters. What do these numbers mean overall? We, Moreover, our political family has done the women’s organisations of the Social well in terms of women’s representation on Democratic parties need to remain critical, European electoral lists; some of our par- acting as gender equality watchdogs for the ties went beyond national legislations by parties and within the parties. We need to be applying zip-lists or quotas. Based on the the voice that constantly reminds everyone available data, 41.6% of the candidates for that gender equality has not been achieved, PES member parties were women. This is and will not be achieved without actively reflected in the election result of the S&D promoting and implementing it. Only with 41.8% of the newly elected MEPs being political will, good policies and long-term women. While the S&D is above the new effective mechanisms can make it happen. European Parliament’s average of 39% in terms of women’s representation (com- A more fragmented parliament increases the pared to 36% in 2014), the group dropped need to increase our efforts to find a pro- from 45% in 2014, falling behind the Greens, gressive majority in the European Parliament > AUTHOR GUE and . that supports progressive women’s rights, Zita Gurmai is President of PES Women, preferably with parties that do not compro- which promotes gender equality inside and It is worth noting that parties with zip list mise on gender equality. The appointments outside the Party of European Socialists, were able to guarantee a high number of positions such as Chairs of Committees, and Vice-President of FEPS. Former Member of women MEPs and that having women Commission portfolios or Presidents of of the European Parliament, she has been re-elected, in April 2018, Member of the head of lists can guarantee that smaller the EU institutions will be closely watched Hungarian Parliament. delegations (1 to 3 representatives) have a by the feminist movements as we need to

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 33 SPECIAL COVERAGE 2019 European Elections - lessons to be learnt OUT OF THE DOLDRUMS by László Andor

The 2019 European Parliament (EP) elections saw Social Democracy falling to a historic low. In the new EP, the share of seats held by Socialist, Social-Democratic and related progressive parties is the lowest ever. Overall electoral support for progressives continues to show a downward trend in Europe, calling for a serious reflection, but without falling into despondency. Keynesian macroeconomic strategy as well as a bolder social policy for the EU is vital - and so is a global progressive agenda.

espite a most dynamic EP elec- On the positive side is the improved perfor- and reinventing a Social Europe to tackle tion campaign in Spring 2019, mance of the left in the Iberian Peninsula inequality. in some EU countries Social and a few other parts of the European Democrats appear dispirited, south, together with the Dutch surge and For Social Democrats, the constant Dand give the impression of sailing on a the return of the centre-left to government development of a Social Europe is a core stagnant, if not a slowly sinking ship. While in the north. This very mixed overall picture goal—even if some believe the point is to showing some strength in the north and the makes a deep reflection necessary, on the be more liberal than the Liberals or greener south, the situation of the Social Democrats role the overlapping EU crises have played than the Greens. It should be clear that is nothing less than critical in the two major in the decline of Social Democracy and the absorbing policies championed by Liberals countries which have been the driving force importance of European policy as part of or Greens cannot be a substitute for deliv- of European integration for seven decades. the progressive reconstruction strategy ering on key issues, including Keynesian that has to be built now. macroeconomic policy. The availability The collapse of the Socialist Party in France of jobs and the quality of our workplaces leaves a large hole in the map and the dis- Defining a progressive programme at the today depend on EU regulation, and this array into which the German SPD has fallen EU level appears a key task in itself, but has to be updated to ensure that new since the EP elections has become a com- also because it frames Member States’ trends such as digitalisation and robotisa- parable drama. Among the ‘new EU Member policies. Compared to five years ago, that tion do not undermine the high standards States’ in the east, Social Democrats are in current Social Democrat programme seems we have achieved. The successes of several power in some countries—but not without better prepared and more cohesive. The legislative cycles at EU level like the 2014 controversy—and modest improvements endeavour is to make progress in three key Enforcement Directive on Posted Workers in others have not been robust enough to areas: reshaping the global order in the and 2018 revision of the Posted Workers offer solace. interest of sustainability, revamping the Directive have ended the period when Monetary Union to facilitate convergence, workers coming from other EU Member

34 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 SPECIAL COVERAGE

States were presented as the main threat Missing the opportunity of earlier Social- and multilateralism from the new authoritar- to national welfare of other Member States. Democratic electoral success to reform the ians and nationalists is not about defending EU financial and economic model leaves a the status quo ante, since the laissez faire Further efforts to stamp out ‘social dumping’ crucial and comprehensive task which no of transnational finance and the ‘race to the have to concentrate on such proposals as the other force is ready or capable to tackle bottom’ generated by unregulated trade in co-ordination of minimum wages across coun- yet. One can, as Joseph Stiglitz does in this the past thirty years have contributed to tries. Although the EU is not and will not be number of the Progressive Post, argue for a some of the alarming political developments a welfare state, it has to develop a safety net general rewriting of the rules of the European of our time. for the national welfare systems, for example economy, but there should be no doubt that through a reinsurance of national unemploy- the reform of the single currency must be A critical assessment of the neoliberal period ment benefit schemes. Participants of a recent at the centre of this effort. If and when the is a crucial part of progressive reconstruc- debate in this field have promoted the concept Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) can be tion in economic and social policies, but of a ’Social Union’. relaunched, the most urgent tasks will be the also regarding the global agenda. There are completion of the Banking Union by adding large constituencies in Europe looking for the deposit insurance to the existing pillars and political force that insists on the simultane- the introduction of a genuine fiscal capacity ous pursuit of sustainability and equality. in support of risk-sharing and convergence. Demonstrating this capacity will bring the Such measures do not require a federal wind back into the sails of social democracy. leap or treaty change. Because of the risk of disintegration in case of another economic The positive side downturn, EMU reform is vital - but further building-blocks of a new business model is the improved should not be forgotten either. In particular, the time has probably come for an effective performance of the industrial policy, with new potential for inno- left in the Iberian vation as well as regional development. Peninsula and a few Finally, the future of EU integration and, within that, the perspective of a Social other parts of the Europe also depend on a global progressive agenda. Europeans, more than anybody European south, else, can and must strive to rescue collective together with the action in the world. The main threat to multilateralism comes Dutch surge and the from the country which invented the sys- return of the centre- tem—the United States of America. The US has been looking for ways to manage left to government its own relative decline and today this has become more disruptive than constructive. in the north. It threatens the achievements of the recent past, including in climate policy, nuclear disarmament and economic development. > AUTHOR The current juncture calls for a rediscovery of László Andor is the new FEPS Secretary- the Social Democratic tradition of global sol- General. He is a Hungarian economist, and former EU Commissioner for Employment, idarity and the construction of a progressive Social Affairs and Inclusion (2010-2014). international agenda. Saving EU integration

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 35 DEBATES

NEXT LEFT 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall "A decade before the Berlin Wall came down, the corrosion of the social welfare state started with the neoliberal turn" Interview with Wolfgang Engler, by Olaf Bruns

Wolfgang Engler The German sociologist Wolfgang Engler examines the is a sociologist and publicist from Dresden who lives in Berlin. From question what happened to (Eastern) Germany in the past 2005 to 2017 he was the rector three decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall from the inside. of the Academy of Dramatic Arts "Ernst Busch" Berlin. His last In his last book – together with the journalist and writer book - together with Jana Hensel Jana Hensel – 'Wer wir sind. Die Erfahrung, ostdeutsch zu - "Wer wir sind. Die Erfahrung, ostdeutsch zu sein" ("Who we sein' ('Who we are. The experience of being East German'), are. The experience of being East recounts a particular sense of homelessness in the new, German"), tackles the many open questions of Germany 30 years western world. But he also thinks that many of the problems after the fall of the Berlin Wall. that have arisen along the way can only be understood in the wider context of neoliberalism and deindustrialisation.

Progressive Post: 30 years after happening? Of course, I do not want to say that the fall of the Berlin Wall – does I'm grateful to these movements, but perhaps they the thought give you a solemn, were necessary to sharpen the general awareness or rather an anxious, feeling? of the problem!

Wolfgang Engler: Both. At the celebrations in PP: For you, what are the salient November, we'll probably hear again about all features of Germany, 30 years the things that have been achieved. And you can't after the fall of the Berlin Wall? deny it: with regard to apartments, infrastructure, supply systems and also to a number of companies WE: The ambivalence of the developments: The that are thriving, a lot has happened! But often, the big subjects are the East-West migrations from problems that also exist are put aside. But per- 1989 to now, with all their disparities. Then again, haps something is changing now. The East is back there are places like Jena, Potsdam, Berlin and in the headlines – linked to right-wing extremist Dresden, and a number of other middle cities demonstrations and acts of violence, but also on where the exodus has been successfully halted, the electoral success of the New Right. This has where people come back, and which have devel- led the East to be perceived as a threat on the one oped quite well, economically and culturally. hand, but also: many people are now looking more However, we still have many regions where the closely at the background: why are these things opposite is the case. Where the departures

36 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 A longer version of this interview will be published online soon. www.progressivepost.eu employees. In the years after the unification, 150 large with5,000 companies, ormore Just one example: in the East there were ity, it has led to anoverhasty reunification. Thishad to beconsidered.West. in real But reunification we'll happen fast, go doesn't us, wego to ifthe theD-Mark', meaning: slogans like notcometo does 'iftheD-Mark exodus from Eastto West started, there were Immediately the after thefallof Wall, under pressure from the East Germans. process, startingfrom ‘89, very was much WE: society to unravel in this way? PP: were about 17 million! the very At be the GDR. end of the GDR there about 14millionlive inthearea that usedto the fallofWall are stillpalpable. Today, the economic ravage of the early years after continue andwhere thelong-term effectsof | d came wall the after closed companies GDR former many Wismar, in here Like (more than 5,000 employees), 145 were phased out in the early years after the r the after years early the in out phased were employees), 145 5,000 (more than Ofcourse, theentire German unification A longer version of this interview will be published online soon. A longer version of this interview will be published online soon. What were the reasons for - these deindustrialisation processes deindustrialisation these took Midlands, in belt the industrial in the US – – in the Ruhr area, in parts of the English deserted, withintwo to five years. Elsewhere were suddenly nolonger available. Lifewas ture tiedto large these intheEast companies culturalthe social, andmedicalinfrastruc suppliers have didn't workanymore, that that the that alsomeans short time.And were145 ofthese withinavery phased-out state and the turn to neoliberal regimes. This namely thecorrosion ofthesocialwelfare 1980s, adecade before the Wall camedown, view andconsiders thechanges intheearly visiblebecomes only whenonetakes alarger German oreven aGerman problem. It WE: population in Eastern Germany? the radicalisation of part of the PP: soeasily.the wounds do not heal several to decades even happen!And today, I don't thinkit's Idon't anessentially East Is that the background of www.progressivepost.eu Summer-Autumn 2019-The own. From a total of 150 large companies companies 150 large of atotal From own. eunification.' - express themselves, Again, the wordsAgain, of 1930s: these people help the masses to Walter Benjamin but not to obtain about the rise of the Nazis in the apply, who said their rights. Progressive Post DEBATES #12 37

© shutterstock SPECIALDEBATES COVERAGE © shutterstock © shutterstock

has led people everywhere to miss the train in the East of Germany, it becomes clear and to feel left out. And these people are that these are not just the so-called losers now looking for ways to politically address of globalisation, but that these networks their anger and rage. For a long time, in reach deeply into the middle of the society. In the 1980s, a Eastern Germany, their standard carrier was The precarious alone would neither bear the the Left Party. But in the summer of 2015, phenomenon nor would they allow it to be decade before the with the mass migration, people started explained. feeling that the Left Party had become part Wall came down, of the establishment, that they back the pol- Research has shown that in Dresden many icies of chancellor Angela Merkel. And then people who participate in the far-right the corrosion of they thought: well, let's go for a radical turn! demonstrations are well-educated, earn- We now entrust our dissatisfaction to those ing an average wage, or even slightly more, the social welfare who'll make you feel a bit uncomfortable. sometimes even academics. The middle of Maybe the political class will see us then. society is much more vulnerable than the state started with And that is exactly what happened! West! the neoliberal And when you come to those areas where PP: What causes this turn. This has led people feel excluded, they say, 'as long as particular vulnerability of we've stayed politically moderate, we've the middle of society, or the people everywhere heard things like 'everything will be fine, it middle class, in the East? may take a little longer, there might just be to miss the train dry spells...'. But now that we are entrust- WE: There are many who have a good job, a ing our political process to the New Right, good education and earn decent money, but, and to feel left out. everyone is interested in us: the journalists because of the different developments of the come, the social researchers come... - well, East, even now, after three decades, haven't And these people it seems that we did everything right! And even remotely been able to accumulate the are now looking for then it's hard to answer: no, that goes com- same economic resources - savings, home pletely the wrong way! ownership etc. – as comparable people in ways to politically the West. And these people are extremely PP: Are these really essentially vulnerable when something unforeseen hap- address their movements of people who feel pens, when they lose their job or apartment. excluded? Losers of the economic Normally, as middle class, people have an anger and rage. development, of globalisation? economic buffer, which allows them to envisage a new situation for a moment. Here WE: No. If examine the supporters and sup- in the East, people are much more unpro- port networks of the New Right, not only tected towards change, because they can't

38 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 A longer version of this interview will be published online soon. www.progressivepost.eu DEBATES Read the full article online www.progressivepost.eu

SOCIAL IMPACTS OF TRANSITION EASTERN EUROPE: A MULTIPLE TRANSITION CRISIS © shutterstock

The post-communist transition is often viewed as an economic success story in the West – even though with rely on those resources. And then an eviction difficulties. Many in the East, however, have painful from an apartment for the landlord's personal memories. In a number of countries, authoritarian use is often already enough for someone to slip nationalist governments have come to power, promising very quickly from the middle of society to the to right the perceived wrongs of the transition period. bottom.

> AUTHOR And when this centre of society, the anchor of Mitchell A. Orenstein is a Professor of Russian and East stability, comes under such massive pressure, European Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and a Senior when the people lose their homes or jobs in Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. droves - then they

PP: Is that the 'Great Offense' you write about in your recent book?

WE: It's linked. By the 'Great Offense', I mean the irritating experience that millions of East Germans had in the period 1990-1992: on HUNGARIAN DEMOCRACY the one hand, through the 1989 reversal, FROM BEST IN CLASS they achieved, in political terms, pretty much everything they wanted: civil rights, individual TO FAILING GRADE? freedoms, freedom of assembly, freedom of travel, etc. But at the precise moment when they had reached this goal, for millions of peo- In 1989, Hungarians saw democracy as an enormous ple suddenly the social and economic network hope for an open and free society. 30 years on, Hungary fell apart. And this twofold experience, that they is an officially ‘illiberal state’ based on nationalism and have achieved a gain in political self-determi- corruption. The opposition is fragmented, the society is nation, on the one hand, but a dramatic loss of economic self-determination on the other, divided along political, economic and geographic lines. destabilises society up until today. The progressive left doesn’t have any answers.

> AUTHOR Péter Niedermüller is a Member of the European Parliament, treasurer and Vice-President of the Progressive Alliance of Socialist and Democrats. He is a member of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), where he is engaged in issues of human rights, fundamental rights, rule of law and migration, a member of the Delegation for relations with Israel, and the Special Committee on Terrorism.

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 39 DEBATES

NEXT LEFT 30 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall FROM OPEN DOORS TO A CLOSED SOCIETY by Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz

On June 4, 1989 – on the same day that students died in Tiananmen Square – parliamentary elections were held in Poland. For the first time, real opposition candidates were allowed to participate. The resulting opposition-led government opened the door to historical changes in the country and beyond. The 2004 accession to the European Union caused waves of optimism and faith in a good future. Today however, a deeply divided Poland is struggling to cope with the social challenges and changes of the past decades. The current government presents a real threat to democracy.

fter several waves of strikes, results in the form of a decreased GDP and and Justice' party (PiS). Ever since, election the government had negoti- hugely increased unemployment. The priva- after election, the PiS remains strong and the ated the organisation of the tisation of the state sector took people by democratic opposition is in trouble. 1989 elections with the trade surprise, but at the same time, in a very short Aunion Solidarność (Solidarity) that had led time, two million small private companies The reformers of previous governments the protests. For the first time in the Soviet were established. Poland turned decisively failed to notice at the right time that the camp, a government negotiated with the to the West and consistently strived to join state had become rich enough to inten- opposition and agreed on the possibility of NATO and the EU in following years. sify help for the poorer citizens. Populism, its representatives joining the parliament. demagogy, intolerance and xenophobia have The trade union participated in the elec- In 2019, we have been a member of the mil- found their place. The undoubted error of tions and received 35% of the votes. The itary alliance for 20 years and a member of the previous pro-European governments Solidarity-led coalition government emanat- the European Union for 15. In both cases, was the lack of any noticeable and credible ing from these elections opened the door to membership is supported by a majority of programme for the country, and especially historical changes in Poland – and beyond. the population. The economy has not been for the young and well-educated generation, in for 30 years, the unemployment leading to an alienation of these groups of The country decided on radical political and rate of roughly 6% is very low, and people's voters. Poland is today an internally crippled economic changes. The economic situation prosperity has grown significantly. For the country, deeply divided between the city and was dire, and people were willing to accept longest time, the Polish transformation the countryside, between the higher and anything. Expectations were high and naive. seemed an undisputed success story. lower educated, the more and less religious, Almost nobody realised the inevitable social the rich and poor. costs that were to come. Suddenly, however, in recent years, the situation has changed dramatically. Four Polls indicate that democracy, the rule of law Politically, the system was democratised years ago, a large part of voters believed and individual freedoms, are important to without any troubles. The economic ther- in the slogan "Poland in Ruins" and handed about 30-40% of the population, but they apy, however, quickly began to bring painful political power to the radical right-wing 'Law seem not to matter much to another, equally

40 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 DEBATES

Many have ended up seeking security in the identification with a sense of community. And that's what the demagogues happily © shutterstock | June 4th 2016, Demonstration in Cracow to celebrate the anniversary of the first provide – but it's a free election in 1989 in Poland. community of the crowd, rather than large part of society. At the same time, pol- complexity and scale of these changes have the community of a itics has lost its importance in the eyes of created a sense of uncertainty and confu- half of society that is doing well, oblivious to sion. The psychological effect of long-term democratic society. the danger of political regression. Politicians changes seems to have pushed many citi- from the centre and the left, who ruled most zens to mythologise the past, instead of of the time after 1989, either left or ceased embracing a future that seems increasingly to be convincing for the majority. They also uncertain. lost their previous enthusiasm and strong motivation to act. The conservative right on Many have problems with adapting to the the other side, has managed to activate a new way of life and end up seeking security previously silent part of society. in the identification with a sense of com- munity. And that's what the demagogues In the European elections, participation has happily provide – but it's a community of doubled – but voters provided another vic- the crowd, rather than the community of a tory to the ruling party. This new victory is democratic society. Added to the attempts largely the consequences of costly social to manipulate democratic societies from the transfers, the use of public television for outside – with money and internet activity unprecedented government propaganda – the risk of for democracy and European – defending the Catholic Church, however integration appears to be very high. embattled in paedophilia scandals it might be – and an aggressive anti-LGBT rhetoric. 30 years after the first free elections and 15 The numerous scandals undermining the years after the historic enlargement of the credibility of the rulers however, and their European Union, causing waves of optimism evident lack of professionalism in creating and faith in a good future, we now face the laws and conducting foreign policy, have not necessity of a much more active defence of the affected in any noticeable way voters' sup- European Union itself, but even more of the > AUTHOR port for the 'Law and Justice' party. values and principles upon which it was built. Włodzimierz Cimoszewicz was the from 1996 to late 1997, In Poland – as elsewhere – the wider context the Foreign Minister (2001–2005) and the speaker of the lower chamber of the Polish of deep global geopolitical, technological parliament from January to October 2005. and cultural changes matters too. The pace,

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NEXT ECONOMY The future: the 4 days working week CONTINUING THE FIGHT FOR SHORTER WORKING TIME by Frances O’Grady

Working time has always been a key battleground for working people and their trade unions. Now, as technology and the increasingly eat into workers’ personal time, a shorter working week is again necessary. A four-day week, without loss of pay, is one of our ambitions!

he demand for the ten- and then We know this is popular with workers. When the eight-hour day was one of the We need to fight back against we asked people how they imagine a world international labour movement’s employers who want to use new in which more efficient production enabled first campaigns, proposed at the technology to revive age-old a reduction in working time, a shift to a four- TInternational Workers Congress in Germany day week was overwhelmingly the most forms of exploitation! in 1866. In 1919, the Hours of Work (Industry) popular choice. Convention was the first convention adopted @FrancesOGrady from by the International Labour Organisation @The_TUC And looking at our history, we should have (ILO). More recently, unions across Europe confidence in the ability of organised labour worked together to achieve the 1993 Working to work together across borders to change Time Directive, establishing safe limits on the norms of working time. working hours and giving millions of workers paid holidays for the first time. continue to transform our economies and the way we work. And trade unions believe Always on demand The scale of our achievements is clear. that workers should get their fair share of Since 1868, when the British Trades Union the gains, through both higher pay and more But while technological innovation should Congress (TUC) was founded, the average time away from work. be used to liberate people from excess working week in the UK has almost halved, work, in recent years it’s seemed to do the falling from 62 hours to around 32 hours. At the TUC, we believe that a four-day week opposite. Many employers have used new And in much of northern Europe, strongly – with no loss of pay – should be among our technologies like smartphones to eat into organised workforces have achieved even ambitions in the years ahead. Like our pre- their workers’ personal time. greater gains. decessors, we want working people to have more time free from the demands of work, This is most apparent from the rise of ‘on But we shouldn’t put a stop to our ambi- more time to spend with loved ones and with demand’ platforms like Uber, which cre- tions here. In this century, technology will their communities. ate an expectation that workers always

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FOUR-DAY WEEK ?

be available for work without being paid. pioneered collective agreements on the Trapped in a cycle of low pay and insecurity, ‘right to switch off’, now enshrined in a workers are forced to compete for ever- national law that requires companies with smaller parcels of work. 50 employees or more to negotiate the If an employer takes use of communications technology. The courts have repeatedly rejected Uber’s claim that they’re creating a new form of a worker’s time Advances like these build on the achieve- work. Rather, they’re using a new technol- without paying ments of the last two centuries. And they ogy to deny workers their rights, including remind us that collective action by working the right to rest breaks, holidays and to a for it, that’s theft. people is still the best way to deliver decent minimum wage. pay, more leisure time, higher living stand- ards and better working lives. Even for workers with secure hours, the boundaries between work and non-work are blurring. According to TUC research, one in seven workers have seen their hours increase thanks to new technology, since they can be that robots and autonomous systems could reached more easily when they’re at home. deliver a £200bn boost to output, and simi- And research by the Chartered Institute of lar increases in productivity are on their way Personnel and Development in 2017 found right across Europe. that nearly a third of workers felt that hav- ing remote access to the workplace stopped But already, super-rich CEOs are trying to them switching off in their personal time. hoard those billions, short-changing labour. Last year alone, British workers alone put in ’s CEO Jeff Bezos is the richest man £32 billion worth of unpaid overtime. in the world, but in his warehouses low-paid workers are so exhausted that they’re col- So winning more free time for workers isn’t lapsing on the job. the only challenge we face. We must also safeguard the time that’s already been won. We need to turn the tide and fight back Because let’s be clear: if an employer takes a against employers who want to use new > AUTHOR Frances O’Grady is the General Secretary worker’s time without paying for it, that’s theft. technology to revive age-old forms of of the British Trades Union Congress (TUC). exploitation. She has been an active trade unionist and campaigner all her working life and was Industrial disruption Stories from across Europe give us employed in a range of jobs from shop grounds for optimism. Union campaign- work to the voluntary sector. Before the TUC, O’Grady worked for the Transport and We’re living in a period of rapid industrial ing in Ireland recently delivered a ban General Workers Union. disruption. The UK government estimates on zero-hours contracts. French unions

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NEXT ECONOMY

REDUCTION IN THE NUMBER CWU - ROYAL MAIL, OF WEEKS WORKED IN 35-HOUR WEEK REYKJAVÍK From March 2015 to March 2016 From 2015 to present day Regular working hours / Regular working hours / TOWARDS Week: 40 hours Week: 48 hours The City of Reykjavík conducted a Faced with automated tasks, Royal one-year experiment on reducing Mail workers demanded a shorter A 4-DAY the number of working weeks in work week, so that productivity gains some of the City’s public services. could be shared more equitably Normal working hours were reduced between workers and shareholders. from four to five hours without any Result: In March 2018, the reduction in employee productivity. WEEK Communications Workers Union Result: The working week was (CWU) reached an agreement shortened by four hours, ending with Royal Mail to move to a on Friday afternoon. The service 35-hour work week by 2022. Why reduce or reorganise working time? centre closed at 3.00 a.m. instead In order to achieve a better work-life- of 4.00 a.m. every working day. balance, a social sustainable adaptation to robotisation, a reduction of stress caused by work or by increased productivity.

Initiatives are flourishing in Europe: 35, 32, 28 hours or even a 4-day week are amongst them.

The reduction of working time is also used as a lever to reduce energy consumption, and labour costs to fight unemployment or even to improve well-being.

Here are some of the experiments carried out around the world.

SOURCE THE HUNTSMAN PLAN IN UTAH

The Shorter Working Week: From 2009 to 2011 A Radical And Pragmatic Proposal Edited Regular working hours / Week: 40 hours

In 2009, in response to rising energy costs, former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman launched the “4/10” work week - 10 hours a day, Monday to Thursday - for 17,000 government employees. The results: increased efficiency, reduced https://autonomy.work/ indirect costs and energy savings, although by Will Stronge and Aidan Harper 2019 budgets were tight.

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THE 35-HOUR WEEK THE SVARTEDALEN EXPERIMENT IG METALL AND THE 28-HOUR WEEK From 1998 to present day From 1 February 2015 to December 2016 From January 2018 to present day Regular working hours / Regular working hours / Regular working hours / Week: 35 hours Week: 40 hours Week: 40 hours (possibility of 42 hours)

Implemented in 2000, the measure In April 2014, the authorities of the city The workers of the IG Metall union - which was made mandatory for all companies of Gothenburg launched the 30-hour represents about 3.9 million workers in from 1 January 2002. The objective is to week for nurses at the Svartedalen Germany - went on strike to demand reduce working time from 39 to 35 hours retirement home. During 23 months, the possibility of reducing their working in order to reduce unemployment. This nurses’ working time was reduced time to 28 hours per week for up to two makes the French economy the first to to six hours a day. To cope with this years, with the automatic right to return reduce working time by legal means. reduction in the number of hours, to full-time employment afterwards. additional employees were recruited for The results: shorter working hours, more Unionists wanted more time to care for about 15 full-time equivalents. Salaries social welfare, reduced tax contributions, their children and sick or elderly parents. remained stable and those of new greater flexibility in the organisation of recruits were paid from public funds. Results: Workers eventually obtained a companies and no reduction in wages. 4.3% wage increase for nearly one million Results (conducted via a questionnaire workers. Those who opted for a 28-hour given to residents and employees): week to care for young people or elderly par- improved health of nurses and reduced ents receive an additional allowance of €200 sick leave. The operation was not per month from the state. Those who want extended because it was considered too to take a break from work in high-risk health costly by the state. jobs are compensated with €750 per year.

VRT

2016 Regular working hours / Week: 40 hours

Faced with a reduction in its public subsidies and a limitation on staff costs, the Flemish public broadcaster VRT (Vlaamse Radio en Televisie) wanted to reduce the number of its 2,200 employees by 350. In order to avoid redundancies, unions then proposed a voluntary work redistribution or work sharing system with a voluntary reduction in working time. The agreement between the unions and management provided for up to 22 additional days of leave for employees who waived their bonuses. Results: Positive impacts on workers’ pension rights and “regular” sick leave or annual leave.

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NEXT ECONOMY The future: the 4 days working week

IT’S TIME FOR A 4-DAYS WORKING WEEK! by Aidan Harper

A shorter working week has always been central to the labour movement. With the rapidly approaching tipping point towards climate breakdown and the automation of many work processes, steered by new technologies like AI, the issue is back to the forefront of progressive politics!

he eight-hour day and the two- in Britain could be down to the fact that the day weekend have a claim to be UK has become a hotbed of activity around the greatest victories of the labour shorter hours. The have already movement. Normalised in the rou- fully committed to the cause by campaigning Ttine of daily life, it is easy to forget just how on the back of a four-day week in the 2017 important they are – they provide us with the general election, the Trade Union Congress time we need to do all the things we consider have said the four-day week should be the most important, and with the people who aim of the labour movement, and now the The shorter working are most important to us. Labour Party have launched a review into the shorter working week. Suddenly the four-day week has always been a Prior to this, working hours averaged nearly week is a common-sense demand. sixty hours a week. However, the nine-to- central aim of the labour five, five-days-a-week model for full-time movement. After a few work is increasingly viewed as broken and Climate Breakdown outdated. Across Europe, work and time are decades in a neoliberal once again becoming sites of major politi- The IPCC report from last year reiterated the cal contestation and the shape of political rapidly approaching tipping points toward wilderness, the issue is debate is beginning to form around a new climate breakdown. In the US, the Member back to the forefront of demand: the demand for a four-day week. of the House of Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has led the charge for a rad- progressive politics. A movement built around working-time ically transformative agenda in the form of reduction is growing across Europe. A a Green New Deal. At the New Economics survey earlier this year showed that most Foundation, we argue that working fewer Europeans support the introduction of a four hours, without necessarily losing pay – such day working week – and nearly two-thirds of as a four-day or 32 hour week – should be a people in the UK, Sweden, and Finland sup- central part of this. ported the idea. The enthusiasm for the idea

46 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 DEBATES © shutterstock

How to shift our society towards a more sustainable one? A 4 day working week could help! @Aidan_Harper_ from @NEF & @4Day_Week Campaign

| The industrial union IG Metall reached an agreement with the Südwestmetall employers’ federation which gave workers the right to move from a 35 to a 28-hour week

We know that across our economy as a owners of capital capture all the benefits ‘nice-to-have’ utopian wish, but as a practi- whole, we need to drastically reduce the of automation, inequality could drastically cal answer to a series of deeply embedded environmental impact of how we work increase and lead to social and political crises in our economy. and what we consume and that we need instability. On the other hand, if the gains of to rapidly shift away from energy-intensive automation were shared evenly, new tech- activities and goods. There is a close link nologies like AI could lead to higher wages between high working hours and ener- and a shorter working week for all. gy-intensive, environmentally-damaging patterns of consumption. High working Unions are already actively campaigning on hours encourage energy intensive consump- this issue – and winning. The Communication tion and goods, and favour conspicuous Workers Union (CWU) have agreed with expenditure and non-sustainable lifestyles. Royal Mail to shorten their working week A four-day week, combined with other to 35 hours (down from 39) for 134,000 policies which disincentive carbon inten- postal workers in a direct response to the sive activities, could help shift our society mechanisation of the parcel packaging pro- towards one which engages in more sustain- cess. They made the case that the benefits able behaviours. of automation should be shared fairly with workers in the form of a shorter working It is encouraging to see emerging campaigns week. Worldwide, other examples exits. such as the Green New Deal for Europe (See our map on page 44-45.) include the shorter working week as part of their plan to overhaul the economy so that it places environmental sustainability and Towards the four-day week > AUTHOR social wellbeing at its heart. Aidan Harper is a researcher at the New The shorter working week has always been Economics Foundation. His work includes a central aim of the labour movement. After the relationship between health inequalities Automation a few decades in a neoliberal wilderness, and community control, exploring the idea the issue is back to the forefront of progres- of consumer debt write-off, wellbeing and the future of work, reducing the Another key challenge facing Europe is the sive politics. Across Europe, an increasing working week, and exploring new ideas for impact of automation – which can be viewed number of people are beginning to see participatory democracy. both as an opportunity and a threat. If the the four-day working week not only as a

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NEXT SOCIAL Urgent: social infrastructure investments © shutterstock

| The Charité Hospital in Berlin is Europe's largest university clinic. In 2015, current public investment in social infrastructure in the EU is estimated at 170 billion euros, an amount at least 20 per cent lower than in 2008. The Financial Crisis has left EU Member States in dire straits because of the falling tax revenues and the impact of austerity measures in many countries. As a consequence, public investment in social infrastructure has reached a 20-year low. Turning this around however could be the catalyst for the creation of modern welfare in Europe, for a decrease in hardship for the poor, the middle classes and the young. And it would also enhance productivity and growth.

urrent public investment in But, given our ageing populations, radical social infrastructure in the structural changes in labour markets, and EU is estimated at 170 billion opportunities presented via technologi- euros for 2015, the last year cal innovation and the knowledge society, Spain spends €183 per forC which we have formalised data, an high-quality large-scale innovative invest- pupil and year, while amount at least 20 per cent lower than in ments in social infrastructure are urgently 2008 and clearly insufficient when looking needed in the EU right now,. It is time to in the Netherlands at the minimum infrastructure investment turn the tide as many of those facts already gap in these sectors which is estimated at have serious and prolonged impacts, par- this sum is €1,283. 100 to 150 billion euros per year, repre- ticularly on the affordability of health and senting a total lack of at least 1.5 trillion long-term care and pensions, on the need euros between 2018 and 2030. for child and long-term care as well as for

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BOOSTING LONG TERM INNOVATIVE INVESTMENT IN SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE A POSSIBILITY TO MODERNISE SOCIAL MODELS IN EUROPE by Lieve Fransen

life-long education and competence and increasingly recognised that some coun- accounting for around two thirds of the total. skills development. tries – such as Germany, France, Belgium This points to a major underinvestment in and Hungary – have an excess of capacity some of the other countries where the need Demand for affordable energy-efficient and (Germany has 8.2 beds per 1000 inhab- is even higher. Spain spends €183 per pupil accessible housing continues to grow – while itants, the highest number of the OECD and year, while in the Netherlands this sum incomes grow less than these expenses. This countries) and that people in need of long is €1,283. On average, public investment creates a vicious circle in which many peo- term care clearly prefer to stay in their dropped in Germany, France, Italy, Spain ple are spending nearly 40 percent of their homes and communities while using con- and Portugal, while the knowledge economy income for housing, paying unaffordable nectivity and home services. The long-term would require important and continuous prices or depending on subsidies to keep care sector in particular is critically under- investment in life-long education. their homes warm or cool, while increasing invested in and often too institutionalised in numbers of people wait on never-ending many regions in Europe. Public spending on People’s needs are evolving, and they expect waiting lists for social housing or become long-term care ranges from more than 4% of the services and infrastructure to become homeless. GDP in the Netherlands to less than 0.5 % in more people-centred, accessible, energy-ef- countries like and Poland. ficient and affordable. Affordable, accessible and energy efficient housing has therefore become a major and However slow, there are also positive We cannot risk not making those much- critical challenge everywhere in Europe and examples throughout Europe where peo- needed investments as it clearly appears should be addressed urgently. Assessment ple-centred community-based care and that those countries that started a modern of allocated resources does of course not support services are being developed which approach of investing in their human capi- say much about whether those resources better match the evolving and complex tal during the whole life course and invest in are used efficiently. needs of the populations. transforming their social services and social infrastructures fared best during the crisis, For example, in the health and long-term Capital expenditure in the EU for education while in other countries people suffered. care sector, the focus is usually on hospi- was approximately € 65bn in 2015, with the tals and institutionalised care, while it is UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands

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How to modernise social models in Europe? Boosting innovative investment in social infrastructure! @LieveFransen

It is a fallacy to say that investments in framework to make work in the Member human capital are still classified as costs States easier and very quickly increase the rather than investments and it is not true number of initiatives that can deliver rapidly that social infrastructure investments do not at scale. provide the return that other investments year. The large majority of social infrastruc- provide. In fact, the social infrastructure ture is backed by scarce public money and The Commission, the European Investment investments carry a lower risk and can be two-thirds of investment is made by local Bank and the national and regional promo- very attractive as they provide stable pre- administrations. In many regions however, tion banks have already made major efforts dictable returns, if the projects are large Europe’s social infrastructure gap cannot - but together we do need to step up the enough and resources from different sources and will not be closed with local public efforts with a sense of urgency and for the are blended. finance alone - and Europe has a great longer term. opportunity now to attract or crowd-in pri- In our recent report, under the lead of the for- vate investment and boosting innovative mer President of the European Commission, approaches for social infrastructure and , with the support of European services and to blend resources and bundle long term investors and in close cooperation projects to create large investment plat- with the European Commission, we selected forms in cities and regions where change three large sectors that are absolutely criti- and resources are needed most. cal for the wellbeing of Europe’s citizens and that require urgent long term investments: Stakeholders and local authorities are to be health and long term care, education and supported to prepare a pipeline of bankable lifelong learning, and affordable, accessible projects to make this change happen now. and energy efficient housing. The right conditions will partially be in The report has helped to prepare the new place once the new Multiannual Financial instrument InvestEU, creating a social Framework (MFF) and InvestEU are success- investment line in this fund, and providing fully adopted and operationally launched in more resources, guarantees and technical 2021 – but there is no time to waste and support for the social Infrastructure invest- more can still be done even now. ment agenda. Across Europe, existing best practice and We should have the ambition to fill the models should be widely shared – and > AUTHOR Lieve Fransen is a Senior policy advisor. gap with an additional 170 billion euro per the Commission could help to develop a Former director in social affairs at the European Commission.

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NEXT SOCIAL Urgent: social infrastructure investments © shutterstock SOCIAL INVESTMENT FOR THE FULL DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN DIGNITY by Giuseppe Provenzano and Andrea Ciarini

The crisis and the paradoxical response of austerity, imposed The "golden rule" of the social on the most affected countries, has interrupted a process public investment is a battle of economic and social convergence that had barely begun for the progressive forces, to overcome strong asymmetries. In Europe, the gap has particularly of southern Europe, in the new @Europarl_EN - widened between the so-called "virtuous" countries, Giuseppe Provenzano which despite the crisis still have room for manoeuvre for & Andrea Ciarini investment in welfare policies, and countries that have no other prospects than cuts in social spending and benefits.

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How to use social investment to fully development human dignity? n Italy, the impact of austerity measures But the problem does not only concern Giuseppe Provenzano has been particularly heavy, especially Italy. The lack of growth and investment also at regional and territorial levels, notably & Andrea Ciarini depends on the "rigorous" interpretations in the South, where most of the cuts in of the treaties that Europe must abandon Ipublic spending have been made. if it is to trigger a dynamic of convergence between all areas, the only guarantee of sta- Italian welfare has reached a major crisis – bility and sustainability in the medium term and it was already burdened by considerable for the Economic and Monetary Union. problems before. Above all there is an inter- were already too weak and totally inade- nal differentiation that is unparalleled on the quate to cope with the social emergency of Far from being conceived as an investment, European scene, and an almost unprece- poverty, unemployment and retrenchment social spending is now considered legitimate dented reduction in the funds allocated to of services. Now, with the risk of economic (and desirable) insofar as it is compatible local authorities. stagnation in Italy, the South could fall back with economic growth levels and tight budg- into a recessive spiral that would aggravate etary constraints. This "orthodox" view of The same can be said of investment in social an already dramatic situation. social spending is at odds with the objec- infrastructure. In the face of a real collapse in tives of the European social agenda, which public investment – between €10 billion and In the southern regions, essential levels of is underpinned by the Social Investment €12 billion less between 2007 and 2017 – it assistance are not guaranteed. A situation approach (endorsed by a series of formal was the territorial levels that recorded the where less than five out of every hundred steps within the European institutions, from strongest spending cuts, as a result of the children between 0 and 2 years old benefit the 2012 Social Investment Package to the cut in transfers to local authorities due to from childcare services in the South cannot more recent Pillar of Social Rights). balancing the budget. be considered normal – while in the rest of the country the share of kids involved in This “ortodox” logic is particularly in con- Over the last ten years, public spending for early childhood education is more than three trast with the growing social needs of the the Mezzogiorno decreased by 7.5%, while times higher. Today, in the South and in the European population, not only as a result of it increased by 0.5% in the rest of Italy. Most inland areas, real citizenship is denied, with the crisis but also as a result of the major importantly, infrastructural investments in social rights being challenged by a public demographic changes affecting all European the Italian South are less than one fifth of machine unable to channel investment, countries. Think of long-term care, care for the national total, while in the 1970s, they resources and services to meet people's the elderly, work-life balance and child care. were almost half. 2017 was the year in which needs. Public investment still continues These are the sectors in which the devel- public investment reached an all-time low, to decline, and the current government opment of services and the consequent particularly in the South. In 2018 and 2019, is moving from the European madness of social infrastructure is essential, in order data could be even more dramatic. This is a expansive austerity to the Italian madness to respond to increasingly complex needs, serious season of uncertainty for the South. of recessive indebtedness to finance current support active participation in the labour spending, with no policy to promote good, market (especially for women) and also The growth forecasts, which are expected quality work. create new jobs. to recover to pre-crisis levels only in 2028,

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Welfare services are one of the areas in of European funds and national funds from process. The welfare and social model that which employment continues to grow, in a national promotion banks and the patient we want to build for the future must also be trend that has been uninterrupted for sev- capital of institutional investors such as pen- part of this process to all intents and pur- eral years. According to (Labour sion funds and life insurance. In short, a pool of poses: work and services to ensure the equal Force Survey database), between 2008 and public and private investors oriented towards enjoyment of citizenship rights and the full 2018, the loss of employment in Europe (EU long-term objectives, with a promotional role development of human dignity. 28 average) in the manufacturing sector for the state and social repercussions capa- was 2.9 million units (with a slight recovery ble of responding to social needs and boosting in recent years), equal to about 7 percent. economic growth and employment. Against this decrease, the increase recorded by welfare services (human health and social The solution to Italy's structural problems work activities) was 17% (equal to 3.680 mil- will not come from indiscriminate tax cuts lion new employees). but from the resumption of a development

Our concern is how to fuel welfare growth in times of increasing budget constraints. The "golden rule" of the social public investment (i.e. the possibility of separating investment in the objectives of the European social agenda from the calculation of the deficit/ GDP) is a battle that will have to characterise the progressive forces, particularly of south- ern Europe, in the new Parliament.

But other solutions are also needed, with the objective of increasing the volume of resources in favour of social services and infrastructure, without affecting public debt. The recent “Prodi plan on social infrastructure” responds to this objec- tive. The investment gap in the health, education and social housing sectors is > AUTHOR > AUTHOR Giuseppe Provenzano Head of Research Andrea Ciarini Professor, Department of estimated at between €100 billion and on Cohesion Policies, SVIMEZ – Association Social and Economic Sciences, Sapienza €150 billion per year. for the Development of Industry in University of Rome. Southern Italy; Executive Board of the A major European plan for investment in social Italian Democratic Party, responsible for infrastructure is needed, with the contribution employment policy.

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NEXT SOCIAL Urgent: social infrastructure investments

For almost two decades, EU institutions have paid lip-service to capacitating welfare provision, from the idea of ‘social policy as a productive factor’ in the 1997 Amsterdam Treaty, to the ‘social investment package’, launched by Commissioner Laszlo Andor in 2013, up unto the principles laid down in the 2017 European Pillar of Social Rights. With the new legislature, it’s time to ratchet up domestic social investment.

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SOCIAL INVESTMENT IF NOT NOW, WHEN? by Anton Hemerijck and Robin Huguenot-Noel

ocial investment has been on the Social investment policies aim to sus- How to establish, consolidate EU-agenda for almost two dec- tain the ‘carrying capacity’ of the welfare and expand #SocialInvestments ades. The core diagnosis of the state in the knowledge economy and age- for future generations? Anton social investment paradigm is that ing societies. They focus on maximising Seconomic internationalisation, technological employment, employability, and produc- Hemerijck from @EuropeanUni innovation, demographic ageing, and chang- tivity to help increase citizens’ life-course, & @r_huguenotnoel from ing family structures in the post-industrial well-being and resilience. Social investment @GIZ_gmbh age increasingly harbour important impli- is anchored on three complementary objec- cations for European welfare state futures. tives: (1) raising and maintaining the ‘stock’ To sustain inclusive welfare provision, social (or human capital, skills, health of popula- investment scholars argue that social policy tion); (2) facilitating ‘flows’ between various in a knowledge economy should increasingly labour markets and (gendered) life-course be geared towards citizen ‘capacitation’. transitions; and (3) using ‘buffers’ for social risk (unemployment, sickness) mitigation

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More and more, the European public expects Anton Hemerijck’s new book puts political forces to invest in their societies by together contributions from leading supporting lives worth living. ‘Fair Taxation’ figures in the field of social investment campaigns have been flying high in recent to provide a state-of-the-art months but raising more taxes for more interdisciplinary and comprehensive redistribution alone won’t per se contrib- view on how social investment is ute to better lives. Social investment does. employed today. It’s one of the first Quantitatively, returns may be measured in exercises assessing the welfare states terms of increased employment and pro- in the new post-crisis austerity context ductivity rates, reduction of gender (pay) and exploring the potential of a new welfare paradigm based on protecting gaps and poverty rates. Qualitatively, in and capacitating. terms of quality jobs, work-life balance, or progressive skill acquisition. (ed.), 2017, Oxford

At a time where an entire generation still through income protection and economic (2012) and the Two-Pack (2013), prescrib- views the EU as the austerity headmaster, stabilisation. Pursuing these objectives in an ing balanced budgets irrespective of urgent social investment provides an opportunity integrated fashion is the most effective way social needs. for the EU to revive its political capital. High to maximise economic and social benefits over the life cycle. Now that the immediate crisis threat has subsided, the EU’s austerity reflex should The EU has played a leading role in laying no longer off-hold the long-awaited social down the theoretical foundations of social investment turn. Important changes in the investment. In the 1997 Amsterdam Treaty, EU’s economic, social and political environ- EU institutions recognised the need to con- ment conspire behind a growing case for the ceive ‘social policy as a productive factor’ EU to embrace social investment beyond in a knowledge economy. In 2013, Social two-decade long lip-service, however gen- In the rule book of the Affairs Commissioner Laszlo Andor intro- uine in substance. This is the moment for Stability and Growth duced the first ‘social investment package’, the EU to put its money where its mouth is. and after long debates within the Juncker Pact, public investments Commission, social investment priorities The current macroeconomic environment were included in the 2017 European Pillar of makes a social investment turn cheaper in lifelong education Social Rights. and more urgent at the same time. The his- and training in the torical collapse in interest rates provides EU However, the Great Recession has evi- governments with imminently favourable knowledge economy denced that social investment reform was borrowing conditions – be it in Germany or put on ice as soon as bad weather was fore- in Italy. This conjures up a post-crisis oppor- remain accounted for as cast. Thus, over the crisis years, concerns tunity not to be wasted. More concretely, wasteful consumptive about inequality, poverty and mass (youth-) investing in the EU’s economic and social unemployment, and their negative implica- resilience now provides a pro-active stabi- expenditures. tions for employment, productivity, growth lisation function for national welfare states’ and equality of opportunity, were relegated carrying capacity in a context where the to ‘auxiliary’ status to remain subordinate scope for monetary policy to absorb future to the Six-Pack (2011), the Fiscal Compact shocks is limited.

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A ‘golden rule’: exempting investing in human capital, skills and health from the Eurozone fiscal rules. Anton Hemerijck risk not only bearing the expensive economic As the economist Jean Pisani-Ferry con- from @EuropeanUni costs of its blindness, but this would also vincingly argued in a recent article: “when & @r_huguenotnoel precipitate a political backlash in undermin- Facts change, change the Pact”. The time for from @GIZ_gmbh ing the resilience of the European project. social investment to be accounted at its just value is now. Today’s favourable low inter- A more constructive option would be for the est rate environment should be put to use EU to ratchet up domestic social investment, to establish, consolidate and expand social with rules of the European Monetary Union investments that benefit future generations rates of youth unemployment, a still unequal that allow for exempting human capital and consolidate fiscal health in the face of access to childcare, education, training and ‘stock’ investments from the Stability and adverse demography. lifelong learning opportunities, and a high Growth Pact. Concretely, this would take level of poverty and social exclusion rates the form of a ‘golden rule’ exempting human If not now, when? across the EU are problems that demands capital ‘stock’ spending from the Eurozone effective and legitimate responses. Reviving fiscal rule book for 1,5% of GDP for about the EU with an assertive ‘social investment a decade, as a flagship initiative of the new pact’ (not package) would confront head-on Commission. Without a stabilisation budget the political vacuum between right-wing for the Eurozone, investing in the economic populist welfare chauvinism and the ongoing and social resilience of national welfare calls for overnight fiscal consolidation that states is imperative. has emerged at the heart of the European project in the aftermath of the crisis.

However, still today, EU fiscal rules fail to allow for productive social policies to be properly accounted for. The British Economist Tony Atkinson used to give the following example: when surgery is needed, timely intervention allows an incapacitated worker to return to work sooner, thereby saving costs over the long term – even if surgery is covered by public funds. This, however, presupposes that we account for such ‘public’ spending as an investment instead of current spending. Foolishly, in the rule book of the Stability and Growth Pact, public investments in lifelong education and training in the knowledge economy remain accounted for as wasteful consumptive > AUTHOR > AUTHOR expenditures! Anton Hemerijck is Professor of Political Robin Huguenot-Noel is advisor on good Science and Sociology at the European financial governance at the German Society University Institute in Florence. Trained as In this context, the EU is faced with two for International Cooperation (GIZ) and an economist at Tilburg University in the external expert to the European Policy Centre options: First, business as usual. EU Member Netherlands, he received his doctorate from (EPC) on EU economic governance and the States may choose to muddle-through with Oxford University. Between 2014 and 2017, EU budget. the ideology of the long-term myth of unpro- Anton Hemerijck was Centennial Professor of Social Policy at the London School of ductive social spending, instead of adapting Economics and Political Science (LSE). to new realities. In this scenario, the EU will

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NEXT DEMOCRACY 'Power to the people' - Participatory Budget & Direct Democracy

© shutterstock Lisbon and Grenoble: citizens'

There is a wide range of tools to bring the process of political decision making closer to citizens, from referendum to initiative, from Participatory Budget to Direct Democracy. Two pioneer cities are the Portuguese capital Lisbon, and Grenoble, in

LISBON: A DECADE OF PARTICIPATORY BUDGET by Miguel Silva Graça

mongst the many European a greater democratisation of the process ▪ A “Lisbon Climate Citizenship cities that have made their through its “de-digitisation” — promoting Commitment” Platform that will allow experiences with Participatory less digital and more face-to-face methods, different stakeholders (from companies Budgeting (PB), Lisbon, in as well as the involvement of parts of the to citizens) to commit to specific targets, A2008, was the first capital city. The expe- populations usually excluded from public encouraging, for example, companies to rience has shown that PB clearly lead to participation, like young people, seniors promote sustainable mobility schemes a better performance of the municipality and migrants. And also a greater commit- for their employees, or citizens to com- itself, by providing a better public service ment to sustainability through the award of mit to using public transport or not and pursuing fairer public policies, and a “Green Seal” to PB projects that contrib- using plastic bags. therefore local policies that are more inclu- ute to a more environmentally friendly city. sive, sustainable and that promote social and territorial equity. Notably, in the field of sustainability, future activities are currently being prepared, In the framework of the Lisbon PB, throughout some of which are linked to the Lisbon the last 10 years citizens presented more than European Green Capital 2020: 6000 proposals. Almost 2000 projects were put to the vote, amongst which 120 gathered ▪ the “Green” Participatory Budgeting public support, corresponding to a total value 2020/21 will redirect the existing Lisbon of investment of more than 33 million euros. PB exclusively to proposals that contrib- ute to a more sustainable, resilient and Among the most important projects that environmentally friendly city. were voted and implemented were the “Start > AUTHOR Miguel Silva Graça is an Architect and Up Lisbon”, an SME incubator, “Centro de ▪ A Participatory Budgeting for Schools was awarded a PhD in Urban Planning by base Local”, a public library, the creative hub 2020/2021 will give students of five the Universidad de Valladolid, Spain. He has “Mouraria”, a green corridor, cycling tracks, elementary schools in Lisbon the pos- a Master’s Degree in Public Administration a public garden and a public climbing wall. sibility to propose, vote on (and see from ISCTE-IUL, Portugal. He also has a realised) green ideas for a total amount degree in Architecture from the Faculdade de Arquitectura - Universidade Técnica de The process is in constant evolution, and of €10,000 per school. Lisboa, Portugal. the most important recent innovations are

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France. While Lisbon works on exploring ever further applications of Participatory Budgeting for a decade already, the attempt to introduce elements of Direct Democracy in Grenoble has proven legally impossible – but also politically difficult.

GRENOBLE: INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM IN A HOSTILE CONTEXT by Raul Magni Berton

he most obvious obstacle is the possibility as a real danger, so they advo- loss of power of political deci- cated, without success, for the issues of sion-makers: as long as it is only their programme to be excluded from the about consultations on limited popular vote. The second fear was that the Tsubjects, elected officials have the last opposition parties - already largely critical word and the systems of citizens’ partic- of the new team - would use this tool to ipation can be designed as an aid to the delegitimise the majority. decision-making process. But a system that allows for binding decisions on all subjects Both fears however proved to be becomes an instrument of contestation or unfounded. On the one hand, the two peti- even counter-power. tions that were put to vote in this context were intended more to force the majority to In Grenoble, this obstacle, however, proved respect their programme than to abandon relatively easy to overcome. The coalition, it. On the other hand, the right-wing oppo- led by the Greens, that had won the major- sition, which had launched four petitions to ity had done so for the first time. Most challenge the majority previously, withdrew newly elected officials were more used to them all when the programme was put in challenging power than to exercising it. place. The new majority then discovered > AUTHOR Yet, two fears were particularly persistent: that by giving the opposition tools to chal- Raul Magni Berton is a Professor of Political first, the fear of being forced, by a vote, lenge, it made them more responsible: Science at Sciences Po Grenoble (France) and not to respect the programme they had the opposition could no longer challenge a researcher at the PACTE (Public Policies, announced during the campaign. Some everything, otherwise it would be system- Policy Actions, Territories) laboratory. He also considered this aspect not very threaten- atically disowned by the voters. teaches the methods in normative political theory at the University of Geneva. He mainly ing, as long as their own voters were willing works on democracy and citizenship. to take this risk. Others, however, saw this

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NEXT DEMOCRACY 'Power to the people' - Participatory Budget & Direct Democracy

| Online Participatory Democracy tools allow citizens to easily connect to the debates in their communities.

LEARNING ABOUT INTENSIFYING DEMOCRACY FROM OTHER CONTINENTS by Giovanni Allegretti Involving citizens in choosing policy priorities has proven able to increase their quality of life. When the discussion between institutions and citizens focuses on resources, spaces to discuss different scenarios for increasing wealth and rationalising the expenditures of the places where we live emerge. Participatory Budgeting is a democratic innovation that over the last 30 years has produced strong effects. In the Global South first, but increasingly in Europe, inspiration is coming from elsewhere – notably from Latin America.

emocratic innovations (DI) are a Under this perspective, democratic inno- a shift from democratic cultures to lead- large family of structured prac- vations are hinged on mediation and er-based deviations. tices shaped to directly involve articulate debates, rather than on reduc- citizens in taking decisions on the tionisms to mere yes-or-no dualisms. Thus, In the end of the ‘80s (when many dictator- Dplaces where they live, which often combine such processes are very different from the ships were being overthrown), especially in bottom-up and top-down approaches, and a instruments of so-called “direct democracy” Latin America democratic innovations were strong deliberative approach (to improve the (as referenda, acts for revoking political/ massively used to reactivate a virtuous circle quality of ideas and arguments for defending administrative mandates, etc.) which – not of mutual trust between citizens and the new them) with the goal of creating co-decisional by coincidence – are often mythised by re-democratised institutions. In these exper- mechanisms, which could try to rebalance populists for their capacity of banalising iments, it was clear that citizens become some asymmetries of powers in society. and sloganising complex choices, favouring quickly intolerant to any participatory exercise

60 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 DEBATES #ParticipatoryBudgets that did not impact substantially on the trans- scaled up from +7,700 cities Thirty years of PB experiments show clearly formation of their living spaces and habits. to national govs! They help that their high potential for reverting the to rebuild trust, oversight of crisis of representative institutions is still Thus, only when participation as well as public policies & increase to be fully exploited. Switching the concept the outcomes are real and substantive, all transparency – @allegretto70 of “decision-makers” and restoring trust actors get more responsibilised and grow in institutions, PB has been able to obtain together in a highly pedagogical “learning different goals in different realities: from environment”. This message – reinforced reducing child mortality to increasing trans- by hundreds of concrete successful expe- parency of public accounts; from including riences, especially at local level – reached counting the hundreds of Russian expe- vulnerable groups in decision-making to Europe around the beginning of millennium riences) Capitals such as Madrid or Paris increasing the resources of public budgets and gave birth to a growing amount of DI reserve more than 100 million euros per through a discussion on partnerships and experiences that have been mushrooming annum for PB, while smaller resources are revenues, and not only on expenditures. especially since the economic-financial cri- invested by Lisbon, Reykjavik, , sis after 2008. Chisinau, Prague, Milan, recently by Rome, The EU can still do a lot for outing dem- and others. ocratic innovations central and help to Many studies show positive impacts of DI establish a direct dialogue with citizens on in different domains of territorial and pol- In Europe we still don’t have cases of very concrete matters. But avoiding the icy transformations. The virtuous circle national legal frameworks for making PB mistakes of the European Citizens Initiative activated by the reconstruction of mutual mandatory at local or regional levels (as in (ECI) is important. With the ECI, the super- trust that citizens’ participation allows, can Indonesia, Peru, Dominic , Kenya or position of strong “gatekeepers” allows these constitute an “enabling environment” that South Korea), nor do we have cases like New gatekeepers to jeopardise all the efforts of facilitates other administrative reforms, York, which last November voted in a local citizens at the final stage, or to cherry-pick which are usually difficult to carry out, but referendum for extending PB to the entire their ideas. This only frustrates citizens, also changes required in our daily lifestyle city. But in Europe, Participatory Budgeting when they realise that the much-declared by sustainability goals, the rationalisation of is scaling up faster than in other continents: centrality of their role in transforming Europe mobility, the local tax systems, the creation some regions or countries adopted policy is just a rhetorical artifice for greenwashing of new public-private-people (PPP) partner- measures to incentivise PB (as Tuscany, the worn-out image of institutions and make ships. It even increases fiscal civism, as some Scotland or Poland), and Portugal, since technocratic and market-driven choices people who did not pay taxes start doing so, 2017, devoted governmental funding for cre- more ‘acceptable’. once enabled to exert active oversight on ating nation-wide thematic PBs (in sectors how money is spent. like education, science or youth policies).

The diffusion of Participatory Budgeting (PB) So, PB is not only going beyond the barriers is a good indicator of DI expansion, which of local administrations, but is cross-polli- counts on a new class of politicians who nating other institutions, such as schools, imagine another way of conceiving politics, university departments, housing or devel- where they govern “with” and not only “for” opment agencies, and even prisons. citizens, serving their constituency in the role of facilitators and support-teachers, At the same time, in several cities and regions rather than substituting citizens in their abil- PBs are being coordinated with other tools ity to imagine answers to their problems and (as participatory planning, community-based forms for shaping their dreams. monitoring, citizens observatories, public debate on large infrastructures), often getting > AUTHOR In 2010, there were 1,500 cities practicing inspired (again!) by Latin American examples Giovanni Allegretti is co-director of the Participatory Budgeting in the world, with aimed at creating more effective “participatory Ph.D “Democracy in the XXI century” and of less than 500 in Europe. In 2014, there were systems”, where interconnected but different the “PEOPLEs’ Observatory: Participation, 3,000 examples worldwide and almost half channels of social dialogue could attract dif- Innovation and Local Powers”. Architect, of them were in Europe. And in 2018, out ferent target groups, and communication planner and senior researcher at the Centre for Social Studies at Coimbra University, of more than 7,700 cases worldwide, there technologies could reduce costs of participa- Portugal. were almost 3,600 European PBs (without tion both for organisers and participants.

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NEXT DEMOCRACY 'Power to the people' - Participatory Budget & Direct Democracy EMPIRICAL EFFECTS OF DIRECT DEMOCRACY by Stefan Voigt

Direct democracy is often discussed from a normative angle: supporters praise its deliberative and participatory Neither panacea, nor a danger to democracy: the empirical qualities whereas critics doubt that the citizens are effects of #DirectDemocracy, sufficiently well informed to make far-reaching decisions by Stefan Voigt directly. This contribution analyses direct democracy from an empirical angle: it questions the effects that direct democracy instruments have on a few economic, political and governance outcomes.

efore being able to analyse the opportunities to disregard the preferences Single party governments in representative effects of direct democracy, we of their voters on many issues. If we think democracies often have to serve different need to define it. It has been of citizens as the principals and politicians factions. This often leads to package deals defined as the right of citizens as their agents, then this constitutes a prin- which make the most important voter Bto directly decide on substantive political cipal-agent problem: the principals have groups happy to the detriment of unor- issues by means of popular votes. We pro- problems making sure that their agents play ganised voters, frequently constituting a pose to distinguish between referenda and according to the principals’ preferences (and majority. Package deals with negative overall initiatives. In a referendum, citizens are asked not the agents’ own interests). Assuming that effects are, of course, even more likely under to vote on a policy proposed by the govern- politicians dislike being corrected by their coalition governments. Direct democracy ment, whereas in an initiative, they vote on a voters, they would have more incentives to instruments allow citizens to unbundle such policy proposed by the citizens themselves. cater to the preferences of the citizens under deals and directly vote on specific issues. Currently, more than 100 constitutions direct democracy. We can separate a direct Anticipating the possibility that their deals worldwide contain provisions for having a from an indirect effect: If politicians know might be unbundled by the citizens, political referendum, but less than 40 for initiatives. that citizens might resort to an initiative if parties can be expected to be more careful they disregard citizen preferences, they have when making, for example, welfare-reducing In purely representative democracies, citi- incentives to take citizen preferences into package deals. zens get to vote every so many years. They account in all measures. I propose to call this do not get to vote on single policies, but on the indirect effect, as no initiative needs to Empirical findings show that direct democ- a whole set of them, usually the policy plat- be run for it to be effective. The direct effect racy institutions have significant effects on forms of competing political parties. This would then be the case where an initiative both economic and political outcomes. Four implies that elected politicians have ample effectively does take place. stylised findings are worth emphasising:

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DEBATES © shutterstock ©

First of all, the effects of (mandatory) ref- (as well as each additional initiative) signif- erenda are very different from the effects of icantly increases government effectiveness initiatives. Whereas mandatory referenda and significantly reduces corruption. are correlated with significantly lower overall government spending, initiatives are corre- Third, direct democracy institutions can be lated with significantly higher government Empirical findings show effective in very different environments. It spending. We should thus be very careful is sometimes assumed that to be effective, when talking about direct democracy as dif- that direct democracy direct democracy can only be applied in rich ferent instruments are likely to cause very countries or countries that have been dem- different outcomes. institutions have ocratic for a long time. In our cross-country significant effects on studies, we refuted these conjectures by Second, initiatives (and referenda) often splitting our sample in established vs. need to really take place to cause any effect. both economic and less-established democracies, rich vs. poor In other words: the direct effect is stronger countries and so on. The effects of the actual than the indirect effect. Direct democracy political outcomes. use of direct democracy instruments on both can have a positive effect on government government spending as well as government effectiveness as well as reduce corruption. deficits actually turned out to be more pro- But just having legislation making the use of nounced in less established democracies. direct democracy instruments possible will not suffice: they really need to be used. We Fourth, direct democracy institutions are can show that each additional referendum no panacea for higher citizen involvement

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NEXT DEMOCRACY DIRECT DEMOCRACY TO EMPOWER PARLIAMENTARISM either. It is sometimes said that direct democracy institutions make citizens more interested in politics, which has the effect of more AND PUBLIC informed citizens who are more likely to turn out at the voting booth. Unfortunately, we did not find any evidence to support this claim. DISCOURSE Rather, citizens express lower trust in both government and political by Ralf-Uwe Beck parties. However, these results need to be taken with a grain of salt as the comparability of the procedural variables across countries can be questioned. Only with direct democracy as a complement to representative democracy the government power will really come from the people. Direct democracy More than 100 countries’ constitutions strengthens representative democracy: allow referenda, less than 40 popular it makes it more representative. Direct- initiatives. But what are the empirical democratic procedures encourage public effects?Stefan Voigt discourse and thus also prevent populism.

> AUTHOR Ralf-Uwe Beck is a theologian, civil rights activist and federal executive spokesman of the association Mehr Demokratie (‘More Democracy’). He is also the Honorary Chairman for the Federal State of Thuringia of the Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (Friends of the Earth Germany). His political involvement began in the subversive environmental movement > AUTHOR in Eastern Germany. Stefan Voigt is Professor of Law & Economics at the University of Hamburg. He is best known for his research in constitutional political economy. His text Institutional Economics – an Introduction has just been published with Cambridge University Press. Voigt is editor of the journal Constitutional Political Economy and member of various editorial boards including those of Public Choice and the International Review of Read the full article online Law & Economics. www.progressivepost.eu

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NEXT ENVIRONMENT Regulating pesticide use © shutterstock Definition:

A pesticide is a substance which is used to control organisms that are considered to be harmful (worms, parasites, insect pests, fungi...). The term includes insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and parasiticides.

Today, many studies have shown that these are harmful to our health. PESTICIDES: IS THERE SUFFICIENT AWARENESS? by Karine Jehelmann Reducing or even banning synthetic pesticides used since the 1930s in global agriculture has become one of the challenges of the 21st century How can we continue to produce enough Today, the danger of glyphosate, which is Roundup Pro 360 on the grounds of the pre- crops to feed growing populations without most often used as a herbicide, is evident cautionary principle. More and more voices using pesticides that are considered to be in the news. It is one of the most wide- are being raised to put an end to the use of harmful to our health and ecosystem? How spread in the world, present in particular in glyphosate and, more broadly, to all pesti- can we clean up soil that is already con- Roundup produced by the American com- cides. And finally, on 16 January 2019, the taminated? These are broad issues that pany Monsanto, which was acquired by the European Parliament called for the improve- are addressed at different levels from one German group Bayer in 2018. ment of the system for the evaluation and country to another, pitting the advocates of registration of pesticides. intensive agriculture against those of organic 800,000 tonnes of glyphosate are spread agriculture. A bone of contention between worldwide each year. As soon as glypho- At present, pesticide advocates claim the European Union Member States in the sate was launched on the market, IARC, that there is no alternative to pesticides. management of this issue, measures are the International Agency for Research on In response, their critics argue that large- taken regularly, but are they sufficiently Cancer, published a study on its harmful scale marketing of less harmful products monitored? It is not certain. effects on health. And despite a succession is possible. of reports to this effect, on 27 November It is the Member States that authorise prod- 2017 the Member States announced the In addition to glyphosate, the authorisation ucts on their territory and ensure compliance renewal of the authorisation of glypho- of which is to be reconsidered in 2022, two with EU rules, in particular concerning sate. The expiry date of this authorisation is other pesticide renewal programmes are the renewal or not of the authorisation of scheduled for 2022. being set up between January 2019 and pesticides used. This is based on the rec- December 2021 and between January 2022 ommendations of EFSA (the European Food Following an investigation, the Monsanto and December 2024. And for the first time Safety Authority). The 1991 directive, which is Papers, Monsanto was convicted by the in Europe, in July 2019, Austria banned the less restrictive, gave way to new legislation in American courts for having contributed, use of glyphosate on its territory. 2009. Its objective was to create a common through its products, to the development of European legal framework to achieve a sus- cancer in a gardener. On 15 January 2019, tainable use of pesticides. the Administrative Court of Lyon banned

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NEXT ENVIRONMENT Regulating pesticide use PESTICIDES: REGULATIONS DISCONNECTED FROM ENVIRONMENTAL

CHALLENGES by François Veillerette

The intensive use of pesticides in the European Union has harmful effects on health and the environment. European legislation is based on principles that normally protect us from these impacts, but it is in fact ineffective.

n the European Union, nearly 400,000 a directive in 1991 but it quickly became tonnes of pesticide active ingredients obsolete in terms of the issues at stake. are used each year. Until recently, New legislation was therefore negotiated France was the leading user. Today, and adopted in 2009. IFrench consumption is around 66,000 tonnes and is exceeded by that of Spain, This European regulation, which governs the but still ahead of that of Germany and Italy. use and marketing of active substances in The French and Spanish records are due in pesticides, is considered one of the most Pesticide control in particular to the fact that these countries are protective in the world. Thanks to the work the European Union: important and intensive agricultural produc- of NGOs and some MEPs, it establishes the ers in Europe. principle of exclusion, which covers mole- legislation that cules that can be carcinogenic, mutagenic, Countries such as Belgium and the reprotoxic or disruptive to the endocrine needs to be further Netherlands head the list of pesticide con- system. In other words, the idea is to start strengthened to ensure sumption in relation to agricultural land. from the precautionary principle to protect These strong uses have consequences on people: the legislator decides that because real protection of people health and the environment: specific pathol- a substance is inherently dangerous it must ogies (Parkinson’s disease, blood cancers, therefore be excluded without further inves- and the environment. etc.) on the rise among professional users, tigating the risk. biodiversity losses in chemically intensive cultivation areas, environmental pollution For example, a molecule is classified as a (water, soil, air, etc.). Strict supervision of probable carcinogen, according to scientific the practices and marketing of these mol- data, and it therefore represents a danger. ecules therefore seems essential to limit Manufacturers give their approval never- their impacts. The European Union adopted theless. However, it all then depends on

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| In the European Union, nearly 400,000 of active ingredients of pesticides used each year

that people, especially the most vulner- able, are effectively protected from the dangers of pesticides. The solution will require an improvement in the assessment of substances but above all an evolution in agronomic practices that will eventually make it possible to generalise cultivation systems that are not dependent on synthetic The #EU regulation of 2009 of this regulation to succeed in leaving chemistry. This is what our organisations on the use and marketing of substances on the market that are consid- are working on, in collaboration with many #Pesticides, one of the most ered to be of concern for health and the actors who are aware of the dangers of expo- environment. sure to these dangerous substances. protective in the world. @Veillerette @genefutures Our association, thanks to the work of Pesticides Action Network Europe, has therefore published numerous dossiers that show how the legislation is being cir- the level of risk (depending on the type of cumvented or even disregarded, and this use, for example, the risk may be reduced). in violation of the legal provisions. One of So according to the legislation, there is no the most striking examples is the failure to need to worry about risk assessment. The take into account all academic studies or substance is dangerous because it is car- the poor assessment of certain effects of cinogenic, we do not allow it... it is a real commercial products, particularly chronic change in concept between risk assessment effects (over the medium and long term) or and danger. certain toxic adjuvants that are not or only slightly assessed (such as POEA - polyox- > AUTHOR While the principle is essential, its applica- yethylene amine - which is present in some François Veillerette is director tion leaves our organisations very doubtful RoundUp products and of concern to certain and spokesperson of the association and critical. researchers). Générations Futures. A qualified teacher, he co-founded the association with the In fact, manufacturers have not failed to put Many scientists also agree that the effects agricultural engineer Georges Toutain in 1996. Veillerette is currently President of pressure on certain European Union bodies of mixtures are most certainly underesti- Pesticide Action Network Europe. and to use the loopholes and shortcomings mated. Much remains to be done to ensure

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NEXT GLOBAL Nuclear arms control in the era of Trump © shutterstock

| Nuclear disarmament: the EU is key in breaking the impasse on the Korean Peninsula.

The threat of nuclear proliferation around the globe today is greater than it has been for at least a quarter of a century. Two of the main sources of contagion are in Tehran and Pyongyang, but both cases are products of the wider political environment rather than consequences of domestic politics. The lessons of can provide an opportunity for the EU to play an indispensable ancillary role in breaking the impasse on the Korean Peninsula.

ran surrendered its nuclear ambitions Korea’s Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un to ‘go Unlike Washington, the EU’s policy towards after long negotiations where perhaps for broke’ threatening both Seoul and Tokyo has been one of ‘critical engage- the key player in getting the deal over the and taking the nuclear road. ment’. In June 2019, during the Shangri-la line was , the EU High Dialogue, Federica Mogherini elucidated and IRepresentative Foreign Affairs and Security On the Korean Peninsula, Kim’s determi- re-affirmed the EU’s stance. Policy. The 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of nation to develop a nuclear deterrent is Action (JPCOA) blocked off Tehran’s route to a product of paranoia and privation. For She emphasised that sanctions against the the production of Highly Enriched Uranium Pyongyang, the lesson learned from , North are a means to an end and not an end (HEU) as the necessary precursor to building Libya and Syria is that the problem is not in themselves, stating that when an agree- the bomb. The UN lifted sanctions against having weapons of mass destruction, but ment is reached and steps implementing the Iran with the endorsement and guarantees rather not having them. Conventional deter- deal begin in parallel, UN sanctions can be of the UN Security Council (UNSC), and the rence is no longer an option as they have mitigated as progress unreels. To achieve overlapping E3+3 of China, Russia, the US been more than lapped in the arms race such an agreement US-DPRK and North- and France, Germany, and the UK. with Seoul’s military spending more than South talks are of the essence. Without the North’s total GDP. The reason is simple. sealing a deal there, there is no foundation It is ’s abrogation of that While the North spends an enormous por- on which to build. At this point - and not deal, signed by President Barack Obama, tion of its GDP (approximately 25%) on the before - it is in the interest of all to trans- that threatens to put Tehran back on track military, this essentially amounts to a quarter form the process into a multilateral one. It’s to becoming a nuclear weapons power of nothing. Its total spending puts its military confidence and cash that’s being sought. with all the knock-on consequences for might only on par with Australia. It’s being Pyongyang wants the robustness and resil- regional nuclear proliferation, while for outspent by the US, South Korea and Japan ience of the JPCOA and Washington wants Pyongyang the legacy of Iraq drove North by a factor of fifty. burden-sharing.

68 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 DEBATES THE EU AND LIFTING THE SHADOW OF NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION by Glyn Ford

Nuclear disarmament: the EU is key in breaking Kim Jong Un is all too well aware he faces the impasse on the Korean Agreed Framework a quarter of a century a paradox. While a nuclear deterrent pro- Peninsula. Glyn Ford ago the EU was little more than a ‘cash tects from the threat of regime change in cow’ and that Agreement collapsed under the style of Iraq, the resulting sanctions and the weight of US domestic politics. The EP their economic impact threaten internal sta- warned for the future ‘no say, no pay’. Now bility. Thus, he’s prepared to trade away his Brussels can help shape a solution that deterrent for necessary security guarantees. Framework. None of that will come from makes the world a safer place with the first But these need to be more than a piece of Washington. That is not Trump’s style. Seoul example of a de facto nuclear power surren- paper signed by a sitting President, espe- will be expected to pay between two-thirds dering its weapons. cially a President who has shown disregard and three-quarters, with the funding gap filled for signed agreements by his predecessors. in cash or kind by other regional actors and the EU, the third largest contributor last time This is not to say that such reversals only around. In Shangri-la Mogherini reconfirmed occurred under Trump. Back in the 1990s, the offer of EU expertise and experience. President Bill Clinton signed the Agreed France and the UK both have the skills needed Framework to halt the North’s work on for dismantling weapons and facilities and nuclear weapons in exchange for two Light Brussels – albeit briefly – had the only human Water Reactors costing $4.5B. When in 2002 rights dialogue with Pyongyang. President George W. Bush tore up the deal, that was that. What is different with Trump Here is a crucial opportunity the EU must and the JPCOA now is that the rest of the seize if we are serious about halting and ‘guarantors’ defended the sanctity of the reversing the dangers of nuclear prolif- deal against Washington. Considering this, eration. The Union can be a ‘guarantor’ of > AUTHOR Pyongyang will be looking for a congruent a security agreement, provide practical Glyn Ford was a Labour MEP for 25 years deal shaped in a similar way by UNSC and assistance in the process of verification, from 1984-2009 and during that time the the associated Member States. inspection and denuclearisation of the Leader of the British Delegation and Deputy- Leader of the S&D Group. He specialised on North’s weapons programme, provide the International Trade and Foreign Affairs On Washington’s side, they are aware that grants and assistance through the European Committees in East Asia after being a ‘sufficient’ conditions, over and above any Bank for Reconstruction and Development visiting Professor at Tokyo University prior new investment climate, allowing global mul- and now take up any offer to restart the to his election. In 2012 he established a tinationals to beat their feet to Pyongyang’s human rights dialogue with Pyongyang political dialogue with the International Department of Workers’ Party of Korea doors, will involve the promise of billions through the EU’s recently appointed Special which is still ongoing. in grants to the North as with the Agreed Representative Eamon Gilmore. With the

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NEXT GLOBAL Nuclear arms control in the era of Trump © shutterstock EUROPE MUST STAND UP FOR ITS CORE SECURITY

INTERESTS by Leo Hoffmann-Axthelm Amid escalating nuclear rhetoric, the Iran Deal and the INF-Treaty have collapsed – and the New START treaty is set to expire next year. The current US policy on nuclear weapons is a provocation to EU security interests: it is time for multilateral approaches to disarmament and arms control.

he EU is routinely hailed as a How to reduce the numbers of civilian superpower and has Recent developments nuclear weapons and the role brandished its credentials as a they play in security doctrines? fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate The US decision to violate the Iran Deal Tby enabling the 2015 deal on Iran’s nuclear has led to a worrying escalation. While First step: make them illegal. programme. But as one arms control agree- President Trump based his decision on @leo_axt from @nuclearban ment after the other collapses, it is time for false claims, some in his administration are Europe to more clearly analyse its strategic laying the groundwork for another intracta- security interests, and to fight for multilat- ble war in the Middle East. Quite apart from eral approaches when it comes to nuclear the human calamity this would bring, it disarmament. would also be a disaster for the EU, whose

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nationalist politicians would gleefully exploit to NATO demanded that all European allies the unprecedented inflow of refugees and should boycott the Treaty on the Prohibition The weapons are the problem decades of instability. of Nuclear Weapons, explaining that such a treaty would call into question the legit- Europe must urgently change strategy. Also in 2018, Trump published his Nuclear imacy of relying on the threat of using Not because of Trump – his tweets threat- Posture Review, which dropped the pre- nuclear weapons for our security. This effec- ening to kill millions of innocent civilians tence of nuclear disarmament, committed tively means the US opposes a prohibition may be more bombastic but are actually a to producing new mini-nukes which would of nuclear weapons, because it would be fair description of the concept of nuclear be easier to use, and expanded the scenar- effective. deterrence. Trump is not the problem – the ios in which the use of nuclear weapons is weapons are. It’s naïve to believe humans foreseen – vastly increasing the likelihood can handle nuclear weapons without them they will be used. ever being used, whether by one of hundreds of serious accidents, or by design. Finally, the INF-Treaty will expire in August, making it legal once more for Russia and the Luckily, 122 states have already taken action US to station intermediate-range nuclear – and in 2017 adopted a new Treaty prohib- missiles, which only pose a threat to Europe iting nuclear weapons under international (they cannot cross the Atlantic). A handful of states is law. Currently, foreign ministries are com- procrastinating on ing up with excuses not to sign the treaty. Along with the hostile rhetoric between But as studies from the Harvard International Russia, China, North Korea, and the US, this their disarmament Human Rights Clinic and numerous other all marks a major escalation of nuclear ten- institutes have shown, there are no legal sions, with ramped up spending potentially commitments, investing obstacles to NATO members signing a ban leading to a new arms race. billions in their arsenals on nuclear weapons, and plenty of prece- dents within NATO for states opting out from and playing for time some policies, such as extended nuclear Europe struggling to find an deterrence. Signing this treaty is the most answer for as long as we will visible and effective tool for European states allow, jeopardising our to make it clear that we will never accept How effective has Europe been in push- nuclear weapons being used in our name, ing back against these security threats? security interests. and to ensure we will cease to be a target. A major charm offensive on the Iran Deal before Trump’s unilateral decision to with- draw from the accord yielded nothing. Much Overcoming resistance within talk on global zero was rebuked with the the EU Nuclear Posture Review. And no strategy exists on how to replace the INF-Treaty – in MPs can hold their government to account fact, European calls to renew the New START when foreign ministers claim to pursue (stipulating a reduction of 50% of the num- States like Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands a nuclear weapon-free world, but in fact ber of strategic nuclear missile launchers), and Italy are set to spend hundreds of millions actively oppose and boycott their prohibi- the last remaining arms control agreement upgrading their warplanes so as to continue tion. When the UN Treaty on the Prohibition between the US and Russia set to expire in hosting newly modernised US nuclear weap- of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) was negotiated 2021, have fallen on deaf ears. ons on their territory, claiming this gives them in 2017, on the initiative of countries like a “seat at the table” when the US sets nuclear Austria, Ireland, Mexico and South Africa, the At the same time, the US requires Europe’s policy for NATO. Far from granting any influ- EU institutions were deadlocked by French solidarity when it comes to defending its ence on nuclear policy, these weapons make and UK vetoes. But the European Parliament weapons of mass destruction in diplomatic us one of the first targets for complete oblite- mustered a broad majority from all party forums. In a leaked paper, the US mission ration if US-Russian tensions escalate. groups except the far-right, calling on all EU

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 71 DEBATES Read the full article online www.progressivepost.eu states to support the ban treaty, a position it has reiterated since. The fact that only six out of 28 EU mem- NUCLEAR ARMS: bers participated in those negotiations was a blow to the credibility of the EU as a champion of human rights and multilateral SAVING THE approaches. It has become undeniable that the issue of nuclear weapons cannot be left INTERNATIONAL to the nuclear-armed.

A handful of states is procrastinating on RULES-BASED their disarmament commitments, investing billions in their arsenals and playing for time for as long as we will allow, jeopardising our SYSTEM security interests. > AUTHOR Kate Hudson -wing political activist and academic. If we want to reduce the numbers and role She has been General Secretary of Campaign for Nuclear nuclear weapons play in security doctrines, Disarmamen (CND) since 2010, having served as chair since the first step is to agree to make them illegal. 2003. She first became active in the in the Only then can we hope to gather the political early 1980s in the big upsurge of activity against cruise missiles. will required to overcome the many obsta- cles on the way towards global zero. SAVING NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT IN THE TIME SYSTEM OF TRUMP > AUTHOR Leo Hoffmann-Axthelm has been the EU-representative of the International > AUTHOR Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons Adriano Iaria is an expert on arms control, disarmament (ICAN) since 2015, having founded its and non-proliferation and collaborates with different German chapter in 2013. ICAN was awarded research institutes in this field. He holds a master’s degree the Nobel Peace Prize in 2017, in recognition in International Relations and specialises in international of its role to bring about a global prohibition law. He is, among other things, a faculty member of the of nuclear weapons. Master in Intelligence and Security of the Link Campus University in Rome.

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FOCUS Social, fiscal and climate justice: the right-left cleavage is still alive! © shutterstock

| During the 2017 presidential campaign, Emmanuel Macron presented himself as the main bulwark against the far right, embodied by Marine Le Pen. THE DECEPTIVE OPPOSITION BETWEEN NATIONALISTS AND PROGRESSIVES by Anne-Claire Defossez and Didier Fassin

Thinking he could replay the scenario of his 2017 presidential campaign, during which he had presented himself as a bulwark against the far right, the French President Emmanuel Macron made the alternative between progressives and nationalists the central issue in the European elections. But is his authoritarian neoliberalism so far removed from the positions of those he claims to fight? And does overcoming the opposition between right and left not lead to the abandonment of democracy?

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uring the 2017 presidential Emmanuel Macron’s adoption of security laws incorporating the campaign, Emmanuel Macron main measures of a state of emergency, the presented himself as above the progressivism seems harsh repression of street demonstrations right-left opposition, declaring it and repeated violence against foreigners. Far Dobsolete. He presented himself as the main to be nothing more from being unprecedented, this combination defence against the far right, embodied by is a modern version of Thatcherism and is Marine Le Pen. This tactic worked so well than the disguise clearly on the right of the . that it received the support of many social- ist leaders, such as former Prime Minister of a deliberately The French President is trying to present his Manuel Valls, and even communists, such vision more positively, which two of his for- as former secretary-general of the party, authoritarian mer advisors have summarised in a book, Robert Hue. As we know, Macron won the “Le progrès ne tombe pas du ciel” [Progress second round by a wide margin, with two neoliberalism. does not fall from the sky]” by Ismaël Emelien thirds of the votes. But also with a record and David Amiel, who received his blessing. abstention rate. For the 2019 European elec- They argue that progressivism is based on an tions, the French President wanted to play individualistic conception of society that must the same card again. With a weakened right give everyone the opportunity to achieve their and a divided left, his party, La République full potential. Emmanuel Macron’s praise of en Marche, had as its main opponent the the “lead climbers” and his remark to a job- Rassemblement National, which polls brought him to power. On the one hand, it seeker that it would be enough to “cross the showed to be neck and neck in the months replaces the initial idea of the man of prov- street” to find work reflect this conception. It leading up to the vote. idence standing above the parties with that implies a direct relationship between power of the politician engaged in the fray to fight and citizen s, without the intervention of In July 2018, he declared to the French sovereignists and populists. On the other intermediate bodies, and between power MPs and senators gathered in congress in hand, the political vision of the new world and employees, without union mediation. Versailles that “the real border that runs against the old gives way to a moral dis- However, it does not exclude the consolida- across Europe today is the one that sepa- tinction between values of the future and tion of a national community and even the rates nationalists from progressives”. He illusions of the past, and ultimately between promotion of patriotism. clarified this in his letter to the citizens of good and evil. Europe by contrasting the threat of “nation- In addition to the fact that Emmanuel alist withdrawal” promoted by “exploiters of If we can understand what the national- Macron’s progressivism seems to be noth- anger” with the hope of “European human- ism of Salvini, Orban, Kaczynski, Wilders ing more than the disguise of a deliberately ism” that would foster the “standards of and Le Pen corresponds to, we need to ask authoritarian neoliberalism, the division he progress”. This is a double rhetorical, if not ourselves what characterises Emmanuel proposes between his camp and that of the ideological, shift from the discourse that Macron’s self-styled “progressivism”. Two nationalists, far from being a central oppo- years after his accession to power, two lines sition at European level, is for now only a In a society where inequalities of action can be identified through the pol- secondary one. Indeed, the two coalitions are increasing, announcing icy he is pursuing at national level. One is that dominate the European Parliament are the twilight of the left is clearly neoliberal, both in tax reform and the conservative European People’s Party very exaggerated. Didier labour deregulation, as well as in the reduc- and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Fassin and Anne-Claire tion of social benefits and the privatisation Democrats, which relegate the liberal group, Defossez @the_IAS of public assets. The other has increasingly which La République en Marche has joined, emerged as authoritarian with the use of as well as the Greens and the various nation- decrees to enforce important legislation to alist groups, which may not even manage to the detriment of parliamentary debate, the join forces, to the second level.

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There is also some irony in the fact that one society: one dominated by the market econ- of the French President’s main partners in omy and border protection, the other more The progressivism of his alliance is the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark concerned with social justice and the inte- #EmmanuelMacron in the Rutte. During Rutte’s first term in office, he gration of foreigners. The French President’s face of the #nationalists: a governed with the support of the far-right policy is now in line with the first model, but misleading illusion Didier ‘Party for Freedom’. It is also ironic that the his rhetoric about the end of traditional Fassin and Anne-Claire head of the list of La République en Marche, parties aims to conceal this with a head-to- Defossez @the_IAS Nathalie Loiseau, presented herself on a head confrontation between the right and union list when she was a student that was far right. composed of members of the main far-right group at the time. Even if weakened, the left reminds us by its very existence that a society is made up If Emmanuel Macron’s tactics have once of relationships of power and domination again succeeded at the French level by and that, in a society where inequalities are placing his party and the Rassemblement increasing, the announcement of the left’s National in direct competition with each death is very exaggerated. other, it is less because his analysis of ideo- logical relations is correct than because the political configuration specific to France is favourable to him: the right has become weaker by seeking to imitate the far right and the left has marginalised itself through its wrangling and divisions. But these tactics have their limits at the European level, which shows that the balance of power between a moderate right-wing and a social-dem- ocratic left is undeniably still in place. France is an exception in this respect, but Emmanuel Macron does not seem to have understood this.

The short-sighted analyses which, following his election, had diagnosed, as he himself did, the twilight of the right-left opposi- tion are not only inaccurate - they are also dangerous. The progressive-nationalist opposition, as far as it exists, consists of a Manichean division between progress and withdrawal, good and evil. It is a vertical and > AUTHOR > AUTHOR exclusive moral distinction: who would want Didier Fassin is Professor of Social Anne-Claire Defossez is a researcher in to be on the side of withdrawal and evil? In Science at the Institute for Advanced Study Social Science at the Institute for Advanced this sense, it is anti-democratic. The oppo- in Princeton and Director of Studies at Study. A sociologist, she spent part of her the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences professional career in local government as sition between right and left, however, is Sociales in Paris. the director general of services in two big political, horizontal and inclusive. It calls on cities in the Paris . everyone to choose between two models of

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© shutterstock © shutterstock

| The three Nordic Social Democrat Prime Ministers (PM) elected in 2019. From right to left: Antti Juhani Rinne, Finish PM and Party leader since 2014, , Danish PM, Party leader since June 2015 and Stefan Löfven, Swedish PM, Party leader since 2012. HORIZONS AND DEMARCATION LINES: WHAT ARE THE RELEVANT CLEAVAGES FOR THE NEXT POLITICAL BATTLES? by Ania Skrzypek

rom today's perspective, the 1990s of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan, conquering a solidified electoral left and may seem like ancient history. The this was a hopeful breakthrough indeed. centre. Today, the electorate is volatile, images of the Polish Solidarność alliances are shifting, and the prophecies trade union rising and the fall of A time equivalent to one generation has about the end of ideologies may have just Fthe Berlin Wall remind us of the transition, passed and social democracy finds itself fulfilled themselves. during which the populations of Central and at the crossroads – partially stuck in the Eastern Europe chose a democratic path nostalgia of the past, and partially anxious As people on the streets and those returning and reunification with the West. Soon after about making any alterations to assume in greater numbers to the polling stations came the excitement of , Gerhard a new kind of a future. Indeed, the suc- demand a different quality of politics, Schröder, and Lionel Jospin's electoral vic- cesses and failures of the Third Way still Social Democrats need to respond to those tories, which brought a feeling that times of seem the most divisive lines of the debate demands. They should start by shaking off progress, social justice and the promise of on the movement's future. The context the shadow of previous debates and reject- something greater were upon Europe. After however has changed: these are no longer ing certain old and traditional concepts. decades of divide and the neoliberal project times when victories occurred through In that sense, they must accept that they

76 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 FOCUS are up for a new kind of political battle, default anymore. Inequalities for example where the horizons of what is possible has are addressed across the political spec- Updating progressive changed and hence the demarcation lines trum. The way and rationale may differ, but answers to new realities have shifted too. the interest doesn’t. Growing awareness of - @Ania_Skrzypek climate change and the worldwide 'Fridays First, shifting political contexts matter – for future' rallies are often used to explain and possibly more than ever than in the the Greens' recent successes. Although past. Before, people would sign up or vote these rallies might have contributed to their for a party searching for an explanation and success, there is another explanation: the seeking a sense of belonging. Today's most Greens can also be seen as a positive pro- informed citizens in human history rather gressive alternative, which is viable because The answer, against all odds, is: absolutely cast ballots as a short-term investment in they are already part of the existing political yes! Social cleavages may have shifted or those who give a voice to their most rele- system. They succeed to embody a new kind are blurred, citizens however are more than vant concerns in that precise moment. It of politics as well as giving an answer to the ever keen on being – directly or indirectly is more about political agency than about climate crisis – but only when no competing – at the heart of the decision-making. That well-established political movements. This party credibly owns the climate issue as well. is why they search for politicians, who ‘lis- explains the victory of the Portuguese PS in The unprecedented success of the Spanish ten and speak their mind’. What is valued 2015, when citizens looked for a feasible way PSOE for example is also due to the fact that is authenticity and a moral compass. That to stop austerity, and the Social Democrats they managed to reassure voters that they is how the Social Democrats managed to were the party guaranteeing that to hap- are indeed the party of climate justice – as bounce back in places where they were pen. The lesson here for Progressives is to well as that of egalitarian social progress. bound to disappear. If additionally they are move from the logic of the catch-all-party to ready to consolidate a new definition of the focussing on the topics that could give them Thirdly, old concepts no longer explain inter- centre-left, they may as well be the ones to the lead – election per election. connections between local communities and emerge even stronger in the next chapter of their attitude towards the rest of the world. post-post-truth politics. Secondly, no party – traditional or newly A firm believer in international solidarity can established – seems to own an issue by be a fierce opponent of the current model of trade agreements and vote centre-left. A globalist can be a devoted patriot, support- ing the state as a framework that collects taxes and provides opportunities as well as care through robust welfare policies. In Context matters: today's Denmark, for example, Social Democrats ran on a platform that raised eyebrows on most informed citizens their migration policies – but firmly put the welfare state in the focus. In times of change, in human history rather the understanding of concepts such as internationalism, globalism, patriotism and cast ballots as a short- others need to be updated to be usable in the progressive narrative. term investment in those These three observations – that context who give voice to their matters, that nobody owns an issue by default, and that concepts need updating most relevant concerns, – show why, in an era where democracy is questioned, Progressives need to go beyond in that precise moment. their traditional concepts that served them well in previous decades, but are now > AUTHOR becoming futile now. But then, does it still Ania Skrzypek is a Senior Research Fellow make sense to talk of ideologies and the left– at the Foundation of European Progressive Studies (FEPS) in Brussels. right cleavage?

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| Demonstration against France’s labor laws, supported by president Emmanuel Macron's government. September 2017 in Paris.

DEFENDING PROGRESSIVISM: FIGHTING FOR A MORE EQUAL SOCIETY by Patrick Diamond

The French president Emmanuel Macron claims to embody today’s progressivism, as opposed to ‘nationalism’. The profound difficulty for his concept though is that he lacks both a rigorous analysis of capitalism, and a clear understanding of the enduring importance of nation- states. A new concept of progressivism in Europe has to stand not just for Macron’s creed of liberty and internationalism, but a genuine effort to restrain unfettered markets in pursuit of a more equal society.

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ince his election as President of and Spain to Finland and Denmark. It is clear rates across Europe have declined from France, Emmanuel Macron has that regardless of national circumstances, 6% in the 1960s to less than 3% since the been assiduous in laying claim to there is a structural shift underway that is 1990s. Lower growth rates increase hostil- the language of ‘progressivism’. undermining social democracy’s support ity to redistribution among middle-income SMacron positions himself as a leader who base. Some question the future viability of voters. Higher growth alone will not bridge believes in the great progressive causes of the European centre-left project. the political divide. the age – a strong Europe, human rights, individual freedom, personal liberty. At the Twenty years ago, the Left was ascendant The challenge for progressives has to go same time, Macron’s national project is pred- in Europe. Social Democrats were in power beyond economic reform and liberalisa- icated on the rejection of the longstanding in 13 out of 15 states then in the EU. Their tion, as Macron advocates. The task is to Left/Right cleavage in French politics. The ideas set the terms of debate. Not so today. forge a new economic model that tackles President famously broke with the Socialist This is a consequence of economic adversity. concentrations of corporate and market party to launch his candidacy, despite serv- European economies may have experienced power, governing the economy in the public ing as Minister in a Socialist Government. He a revival with steady growth and rising liv- interest. This necessitates proper oversight believes the challenges facing his country ing standards. But the great recession has of public utilities and an economy that gives cannot be adequately addressed through transformed the political economy of west- more workers a stake through profit sharing, the traditional discourse and demands of ern Europe. Economic depressions have a ‘property owning’ democracy, and redis- the Left. Macron’s advisers have been busily historically boosted support for the Right tribution of productive assets. If Thomas engaged in seeking to define a new concept rather than the Left. Piketty is right that returns on capital always of 21st century progressivism. outstrip the rate of growth, capitalism must In relation to the nation-state, the strate- be reformed so wage earners share fully in It is no secret that centre-left parties over gic conundrum for all progressive parties the economic system. the last decade have faced serious prob- is that they are torn between a world view lems, even if there are recent signs of that emphasises multi-level governance and A new concept of progressivism in Europe electoral revival in countries from Portugal internationalism, and the magnetic pull of has to stand not just for Macron’s creed of electorates towards enduring ties of nation- liberty and internationalism, but a genuine hood, identity and belonging. It is argued effort to restrain unfettered markets in pur- that in a globalising world sovereignty must suit of a more equal society. be pooled to tackle collective challenges – climate change, trade, international crime, terrorism – exemplified by the Left’s defence of the EU. Yet Social Democrats must also A new concept of acknowledge those anxious voters troubled by the erosion of the nation state’s bor- progressivism in Europe ders, alongside the cosmopolitanism and has to stand not just for diversity that ensues. A renewed emphasis on communal attachments is needed that Macron’s creed of liberty gives meaning to people’s lives in a world of insecurity and upheaval. and internationalism, All centre-left parties are confronting a but a genuine effort recurring dilemma: their political coalition is fracturing. Macron’s response is to align to restrain unfettered himself with full-throated liberal interna- tionalism while introducing reforms that he > AUTHOR markets in pursuit of believes are able to deliver faster growth. Patrick Diamond is an Associate Post-war Social Democracy was built on Professor of Public Policy at Queen Mary, a more equal society. buoyant growth – the “golden age” of capi- , and Chair of the Policy Network think-tank. He is the former talist expansion from the 1940s to the 1970s Head of Policy Planning in the UK Prime created the conditions for increased pub- Minister’s Office. lic spending and redistribution. Yet growth

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 79 FOCUS Social, fiscal and climate justice: the right-left cleavage is still alive! ENDING INEQUALITY BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE by Marissa Ryan

Inequality is deeply interlocked with the key issues of our time, in Europe and worldwide: poverty, climate change, gender injustice, the rise of right-wing populism and social distress. Rising inequality exacerbates every single one of these issues. Therefore, following the European elections, European leaders must join forces to seriously address inequality if the EU is to remain valuable and trustworthy to its citizens – now and in the future.

he European Union has been expe- of the poorest half of humanity – 3.8 billion riencing turbulent times. Since the people – fell. 1980s, economic inequality has been on the rise, and by 2008, a failing This staggering economic inequality goes Teconomic model resulted in a severe financial hand in hand with pervasive gender ine- Inequality is not crisis. EU governments reacted with measures quality. Most of the world’s richest people such as spending cuts and regressive taxes. are men. On average, women in the EU are inevitable – it is a paid 16% less than men. Yet our economic While those responsible for the crisis were prosperity is dependent on the millions of political choice and bailed out, ordinary people continue to hours of unrecognised and unpaid care work pay the price. carried out by women and girls worldwide. can be overcome by If a single company carried out all this work Increasingly, laws and policies across the instead, it would have an annual turnover of sensible and coherent continent benefit the wealthy first, while 10 trillion dollars – 43 times that of Apple! policy making. ordinary citizens across Europe are seeing vital public services and social protections Over recent months, people across Europe, cut. The pillars of Europe’s economic devel- particularly the youth, have taken to the opment, including progressive spending, streets to demand action on the climate crisis. taxation and labour rights, continue to be This emergency, too, is driven by inequal- undermined and eroded at the expense of ity: though the poorest people in the world protection of the vulnerable. contribute least to emissions, they dispropor- The European elections have brought a rise tionately suffer their impact – they are hit first in support for Eurosceptic parties and politi- There is no doubt that we live in a deeply une- and hit hardest by the climate crisis, both in cians. The nexus between widening inequality qual world. Ten years after the financial crisis, Europe and across the globe. The devastating and right-wing populism and nationalism the number of billionaires has nearly doubled. destruction and loss of life across Southern has been widely documented. Last year, the Their wealth increased by 2.5 billion dollars a Africa recently caused by Cyclone Idai is a World Bank’s Vice President for Europe, Cyril day between 2017 and 2018, while the wealth heart-breaking testament to this fact. Muller, called on the EU to initiate a new social

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contract to tackle inequality and the associ- Last September, ated lack of social cohesion. said that “the European What to do about inequality? crisis is no more an economic crisis. It is an A roadmap for EU leaders by Without action, faith in the EU’s ability to inequality crisis. It is a political crisis. It is a @OxfamEU’s improve the lives of citizens continues to crisis of delivery. We need to deliver more.” @Marissa_C_Ryan decline. Nevertheless, several member states and a range of politicians openly challenge the Union’s fundamental and Inequality is not inevitable founding values of human rights, democ- racy and rule of law. This is most evident in Inequality it is a political choice and can be the toxic debate on migration which con- overcome by sensible and coherent policy the increasing use of harmful tax practices. tinues unabashed despite a large decrease making. In the next parliamentary term, Rules should be passed requiring compa- in the numbers of people arriving Europe. members of the European Parliament must nies to publish how much they earn, and work to reduce inequality, firstly by ensuring how much they pay in tax, for every juris- Evidence shows that people in unequal soci- a fair, efficient and transparent tax system. diction in which they operate. eties are generally more stressed, less happy, Collecting tax and investing it in quality have higher levels of mental illness and lower public services, including healthcare and As automation and the gig economy push levels of trust, and crime rates are higher. Yet education, is a crucial tool for governments people towards precarious working con- rather than address this, many politicians to reduce the widening gap between rich and ditions, traditional labour rights must remain determined to blame immigrants, poor, and between women and men. be revisited and strengthened. EU mem- minorities, women and people in poverty. bers should initiate fair minimum wages, EU governments must tackle the finan- remove the barriers to equal opportunities To restore faith in the European project, a cial secrecy and tax dodging that robs for women, and restrict the power of the new vision of Europe is necessary. Politicians European citizens of adequate social safety rich to influence political processes and must come together to develop a plan to cre- nets. They must stop the race to the bot- policies affecting decent work and wages ate a Europe that works for its citizens. Some tom amongst member states intent on to further their interests. of our leaders acknowledge the challenge. ever-lower corporate tax rates, and end DISCOVER OUR THE PLATFORMISATION LATEST PUBLICATION OF WORK IN EUROPE ON PLATFORM WORK HIGHLIGHTS FROM RESEARCH IN 13 EUROPEAN THE RESULT OF 3 YEARS OF SURVEYS CARRIED OUT IN 13 EUROPEAN COUNTRIES COUNTRIES Written by Ursula Huws, Neil H. Spencer and Matt Coates.

Ursula H

Ursula Huws, Neil H. Spencer and Matt Coates © shutterstock

| Over recent months, people across Europe, particularly the youth, have taken to the streets to demand action on the climate crisis.

In the longer term, all this will be futile unless EU members implement policies consist- ent with the objective of the Paris Climate Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5° Celsius, and raise the funds needed to mit- igate the climate emergency and adapt to The staggering economic non-avoidable climate change. inequality goes hand The results of a survey across 14 EU mem- ber states released recently were chilling: in hand with pervasive voters across 13 countries said they believe the EU will collapse within 10-20 years; and gender inequality. Most 3 in every 10 people believed that a war between EU countries could take place in > AUTHOR of the world’s richest the next decade. Despite this, support for Marissa Ryan is Oxfam’s Global Deputy the EU remains at a record high. Director of Advocacy – managing Oxfam’s people are men. advocacy offices in Brussels, New York, Washington DC and Moscow. Previously If faith in the European project is to be Marissa has worked on multilateralism and restored, leaders must come together after international relations with the UN, the Irish the European elections and seize the momen- Foreign Ministry and a range of international tum of a new political start to end inequality. NGOs, as well as on development and humanitarian action in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda.

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FOCUS Social, fiscal and climate justice: the right-left cleavage is still alive!

| Classic economists like Adam Smith and David Ricardo simply rejected debt. Even Karl Marx called public debt the 'sale of the state'. Adam Smith DEBT BRAKES - POLITICAL

NARROW- David Ricardo MINDEDNESS AT ITS WORST by Heinz-Josef Bontrup

The Maastricht Treaty rules out any deficit of more than three Karl Marx percent. The logic of these numbers, however, has never been scientifically justified. The entire narrow-mindedness of “debt brakes”, or rather “credit brakes”, is easy to see: why have politicians not imposed these credit constraints on private companies in the EU? In order to tackle social problems however, those who do not want national debt need to implement higher taxes or the crucial causes of public debt need to be eliminated: mass unemployment, poverty and John Maynard Keynes redistribution from the bottom to the top. © shutterstock

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 83 DEBTFOCUS

ith the introduction of The reason is simple: the market-based cap- the euro, the Maastricht italist system is, on the basis of the profit Treaty restricted the state rationale, subject to an immanent “rational- budget deficit of countries Paradoxically, the neo- ity trap”. In the crisis, entrepreneurs behave Wthat use the euro to 3% and the cumulative profit-rationally by stopping their invest- national debt to a maximum of 60% of the liberals who want radical ments, cutting wages and making lay-offs, nominal gross domestic product (GDP). creating unemployment and making private Some countries have pushed the same logic market-capitalism households consume less as a result of the even further: in Germany, in 2016, a debt crisis. brake of only 0.35% of GDP was written into would have destroyed the constitution in 2016 - this is even more Consequently, the overall collapse of aggre- counterproductive than the 3% of the EU. it by their own false gate demand can only be compensated by German federal states, and consequently debt-financed government demand. A sec- the municipalities, are no longer allowed to doctrine if it had been ond economic triviality applies here: if no make any debts after 2020. While in reality one spends more than they earn, no one this will not be economically possible, it will used in the crisis. can earn more and the economy collapses. be used in the future as a permanent polit- ical threat against government spending In the 1970s, however, the neoclassical/ policy. By all parties (coalitions)! neoliberal doctrine that had been discarded long ago re-emerged, and it increasingly However, politics can even refer to the most replaced the pathbreaking welfare-oriented eminent economists: government debt has Keynesianism. always been a controversial topic. Classic economists like Adam Smith and David theory that the state with its expenditures Since then, the state and its debts have been Ricardo simply rejected it. Even Karl Marx must not behave parallel to declining pri- discredited with incredibly primitive polemic. called public debt the “sale of the state”. But vate expenses, (parallel policy), but that it In the new neo-liberal mainstream, the state there have also been dissenting voices, such rather should behave counter-cyclically in a became regarded as the “scrounger” of the as the financial scientist Lorenz von Stein, moment of crisis: government debt becomes private sector. The neo-liberal polemicists according to whom a state “without public necessary – but will be refinanced almost do not only count the actual state consump- debt either does not care enough about the entirely through growth after the crisis. tion as part of the public sector, but also future, or demands too much from the pres- social insurances, which do not benefit the ent generation”. Keynes has also taught us in this context that public sector but are returned exclusively to the crisis is an inherent part of the capitalist the contributors in the form of retirement, With Sir John Maynard Keynes’ “General system and that the private sector is com- health and care benefits as well as unem- Theory” of 1936, after World War II, it pletely incapable of getting out of a crisis ployment benefits. became a matter of course in economic without public crisis management.

84 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 T FOCUS

According to this doctrine, the state has However, government debt is not only about to keep out of the economy and let the short-term crisis management, but also so-called “self-regulating forces of the mar- about structurally immanent causes of crises kets” to their job. State budgets have to be and their elimination in the context of a cap- balanced. Neoclassic economists preached italist system. The main causes of national this naive idea even at the peak of the global debt are permanent mass unemployment economic crisis of 1929. Where the “politics and broad social poverty. of the black zero” ended is well known. Imagine if politicians had reacted to the The resulting social misallocations and costs financial and economic crisis in 2007/2008 are left to the state by the failing private in such a narrow-minded way - and not in the sector, and the ruling political class accepts classic Keynesian way with deficit spending. this. In addition, there is a redistribution from labour income to capital income (inter- This might have been the end of the cap- est, basic retirement and profits) which is italist system, or at least it would have enforced under the fatal neoliberal paradigm triggered an economic worst-case sce- – this too is accepted by the ruling neoliberal nario. Paradoxically, the neo-liberals who classes, which is not even willing to tax the want radical market-capitalism would have higher income and assets adequately, either. destroyed it by their own false doctrine if it had been used in the crisis. But the neo-lib- Those who do not want national debt, how- erals have not understood this dialectic, and ever, have to implement higher taxes or after the “Keynesian rescue” they continued eliminate the crucial causes of public debt, their destructive austerity policy as they did which are mass unemployment, poverty and before the crisis. redistribution from the bottom to the top. The income and wealth taken from the rich > AUTHOR through taxes is then no longer needed by Heinz-Josef Bontrup is an economist the state as a loan and it no longer has to pay The Maastricht Treaty rules at the Westfälische Hochschule interest to the rich, making them richer and Gelsenkirchen and guest professor out state deficit of more than the state poorer. However, this solution is a at the University of Siegen. He is the 3% - the logic of these numbers problem if the ruling politicians do not dare spokesman for the Arbeitsgruppe Alternative Wirtschaftspolitik (‘Working has never been scientifically to make the move towards higher taxation Group on Alternative Economic Policy’), a justified.Heinz-Josef Bontrup and radical punishment of tax criminals or if group of economists and trade unionists they, in their majority, represent the interests working on economic policy proposals for of the rich and wealthy in the parliaments. meaningful jobs, better living standards, a strengthened social security system and effective environmental protection.

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 85 FOCUS Social, fiscal and climate justice: the right-left cleavage is still alive! THE EUROZONE CRISIS: AN ACCIDENT WAITING

TO HAPPEN by George Papaconstantinou

The Eurozone crisis was an accident waiting to happen, exposing the design faults of the euro area. Ten years later, much has been achieved, but at a high economic, social and political cost. For Europe to move today to a “post-crisis” phase, we need to think beyond just completing the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). We need governance reforms for democratic legitimacy, as well as progressive policies addressing disparities, and the sense amongst many Europeans that they cannot find themselves in the European project.

n 2009, shocked Europe and time cooperate with our initially unwilling almost exclusively on fiscal retrenchment the world when the extent of its fiscal European partners to find workable solu- and involved excessive austerity, while its problems was revealed, triggering what tions for what was effectively a European and systemic nature and the weaknesses of an is now known as the Eurozone crisis. But not just a Greek problem. After signing the incomplete took Ithe crisis extended much beyond Greece first bailout, I watched other Greek Finance time to be addressed. and was in many ways an accident wait- Ministers subsequently sign two more, with ing to happen. It took an external shock to Greece emerging from a terrible decade Initially, European policy-makers hesitated reveal the vulnerabilities of the euro area and chastened, only partly reformed, and with and dithered in their response, believing expose its design faults. deep economic, social and political wounds. the crisis could be contained to one coun- try. Eventually, they understood its systemic I was the Greek Finance Minister who in During the same period, Europe has been implications and the fire-fighting turned into 2009 uncovered the country’s true fiscal transformed, partly by the force of histori- attempts to repair the institutional infra- situation and then attempted to navigate cal events, partly by design. And as we look structure of the euro area. The crisis did an impossible task: help my country redress back on this decade, hoping to guide us indeed prompt action to safeguard the com- both its fiscal and external deficits and towards making better policy choices in the mon currency and remedy its weaknesses. regain its credibility deficit; and at the same present and in the future, it is crucial to get But it has also involved a tremendous and the story of what happened right. lingering economic and social cost in many EU countries, accompanied by serious polit- 10 years after the crisis: In truth, the nature of the Eurozone crisis was ical upheaval. increased inequality, precarity misread for a long time. As the trigger of its and lack of prospects for acute phase was the Greek fiscal derailment, The overall policy response exhibited all many people have not been fiscal issues took precedence over the crisis’ the flaws of the existing EU institutional and addressed. The former Greek real origins in the banking sector, whose lia- political architecture. Key decisions were Finance Minister @gpapak bilities ended up on public balance sheets taken under duress, with significant lags as governments bailed out the banks or compared with market and economic real- guaranteed deposits. This guided the post- ity. They were typically reactive rather than 2009 policy response: it focused initially proactive, prone to reversal, and too costly

86 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 FOCUS © shutterstock

| The price to pay was high: the excessive austerity led to a deeper than necessary recession in many countries, while a line of fracture has emerged in the Eurozone between creditor and debtor countries.

for both borrowers and lenders alike. Major between successful and struggling coun- within and across countries, and a growing mistakes were made, both economically and tries remains blatant. sense amongst many Europeans that they politically. It was an expensive and danger- cannot find themselves in the European ous trial-and-error process. Socially, the increased inequality, precarity project. and lack of prospects for large segments of Ultimately, the will to save the common the population in many EU countries which currency prevailed. The price to pay, how- we saw during the crisis is by no means ever, was high: the excessive austerity led being addressed. Finally, the political risk to a deeper than necessary recession in is centre stage, with both northern and many countries, while a line of fracture has southern populism now developed - the emerged in the Eurozone between creditor one thing they have in common is a distaste and debtor countries. This undermines the for Europe. functioning of the common currency area and makes it difficult to advance the debate For Europe to be able to move convinc- on fair and workable solutions for both the ingly to a “post-crisis” phase, a number Eurozone and the EU more broadly. of issues need to be addressed. These go beyond coming to an agreement on the Following the crisis, much has been done to policy tools necessary to complete the address the initial problems, but the euro banking union or giving the Eurozone a area is still fragile. Financially, the “doom macroeconomic stabilisation function and loop” between banks and sovereigns is still a budget – as important as these are. They > AUTHOR there, with the redenomination risk not fully include governance reforms to address George Papaconstantinou is an economist who has served in government as eliminated. Economically, the current slow- issues of accountability and (lack of) a Cabinet Minister, a Member of Parliament down illustrates how quickly the outlook democratic legitimacy in much of current and an MEP. As Greece’s Finance Minister at can deteriorate. There is not much mon- decision-making. Most importantly, they the outset of the Eurozone crisis, he played etary and fiscal ammunition left to ward involve progressive policies which address a key role in the negotiation of Greece’s first off the next recession, and the asymmetry increased economic and social disparities support programme.

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 87 FOCUS Social, fiscal and climate justice: the right-left cleavage is still alive!

Not everyone is on an equal footing when faced with environmental hazards or the effects of climate change. Particularly in urban | Ahead of the United Nations Climate action Summit – the September 23 in New areas, low-income York - the FEPS with the support of the Jean-Jaurès Foundation, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation's New York office, the Max van der Stoel Foundation, the Pablo Iglesias Foundation and the Environment and Development Resource Centre families tend to live in a (EDRC) has set up a steering committee in order to reflect on and test ideas of guiding proposals for climate justice. less healthy environment and suffer from multiple o deliver on citizens’ expectations, accountable for more than 50% of carbon the new European Parliament will emissions, while the poorest half – 3.5 billion sources of vulnerability. have to address the issue of jus- people – were only accountable for 10%. tice, which is at the heart of all Tenvironmental challenges, especially climate But in Europe – as in most other parts of the change. Put simply, the impacts of climate world – not everyone is on an equal footing change hits those hardest who have least when faced with environmental hazards or contributed to the problem – whether they the effects of climate change. According to change, with less than one in five women are individuals, communities or countries. the European Environment Agency, particu- in high-level positions in related ministries. larly in urban areas, low-income families In Europe, the share of the top fifth of tend to live in a less healthy environment Without decisive action, Europe’s youth and households in total income (45%) broadly and suffer from multiple sources of vulnera- the next generations risk being left with a crip- correlates with its share in the carbon foot- bility, compared to high-income households. pling ecological debt. Indigenous peoples of print (37%). This is also true for the bottom Europe, like the Saami, or those living in the fifth, which have 6% of the total income and From poor respiratory health to negative lan- outermost regions, might not only lose their 8% of the carbon footprint. This means that guage development, these factors already livelihood but also their way of life and culture. even if more well-off European citizens have have a negative impact on childhood develop- In the absence of specific adaptation policies proportionally less impact on emissions per ment, and on health and life expectancy. But in favour of poor people, the increased occur- unit of consumption, overall, they place a apart from poverty, other dimensions of ine- rence of climate-related natural disasters will much greater weight on the planet than the quality – including gender, ethnicity and age only make this situation worse. average population. – are likely to interplay with climate change. Poorer people are less well insured than their The difference is even more pronounced In both the public and private sectors in richer counterparts and are likely to have on the global scale. Already in 2015, Oxfam Europe, for instance, there is a lack of female less coping capacity in the face of major dis- revealed that the world’s richest 10% were leadership in areas focusing on climate ruptions, like losing their houses. Amongst

88 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 FOCUS THE NEW EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: TACKLING THE TRIPLE INJUSTICE

OF CLIMATE CHANGE by Celine Charveriat

The recent election to the European Parliament marked a turning point in the EU’s history: for the first time, rising concerns about climate change and environmental degradation became a significant factor in electoral choices. Climate change and social inequality, however, are linked. We are faced with a multiple injustice that results from different levels of contributions to greenhouse gas emissions, the unequal vulnerability to climate change itself, the effects of policies addressing climate change; and the uneven distribution of capacities to adapt and cope.

poorer segments of the population, house- responsible for the world’s emissions and According to the latest UN figures, we have holds with female heads and the elderly are most capable of decarbonising – given their only 11 years left before we face irreparable likely to be even more affected. income levels and access to technology – damage from climate change, so the new are making less than their fair share of effort. European Parliament will need to translate While the benefits of the sustainability tran- words into action without any delay. sition are clearly established for society as a In fact, while the majority of poorer coun- whole, the transition will require major pub- tries have pledged to fulfil their fair share in lic and private investments – at household, climate mitigation, the same has not been company and country level. true for many of their richer counterparts. According to research based on the Climate This transition will also lead to major eco- Equity Reference project, the EU’s current nomic and social disruption, with an impact commitment represents only around a on the prices and availability of essential fifth of its fair share of efforts, in contrast to goods and services (food, energy, mobil- China’s pledge, which is much closer to its ity, lifestyles), on income opportunities fair share. (employment, wages and livelihoods), and on the prices housing, among other assets. Within this context, Europe bears a unique And as these impacts might be transitory or responsibility to bring about climate permanent, there is a risk that the costs and justice. Firstly, by showing that decarboni- benefits will be unfairly distributed, contrib- sation is possible even while maintaining or uting to a further rise of inequalities. increasing the well-being of all its citizens > AUTHOR Celine Charveriat is the Executive – including the poorest and most vulner- Director of the Institute for European Climate injustice does not stop at Europe’s able. The same is true for strengthening Environmental Policy (IEEP). She is also borders. The world’s poorest people are social justice. Europe also urgently needs the Chair of the CAN Europe board and already suffering greatly from the effects of to help other regions of the world achieve has conducted multiple stakeholder climate change – and they are falling further sustainable equality, especially in its own consultations and consensus building exercises within civil society. behind. At the same time, countries most neighbourhood and in Africa.

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 89 FOCUS Social, fiscal and climate justice: the right-left cleavage is still alive! IT’S TIME FOR SYSTEMIC CHANGE by Saïd El-Khadraoui

The next legislature will be crucial in putting the transition in motion towards a low-carbon and circular economy and socially inclusive society and turn the many challenges into opportunities. There is no ‘invisible hand’ that will bring us There is no ‘invisible to our destination, that’s why the transition will have to be managed with everybody contributing. Multinationals will hand’ that will bring have to take responsibility and walk the talk. us to our destination:

urope’s social welfare model will the scale and the pace of technological a sustainable economy not sustain over time if we do breakthroughs add to the feeling of inse- not succeed in reinventing the curity, this can become a toxic cocktail that and socially inclusive post-war social contract. There could further divide and weaken Europe. Eis an urgency in rethinking the relation- society, leaving no one ship between those who govern, citizens Global warming and its multi-facet conse- and, indeed, the private sector, that has a quences, on the other hand, are an even behind. The necessary crucial responsibility in achieving Europe’s bigger existential threat to our way of life or, frameworks and long-term societal objectives. to put it less prosaically, to life on earth more generally. This forces us to fundamentally building blocks will This is all the more true in a globalised world transform our society and economy over the where profit-shifting by multinationals, tax next decades, sooner rather than later. The have to be designed. avoidance and tax competition, and the longer we wait, the higher the bill. It implies rise of ever bigger digital companies that much more than reducing CO2-emissions pay almost no taxes or social security con- as other environmental challenges such as tributions, undermines not only the financial the dramatic loss of biodiversity and the viability of our social model and govern- ever more devouring appetite for virgin raw ments’ capacity to prepare for the future by materials have to be addressed altogether. investing in innovation or in educating and In a world with a growing population, hop- budgeting and public procurement. It entails reskilling people. ing to climb up the social ladder, this is no also a change in mind-set and lifestyle: can small feat. we achieve a high level of quality of life whilst As this contributes to growing inequalities altering harmful consumption patterns and unfairness, it also fuels discontent and It’s therefore time for systemic change, defined by where and how we live, move and erodes trust in our democratic system to throughout and across all market sectors and eat? It certainly also invites us to redefine the benefit of populist movements that value chains, from product design and busi- progress or success. A state’s GDP growth promise easy solutions to complex ques- ness models to service provision and trade. or a company’s quarterly profits or market tions. In an ageing Europe, at a time where Policymakers will have to rethink taxation, share expansion doesn’t tell us a lot about the

90 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 FOCUS

readiness to shift towards a climate-neutral across forms of employment, an increas- help our companies become stronger and and circular economy. Today, no single coun- ingly important issue as non-standard work adapt to changing circumstances, whilst we try has achieved a high human development is rising everywhere. should develop further anticipatory policies within planetary boundaries. In the future, all that help regions, industrial sectors and indi- should. The same applies to companies. Thirdly, the transition towards a sustaina- viduals to adapt. Altogether these could be ble financial system should be accelerated the building blocks for a new ‘deal’, ‘social The next institutional cycle will be crucial in by facilitating the integration of longer-term contract’ or ‘Sustainability Pact’ that gives putting the transition in motion and turn the climate and other sustainability risks and clarity to our citizens about the direction many challenges into opportunities. There is opportunities into investment decisions in of travel, and fosters trust and confidence no ‘invisible hand’ that will bring us to our des- order to reorient capital flows and trigger again in our future. tination, a sustainable economy and socially a change in corporate behaviour. We see inclusive society, leaving no one behind. The specialised sustainability rating agencies, necessary frameworks and building blocks index providers and companies themselves will have to be designed, a wide range of creating frameworks to report on social policy tools will have to be activated jointly performance and environmental impact at different levels, and governance models to alongside the business results. The key chal- bring everybody on board will have to be set lenge, however, is that the criteria used and up. More than others, multinationals will have the underlying data are rarely aligned, which to take responsibility and walk the talk. detracts from comparability, creating con- fusion and affecting the credibility of such I see three big policy priorities that will help schemes. The new European Commission multinationals to become more responsible should therefore propose a Sustainable in view of our challenges. Finance action plan 2.0 to address these barriers, help to define what is green or sus- First, it starts with making them pay their fair tainable and what is not, and further connect share of taxes, by agreeing at EU-level on a the world of finance to the sustainable one. minimum tax rate and make sure all sectors, > AUTHOR including digital companies and platforms, In addition, our efforts to be more strategic Saïd El-Khadraoui is an adviser at the European Political Strategy Centre. Prior contribute to finance public goods and when it comes to industrial policy should to this, he was a Member of the European services. be geared towards a low-carbon and circu- Parliament from 2003 to 2014, where he lar future. Indeed, let us reflect on how our was coordinator and spokesperson for Secondly, EU-guidelines should ensure research and innovation funds, our invest- the Group of the Alliance of Socialists and that social contributions get harmonised ment policies and trade instruments can Democrats in the Transport Committee and substitute Member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily correspond to those of the European Commission

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 91 FOCUS Social, fiscal and climate justice: the right-left cleavage is still alive!

GLOBAL TAX INJUSTICE: WHAT ARE THE SOLUTIONS? by Antonio Gambini

Since the early 1980s, the incomes of the richest, but also corporate profits have benefited from increasingly favourable tax rates. In addition, legally and/or illegally, these incomes and profits are moved offshore to further escape taxation. But solutions do exist. © shutterstock

92 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019

93 #12 Post Progressive The - 2019 Summer-Autumn

(€6,3 trillion) in 2013. However, the taxation taxation the However, 2013. in trillion) (€6,3

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| In advanced economies (OECD members), the top marginal personal inc personal marginal top the members), (OECD economies advanced In | ome tax rate - the tax rate at which any additional additional any which at rate tax the - rate tax ome

reduces growth reduces countries OECD Source: IMF infographics infographics IMF Source: 40% by fallen

vity vity si progres in alth we the of has economies

ing ing as incre that 50% of average an advanced in rate

e evidence evidence e tl t Li holds 10% top The tax income Top PROGRESS 2017

GROWTH TAX RATE TAX

INCOME INCOME

NAL NAL SO PER

IVI

P P RO D

TY % 40 %

≠ 40

1981 FOCUS FOCUS

The evolution has led to an increase in inequality. The Changes in top marginal tax rates and top income shares in rich countries since the 1970s table compares the figures for the decrease in the top marginal rate with the increase 10 USA in the income share received by the richest one percent. 8 UK

6 Norway

Australia 4 Canada Portugal Ireland

income share Finland Italy NZ Change in Top 1% 2 (percentage points) Japan Sweden Spain Denmark France 0 Germany Netherlands Switzerland

-40 -30 -20 -10 0 10

Change in top marginal tax rate (percentage points)

Source : Alvaredo F., Chancel L., Piketty T., Saez E., Zucman G., “World Inequality Report 2018”

This massive tax optimisation practice has a By contrast, the OECD’s works on corporate cost that the IMF estimates at $600 billion However, solutions do exist. tax optimisation (the Base Erosion and Profit per year (including $200 billion (€175 billion) Shifting Project BEPS plan) has produced for developing countries) in lost tax revenue. In terms of the evolution of official rates, very limited results, as the IMF observes: there is no magic international solution, it is “the space in which to shift profits remains This tax injustice is one of the driving forces simply a matter of finding the courage and substantial, and unlikely to decrease”. behind the increase in global inequality, as political determination to demand a more well as one of the results of the increase in progressive tax system. It is therefore urgent to trigger a Copernican more regressive and unfair forms of taxation. revolution in the taxation of multinationals. Consumers are particularly disadvantaged. As for the massive use of tax havens by In the alternative “unitary taxation” model, VAT - a form of regressive tax because it wealthier people to avoid taxes, the aim is the tax starting point is the consolidated taxes households on their consumption - to continue building the global network for profit of the entire group, which is much favours households that are able to save and the automatic exchange of information ini- more difficult to manipulate than the profits invest. With the expansion of VAT, poorer tiated by the OECD. Considering, however, declared by the subsidiaries. This then has households are disadvantaged because they that major tax evaders now systematically to be distributed as a taxable base between are forced to spend most of their income pass through trusts and shell companies, the various countries of establishment, on on consumption. Over the past 50 years, progress must also be made towards a the basis of objective factors such as sales VAT-charging countries have increased global register of financial assets, which volumes and the number of employees. from 10 to 166 (including most developing can be modelled on the public register of countries). Average rates in richer countries companies’ beneficial owners set up by the In the United States, for example, the taxa- (OECD) reached a historical high of 19.2% European Union’s anti-money laundering tion of corporate profits by the federal states in 2015 (the latest year for which figures are legislation. does not depend on the profits reported by available). subsidiaries located in the state in question, but on the distribution of the group’s profits

94 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 FOCUS

Pre-tax corporate profits 1675% (% of compensation of employees) 800%

600%

400% Foreign firms Local firms 200%

0%

Spain Italy Japan France Ireland Belgium Singapore Australia Germany Puerto Rico Switzerland Hong Kong Luxembourg Netherlands United States United Kingdom

Torslov, T., Wier, L. & Zucman, G., “The missing profits of nations”, july 2018

throughout the country and sometimes even around the world. This is called “unitary #TaxHavens: a loss of tax taxation”. revenue of €105 billion from for the richest 0.01% of the Arguing a risk of double taxation, several population and another €175 American companies tried to challenge this billion from for the richest 1%. unitary taxation in court and replace it with the taxation of separate entities (the system @antoniojgambini in force in Europe and the rest of the world). from @cncd111111 But the Supreme Court consistently rejected their arguments, on the grounds that the system of separate entities was too “subject to manipulation” and unable to accurately represent “the numerous, subtle and largely non-measurable transfers of values that take a consolidated turnover of more than €750 > AUTHOR place between the components of a single million and optional for others, this new Antonio Gambini has a law degree from company”. regime would lead to a real unitary taxation the 'Université Libre de Bruxelles' and has of multinationals in Europe. worked in the European Parliament, for MEPs On 25 October 2016, the European Olga Zrihen and Benoît Hamon and for the IEV (the Belgian PS study centre). Since 2010, he Commission proposed “a major reform of This is a reform that must be achieved in has been working as a research and advocacy corporate tax in the Union”. This is a package Europe and throughout the world. officer on issues of development financing of proposals, the key element of which is the and international tax justice at the CNCD- CCCTB (Common Consolidated Corporate 11.11.11, the umbrella organisation of Belgian Francophone international solidarity NGOs. Tax Base). Mandatory for all companies with

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 95 FOCUS Social, fiscal and climate justice: the right-left cleavage is still alive! REFORMING TAX POLICY: A EUROPEAN FIGHT! by Joseph Stiglitz, Margit Schratzenstaller and David Rinaldi

he right-wing governments in Italy and Austria, for instance, had promised to their elector- ate to lower taxes but forgot to Tconvey that lowering them the way they planned would imply a less fair sharing of the taxation burden within their country and a crystallisation of the imbalances among EU countries.

We, however, argue that European countries should revisit both old credos and more recent assumptions about what makes for a good tax system.

The sheer magnitude of taxation in Europe – it averages 35% of GDP – demands that we take this question very seriously. Designed Written by Joseph Stiglitz and a team of high-level scholars and badly, taxes can distort otherwise productive politicians from all over Europe, this bold plan tackles the doctrinaire forces and lead to inefficient outcomes and market fundamentalism that has characterised much of European drive ever-greater inequality. Designed well, economic and social policy for the last quarter century. It explicitly tax policies can encourage a sustainable rejects the doctrine of austerity that defined the European Union’s environment and investment and discourage response to the 2008 financial crisis and recession in favor of harmful behaviour (like speculation, pollu- supporting aggregate demand, pro-growth monetary policy, and public tion or smoking). Simplistic slogans in favour investment in the infrastructure and industries of the future. of fewer taxes obscures the real choices that a European country faces in the 21st century.

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In several Member States, parties have campaigned for “no Smart taxation: making the new taxes” and for lowering the tax burden. They neglect economy more social and the fact, however, that to improve the tax system at home, environment-friendly there is a European angle to address. A better slogan would @JosephEStiglitz, Margit Schratzenstaller & be “smarter taxes”. A strategy is needed, that combines @Rinaldi_David a domestic dimension, with taxes that help to make the economy more social and environment-friendly, and an EU- dimension, to ensure that tax policy is compatible with a well-functioning EU single market.

A well-functioning dynamic economy in the in the green and circular economy as well 21st century requires heavy public invest- as in energy-efficient resource-minimising ments—not just in infrastructure, but in undertakings. basic research and technology (if one wants to be part of the global innovation economy), Top income and corporate tax rates have In a partly integrated in education and training and active labour gradually fallen across the EU. Between 1995 markets (if one wants to have a productive and 2018, the average top income tax rates in system such as the labour force, quickly adapting to changing the 28 EU Member States dropped by about market conditions), in social protection 8%, to 39%. The tax reductions for corpora- EU, the freedom of (if one wants to be sure that no one is left tions are even more striking, with the average behind). EU corporate tax rate dropping from 35% in establishment translates the mid-1990s to 22%. With a little bit of vision and ambition, EU into the possibility national leaders could campaign for an A principal reason for the reduction in busi- overhaul of the tax system towards “smarter ness taxation is related to the unwillingness for multinational taxation”— more equitable and more effi- of EU leaders to address taxation at EU cient taxes, within a country and between level. EU Member States still compete with corporations to countries. That would imply addressing their neighbours by lowering the corporate some of the failures of European economic tax to attract the tax base, instead of using declare taxes where it integration in the sphere of taxation. It also community methods to make sure that busi- means giving up on the shibboleths that nesses pay their fair share of taxes. In such is most convenient. have shaped tax policy for the last third of a partly integrated system, the freedom of a century. establishment across Europe translates into the possibility for multinational cor- Our vision calls, for instance, for developing porations to declare taxes where it is most a tax reform in a direction that is sustaina- convenient—where taxes are the lowest bility-oriented, creating incentives to invest or where they can craft the best deals (as

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Between 1995 and 2018, the average top income tax rates in the 28 EU Member States dropped by about 1995 8%, to 39%

Apple did with Ireland). This puts small and then taxed at less than 6%. According and medium-sized companies at a decided to a study of the European Parliamentary How to use taxation to put disadvantage. Tax competition has been Research Service, yearly average corporate solidarity and the environment weakening Europe and its economy, and yet tax losses caused by profit shifting in the today, there is little momentum to curb it, let period 2009 to 2013 amounted to more than centre-stage? alone to eliminate it. €70 billion for EU Member States. Why accept @JosephEStiglitz, such distortions, such inequities, within the Margit Schratzenstaller & If governments around the EU want to be seri- EU internal market? @Rinaldi_David ous about lowering the tax burden on their people and on their companies, they should It is not necessary to harmonise fully cor- first and foremost demand reforms within porate tax to deal with such problems. EU the EU. Companies in Austria pay a statutory countries could agree on a range of rates tax of 25%, whilst neighbouring Hungary has that still leaves freedom to Member States set the corporate tax rate at 9%. It is Ireland or they could simply introduce an EU-wide however, with its 12.5% of statutory cor- minimum corporate tax of 20%, for exam- The OECD initiative on profit shifting, while porate tax, resulting in an effective tax rate ple. It would be a farsighted step. Rather a step in the right direction, does not go for multinationals not higher than 4%, that than compete against one another for cor- far enough. This is the time to finalise the illustrates the essential problem. In 2014, porate business, European countries could common European initiatives against profit Apple paid taxes of just .005% of its claimed and should stand together to make sure that shifting that the European Commission profits in Ireland—and much of those profits tax revenues on the profits of multinationals has been pursuing for some time now. In should rightly have been booked elsewhere in are duly collected, especially in this moment particular, the EU should introduce a har- Europe, including Italy and Austria. But Ireland where substantial investment is needed to monised corporate tax base which would is not alone: Luxembourg too is a corporate address the digital and ecological transition. be allocated based on an apportionment tax haven, as income is shifted there, through formula, and country-by-country reporting for instance royalties on intellectual property, by multinationals.

98 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 -8% FOCUS

39%2018

Another area of action worth pursuing, both Cyprus, Croatia, Luxembourg, and Slovakia) As the EU’s power structure of this new leg- at EU and national levels, is capital gains, i.e. capital gains are completely exempt from islature is shaping up, it is important that the increases in the value of assets. In prac- taxation. Since capital is a more impor- national representatives understand that tically all EU countries, capital is taxed more tant source of income for the wealthy, this much of what they can do for their country in favourably than labour. On average, interest favourable tax treatment of capital reduces the field of taxation has to be done in Europe. income is taxed at comparatively low rates, the overall progressivity of income taxation And not necessarily in “Brussels”, but rather at 23 percent. In some countries (Belgium, and creates distortion among EU countries in The Hague, Luxembourg City, Dublin and in investment allocation. La Valletta.

> AUTHOR > AUTHOR > AUTHOR Joseph Stiglitz Nobel Laureate in Margit Schratzenstaller Deputy David Rinaldi Senior Economic Policy Economics Director, Austrian Institute of Economic Advisor, FEPS and Lecturer, ULB-IEE. Research (WIFO)

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 99 FOCUS Social, fiscal and climate justice: the right-left cleavage is still alive! © shutterstock

WHY IRELAND’S LOW TAX POLICY HAS SURVIVED

FOR SO LONG by David Jacobson

| The EU Commission found that Apple had received a special treatment from the Irish government and ordered the company to pay some €13 billion.

Ireland has had an industrial policy based on low corporate tax. This was first applied only to Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). Later, on the insistence of the EU, it was applied across the board. But MNEs were still able to exploit some tax provisions that enabled them to have significant advantages over indigenous firms. Also, there is a race to the bottom, led by Ireland, that reduced the global tax payments of MNEs, sometimes to zero. Ireland will have to change!

ince independence, industrial broad transformation in industrial devel- Community was that the tax treatment of policy in Ireland has undergone opment strategy when free trade began to foreign enterprises was different from the two main significant changes. be introduced and tax incentives offered to tax treatment of indigenous enterprises. This First, in the period after the stock foreign owned firms that invested in Ireland. was finally resolved under EU rules when, in Smarket crash of 1929, along with many other 1998, instead of 10 per cent for multination- countries, Ireland introduced protectionist With a relatively less developed economy als and much higher rates for indigenous policies. High tariffs, quantitative restric- and being an early mover in the introduction firms, Ireland introduced an across-the- tions and prohibitions on foreign ownership of low or zero corporate tax for multination- board corporate tax rate of 12.5 per cent. of manufacturing were all aimed at forcing als (MNEs), Irish governments faced little or the pace of indigenous industrialisation. This no international opposition to its strategy. However, various tax provisions were still had limited success. It was followed in the The only problem for corporate tax follow- available to be exploited by MNEs that were late 1950s and early 1960s by the second ing Ireland’s entry into the then European not as readily available to Irish enterprises.

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Irish low tax policy for MNEs, for example, could switch profits from Multinational Enterprises – employment, especially high-skilled jobs. high to low tax regimes, and particularly Ireland will have to change! Even nationalists support the low tax, see- where this related to intellectual property @DavidJacobson48 ing foreign opposition to it as an attack on this has had a huge impact on the global Irish sovereignty. tax payment of MNEs. In addition, some MNEs (including in particular Apple) have Will the Irish government’s response be set up subsidiaries that have no declared enough? Continuing to implement an tax residency. As a result, they have been industrial policy based on low corporate able to pay no tax at all. The EU Competition pursuit of this policy. The Irish government tax is unlikely to succeed in the long run. Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager, found joining Apple in the appeal against the EU We have shown in some detail in a book for that Apple had received special treatment Commission’s decision to force Apple to pay FEPS (Upsetting the Apple Cart) why more from the Irish government and ordered the the huge fine is just one example of this com- attention has to be paid to indigenous enter- company to pay some €13 billion. Both Apple mitment. After all, why would any government prise. Without rejecting foreign investment, and the Irish government have appealed turn down a sudden gift of €13 billion, more in the future, Irish governments will have to against this ruling on the grounds that Apple than 20 percent of GNP? Even opposition support green, Irish investment to a much behaved in accordance with Irish tax law, parties, including those of the left, have con- greater extent than in the past. From an EU exploiting provisions that were available to tinued to support the low tax policies and the perspective the answer to the second ques- all companies and that therefore Apple was encouragement of foreign investment. tion remains to be seen. Will the EU agree not in receipt of any special state aid. The on a more common approach to tax rates consideration of the appeal will take some Given the likelihood that a tipping point is and tax policies, will it reject tax competi- time and will be significant for the future of being reached where EU policy is changing tion, or will it accept the Irish government’s corporate tax policy, and not just in Ireland. towards a more common approach to cor- argument that for small, peripheral econo- porate tax, where the OECD’s Base Erosion mies, low tax is a legitimate policy to attract There has been deep commitment on the part Profit Switching programme is gaining sup- mobile capital? of all Irish governments since the late 1950s port, and where civil society in Europe (and to support for foreign investment, and for elsewhere) is incensed by the low effective the utilisation of tax and other means in the tax payments by MNEs, Ireland among oth- ers may have to become more rigorous in its imposition of taxes on foreign compa- nies. In a May 2019 speech at the Harvard Kennedy School and the Irish Tax Institute, the Minister for Finance, Paschal Donohoe, In the future, Irish seemed to acknowledge these immanent changes and declared Ireland in favour of governments will the removal of provisions that enable MNEs to avoid paying any tax. At the same time, have to support green, he strongly supported the idea of tax com- petition and declared that Ireland will do Irish investment to a all it could to defend its 12.5 per cent cor- porate tax rate. much greater extent Why is there such support for low corporate than in the past. tax in Ireland? Will the Irish government’s > AUTHOR response be enough? The answer to the first David Jacobson is Emeritus Professor question is that all political parties, includ- of economics at Dublin City University Business School. He is the Chair of ing the left, have supported MNEs because Commission on Industrial Policy in TASC. they have been perceived as providing

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 101 FOCUSFOCUS Social, fiscal and climate justice: the right-left cleavage is still alive!

Strengthening social policies to counter nationalists Interview with Laurent Berger, by Alain Bloëdt

Laurent Berger A few weeks after the European elections, the staggering blow of the is the new President of the European Trade Union rise of the right and extreme right is hard to integrate. What are Confederation (ETUC). He is the challenges now waiting for Progressives to regain ground? How also the Secretary General of the French Democratic do we block the nationalists? Laurent Berger, the new president Confederation of Labour (CFDT). of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) takes a look at the topics that will need attention in the near future.

Progressive Post: Have social issues PP: What’s your take on the results been well represented during the last of these European elections? European elections campaign? LB: The results show that in France there is a Laurent Berger: For us, there is never enough National Rally in the lead, and elsewhere the representation of social issues. But it cannot be populist or far-right parties are very high. Despite said that social issues were totally absent from everything, the European populist wave that we the campaign, at least in France. They may have feared did not happen. These parties are unable to been treated superficially. If I caricature, everyone organise themselves in the European Parliament, agreed on the issue of the minimum wage. That’s which is rather good news. However, the current good, but how do we get there? The leaders would be well advised to consider that the European campaign is always imperfect cannonball is getting closer and closer. #DigitalPlatforms: without for a simple reason – Europe is some- collective organisation, it’s the times difficult to explain to citizens, PP: How do we push back law of the jungle. @CfdtBerger and politicians are mainly tempted to these nationalist parties? explain that Europe is more the pro- blem than the solution, although I hope LB: There is only one way – to conduct social they inwardly think so less and less. policies, at the level of women and men, and to ensure that one day, politicians in each country

102 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 FOCUS © shutterstock political balances will be discussed again with “pivotal forces” as they say, and that new forms of alliance or governance will have to be found between the EPP, the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the Greens. This | The trade union can be interesting for me as a trade unionist struggle requires a part and especially for the Confederation of Trade of utopia, which means Unions, because it will allow us to intensify pursuing ambitious our work with parliamentarians. objectives, and at the same time redoubling efforts and mobilisation PP: Is this reconfiguration of the to achieve them as European Parliament and the quickly as possible. emergence of new groups more favourable for the unions? speak about the results obtained at the European level rather than the problems LB: It’s hard to say. What is certain is that the caused by Europe. ETUC has two major ambitions – to redefine a social contract in Europe, and to be part PP: Your election as President of a fair ecological transition. The fact that of the European Trade Union the Greens have acquired such weight in the Confederation (ETUC) comes European Parliament, but also that Social at a time when a new European Democratic forces are still present, gives The ETUC has two Parliament is being set up. Is hope that the alliance between these two main ambitions: this a good moment to start? ambitions can be made a reality. to redefine a social LB: In a way, yes. This new European PP: You are a trade unionist Parliament has many areas to tackle in our with a powerful voice in contract in Europe field. But it doesn’t make it any easier, of France and who already has course. many issues to deal with at and to be part of a fair national level. What do you ecological transition. PP: Why? intend to bring to the ETUC? LB: Quite simply because things are never LB: What I would like is for the ETUC to easy in Europe, no more with the old question itself on the definition of trade Parliament than with the new one, even if we unionism in this period of profound trans- are going to have a new configuration. Firstly, formation that is the 21st century, for us to the populists did not return to Parliament project ourselves into the future forms of as massively as they had hoped, which is the ETUC, for us to strengthen the link with rather good news. Secondly, it is clear that affiliated organisations, and for the ETUC to

Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 103 FOCUS

become part of the daily campaigning life want to ensure that we look beyond the of our respective members. Today, being news, to position the ETUC in the European an ETUC affiliate too often means going landscape. Our ambition is to to meetings in Brussels and pretty much put the question forgetting everything once you get home. PP: In two years’ time, you will I therefore want to strengthen the link and complete your term as President. of the content and support initiatives, two of which are very What will be your criteria to organisation of work close to my heart. The first is to be able to measure if you have succeeded? bring to life at the European level what we back at the heart of have done at the French level in terms of the LB: If the ETUC is still united, if we have social pact of ecological transition, with our debates that go to the heart of employ- trade union concerns Power of Living Pact agreed with NGOs and ees’ concerns (which will not prevent us associations – which can be relatively easily from having debates on how to respond to and the European transferred to the European level. the Commission or Parliament on certain debate. This ambition issues), and if we quite simply have new PP: What is the second initiative? members joining us. will require a

LB: The second is to put the question of the substantial discussion content and organisation of work back at of the workers’ power. the heart of trade union concerns and the European debate. This ambition will require a discussion of workers’ power. I really

PP: At the end of the European logic of causes, how to make the balance of much more time in contact with workers and Trade Union Congress in Vienna, power weigh, by exercising it differently than respond to their daily concerns that we have you said that European trade through demonstrations, thanks to alliances allowed internal developments at the CFDT. unionism was at a crossroads. and the quality of our proposals. This is This institutional function must be contin- What do you mean by that? where we are at a crossroads: either we con- ued while going beyond it in order to build an tinue on our quiet little path, and we will all ETUC that is much more in line with workers’ LB: I believe that trade unionism needs go to the end of our mandates, but towards concerns. This applies to the ETUC but also to reinvent itself, as do almost all institu- a declining trade unionism, or we give the to affiliated organisations. tions, at least in France and Europe. If I say necessary energy to renew trade unionism that trade unionism is at a crossroads, it is and its practices. This is what we have tried PP: How do we achieve that? because I am totally convinced that society, to do within the CFDT in France and it has and especially the working world, cannot borne fruit. It takes a lot of energy internally LB: We must be concrete, talk about real do without trade unionism, but that trade to question what you are and what you want situations experienced by workers whose unionism cannot operate in the same way to do, but it is absolutely necessary. diversity is extreme – between a French as before either. worker in a sector that is doing well and has PP: Do you think that the ETUC, a good collective agreement and a worker PP: What are the like other national trade unions, from Romania, the situation is different. We options for change? has become too institutional and must therefore foster cooperation, make has forgotten other positions? major demands (minimum wage, unemploy- LB: Trade unionism must understand ment benefits, etc.), but also obtain results how the recruitment of new members is LB: I think a form of institutionalisation is that are the same for women and men, which now taking place, how to get young peo- looming over trade unionism everywhere. It we are perfectly capable of doing. ple more interested, including through the is by acknowledging that we should spend

104 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-AutumnSummer 2019 2019 FOCUS

| The ETUC team at their Congress on 24 May 2019. Luca Visentini re-elected Secretary General, Laurent Berger elected President.

PP: Minimum wage, tax a very strong form of dependence. Secondly, harmonisation... - will we see we convince him that he is entitled to social progress in this area in our security coverage similar to that of employ- lifetime in this Europe? ees. Working conditions, the right to training, minimum income, social protection – these LB: I don’t believe that the minimum wage are the things he is entitled to as a worker. in Europe is a fantasy that current workers will never see. The trade union struggle PP: Is that enough? requires a part of utopia, which means pur- suing ambitious objectives, and at the same LB: I would add that without collective time redoubling efforts and mobilisation to organisation, it is the law of the jungle. This achieve them as quickly as possible. is true in the world of traditional work, with employees, but it is even more so when PP: Today, how can we convince your “boss” is virtual. The platform would a worker, especially new like to make you work as much as possi- workers on digital industrial ble without granting you any rights. Trade platforms, to join a union? unionism must offer services, a platform #MinimumWage #EU - it’s not for demands, which gives these workers a a fantasy that current workers LB: It is a reflection and an action that the sense of belonging so that they can join trade will never see @CfdtBerger CFDT is starting to carry out. We start by union organisations. This is what the CFDT is convincing him that he is economically and gradually building, with announcements to socially dependent. It is no longer a subor- be made this autumn. dinate relationship as in employee time, but

Summer-AutumnSummer 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 105 INSPIRATION

TO READ

The Far Right Today Eric Hobsbawm: A Life in History by Cas Mudde by Richard J Evans Wiley, September 2019 Oxford University Press, April 2019

The far right has taken cen- In this timely book, Mudde pro- Just vis-à-vis the massive bronze But more than that, he was a tre-stage again. 'The EU', Cas vides a concise overview of the bust of Karl Marx in Highgate historian of the rise of industrial Mudde, the leading expert on fourth wave of post-war far right Cemetery, London, stands a sober capitalism, socialism and nation- global far-right extremism, politics worldwide. What defines gravestone, inscribed simply “Eric alism. A life-long Marxist, his writes in his new book, is con- this current far-right renaissance, Hobsbawm, Historian, 1917-2012” convictions lead his interests: his sidered 'a threat to national Mudde argues, is its mainstream- - the most succinct illustration of a best-known works include his tril- sovereignty' by far-right lead- ing and normalisation within the man who, as Richard Evans writes ogy about the "long 19th century", ers. Several EU countries are contemporary political land- in this new biography, “had been The Age of Extremes on the 20th ruled by far-right leaders, but scape, in Europe and elsewhere. the best-known and widely-read century, and an edited volume most of them – while still euro- Challenging common wisdom historian in the world”. that introduced the influential idea sceptic – no longer advocate on the relationship between During the “the short 20th century” of "invented traditions". for their countries to leave the conventional and far-right pol- (a term he coined), Hobsbawm Using exclusive and unrestricted block. Instead, boosted by their itics, Mudde offers an insightful has been seen marching against access to unpublished material, growing electoral successes and picture of one of the key political Hitler in Berlin in 1933, rallying for fellow historian Evans offers a vital political relevance, they want to challenges of our time. the Popular Front in Paris in 1936, insight into one of the most influ- change the EU their way, brand- visiting an anarchist-run village in ential intellectual figures of the ing themselves as a "bulwark of at the start of the Spanish twentieth century. Christianity" (PiS leader Jarosław Civil War that same year, and, in Kaczynskí in Poland) and "the 1962, acting as a translator for Che future of Europe" (Fidesz leader Guevara in Cuba. Viktor Orbán in Hungary).

Who Killed Who Killed My Father is a dis- is his father: a factory worker until My Father turbing account of the ravages "one day at work, a storage con- of toxic masculinity. But Louis tainer fell on him and crushed his by Édouard Louis never stops there: with the fire back, leaving him bedridden, on Harvill Secker, of a writer determined for social morphine for the pain" and una- March 2019 justice, and with the compassion ble to work. of a loving son, the book puts The book's title is not a ques- masculinity in its context of class, tion. Louis addresses the list of social poverty and homophobia. those he considers responsible There is a kind of privilege that for the destruction of his father's consists of being rather unaf- body, and pending death: politi- fected by politics. This, Louis cians who have passed reforms writes, “is what separates some impacting the poor. Specifically, populations, whose lives are he blames one by one the last supported, nurtured, protected, four French Presidents, up to the from other populations, who are current one: Emmanuel Macron. exposed to death, to persecu- tion, to murder”. One of the latter

106 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 Find all publications online at www.progressivepost.eu INSPIRATION

TO READ

Mistaken Identity – A European Social Union Race and Age in the Age of Trump after the Crisis

by Asad Haider by Frank Vandenbroucke, Catherine Barnard and Geert De Baere Verso Books 2018 Cambridge University Press, December 2018

Half biographical memoir, half builds widening circles of soli- A European Social Union after notion of Social Europe towards political and theoretical analy- darity. This requires rejecting the the Crisis is an exciting selection a new concept of a European sis, Haider’s account begins by contemporary understanding of of academic papers that are a Social Union. This doesn’t aspire recounting the author’s expe- identity politics, which he inter- must-read in the times of forming to make the EU a welfare state, rience as a boy of Pakistani prets as a retreat to demands for of a new European Commission but to create the environment, to origins growing up in the United individual recognition. and the battle around the lead- provide clear objectives, stand- States after 9/11, repeatedly Examining namely an uprising ership of the Committee on ards and means for the Member facing Islamophobia. As a sixth in colonial Virginia, Occupy Wall Employment and Social Affairs States’ own welfare systems to grader, Haider accidentally finds Street and Black Lives Matter, in the European Parliament. flourish. the work of Huey P. Newton, the book reflects its American This impressive volume con- co-founder of the Black Panther context. Moreover, the author’s tains the summary of research Party. The book follows the language indicates his immer- of 25 renowned scholars and author’s subsequent political sion in Marxism and in the black policy practitioners, whose evolution as he develops the radical tradition. The result is reflections span over 500 pages view that an emancipatory pol- fundamental reading for any and four chapters: Solidarity itics can be neither exclusively progressives interested in devel- and Legitimacy; Themes of class nor identity-based. Rather, oping policies, narratives and a European Governance; Legal the author argues, the Left must vision that equally speak force- and Institutional Challenges; overcome its divisions and sup- fully to multiple groups of voters. Politics. The publication pro- port an intersectional approach poses concrete ways on how to to inequality and justice that move from the vague and elusive

Rethinking Rethinking Democracy is a col- the simple remedies and look at Democracy lection of 11 articles that provide ways to address the corrosion an exciting panorama of anal- of representative democracy, by By Andrew Gamble and yses of the state of democracy expansion of the digital revolu- Tony Wright and of the ideas of what to do to tion onto deliberative processes preserve, promote and deepen and changing patterns of partic- Wiley/ The Political Quarterly, January 2019 it. As the editors underline, ipation. Among many valuable the contributors were at lib- recommendations, they say that erty to choose the angles for imagination and institutional cre- their respective inputs, which ativity are a good place to start in translated into a wide variety of order to move away from the cur- themes and approaches. The rent predicament. underlying organising message remains that democracy is never a finished process and should never be taken for granted. The contributors argue that it finds itself in a crisis. They discard

Find all publications online at www.progressivepost.eu Summer-Autumn 2019 - The Progressive Post #12 107 INSPIRATION

TO THINK

Electoral reform in Slovenia - A Comparative Analysis how to achieve gender parity of Elections in the United States of elected MPs. and in the EU

by Sonja Lokar by Ben Raffel

Slovenian Daily Dnevnik on April 26, 2019. EUROCITE

The Slovenian Constitutional The US, home to about 330 mil- within their respective electorates, Court has requested to reform lion people and boasting a GDP of while their differences in election the electoral law for the State around $21 trillion, forms its federal protocol reveal varied results for Assembly without even men- governments through uniquely new governments. tioning the need for improving long and controversial elections. equal representation of women in the State Assembly. The The EU, home to 515 million people article analyses the structural and generating a GDP of $19 trillion, discrimination of female can- creates its governments through an didates and how to get rid of entirely different series of elections it by introducing legal meas- that result in coalition makeup ures to ensure gender parity of changes in Brussels. Both the US elected MPs. and the EU face similar issues

The banker and the citizen: Governance and security GOVERNANCE AND SECURITY IN THE SAHEL: Europe in the face of in the Sahel:This edited volume Tackling analyses the factors related to good governance TACKLING MOBILITY, in the Sahel, and it explores how the quality of governance is influ- enced by and can affect the management of demographic changes, DEMOGRAPHY climate change and mobility. This research is structured around four AND CLIMATE CHANGE main axes: first, analysing the factors underpinning good govern- ance in the Sahel; second, focusing on the governance of mobility, financial crises mobility, demographydemography and climate to explore the relationship between gov- ernance and these issues; third, examining specific case studies, namely Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger; and finally, addressing the role of key international actors in the region, including the EU. Each chapter also sets out some key progressive policy recommenda- and Climatetions for local and international Change stakeholders. GOVERNANCE AND SECURITY IN THE SAHEL FEPS is the progressive political foundation established at the by Michael Vincent European level. Created in 2007, it aims at establishing an intellec- tual crossroad between social democracy and the European project. As a platform for ideas and dialogue, FEPS works in close collabora- tion with social democratic organizations, and in particular national foundations and think tanks across and beyond Europe, to tackle the challenges that we are facing today. FEPS inputs fresh thinking by Bernardoat the core of its action and serves asVenturi an instrument for pan-Euro- pean, intellectual political reflection.

Fondation Jean-Jaurès IAI is a private, independent non-profit think tank, founded in 1965 on the initiative of Altiero Spinelli. IAI seeks to promote awareness of international politics and to contribute to the advancement of European integration and multilateral cooperation. IAI is part of a vast international research network, and interacts and cooperates with the Italian government and its ministries, European and inter- nationalIAI, institutions, NDI, universities, major national FEPS economic actors, Richard ALI the media and the most authoritative international think tanks. Youssouf BÂ Saleh BALA Luca BARANA Hamidou ISSAKA MAGA This book is edited by FEPS and IAI with the financial support of the Vassilis NTOUSAS European Parliament. Luca RAINERI Ernst STETTER Nathalie TOCCI Nana Alassane TOURE Anca-Elena URSU Bernardo VENTURI

Ten years after the subprime highlights the dynamics that This volume analyses the factors the relationship between gov- crisis, and with the euro cele- drive the vicious circle, so that all related to good governance in ernance and these issues; third, brating its 20th anniversary, are the lessons of the past ten years the Sahel and it explores how examining specific case studies, the mechanisms put in place at can be learnt. the quality of governance is namely Burkina Faso, Mali and European level enough to deal influenced by and can affect the Niger; and finally, addressing the with new threats? Regulation is management of demographic role of key international actors in too serious a matter to be left change, climate change and the region, including the EU. Each to bankers, lawyers and econo- mobility. This research is struc- chapter also sets out some key mists alone and citizens have the tured around four main axes: progressive policy recommenda- right to form their own opinions. first, analysing the factors under- tions for local and international By demystifying finance, analys- pinning good governance in the stakeholders. ing the most significant events, Sahel; second, focusing on the providing data, testimonies and governance of mobility, demog- anecdotes, Michael Vincent raphy and climate to explore

108 The Progressive Post #12 - Summer-Autumn 2019 Find all publications online at www.progressivepost.eu INSPIRATION

TO WATCH

For Sama Inside Europe: Ten Years of Turmoil

a documentary directed by a documentary series directed by Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts, 2019 Tania Rakhmanova and Tim Stirzaker, 2019

Over five years, Waad Al-Kateab It is the story of Syrians that are The two episodes of the docu- European partners, the German and Edward Watts have been part of our history. Moving sto- mentary tell the story of Europe Chancellor Angela Merkel filming the war in Syria every ries of innocent people in times today. The first part recounts decided to open the borders day. The result is a documen- of war. The conflict in Syria has the story of the Greek financial to more than a million asylum tary that shows how people live now been going on for eight crisis and Brexit. 59 minutes in seekers. Other countries refused from day to day during a war that years. It began during the Arab which to understand the politi- to do so. A documentary series seems endless. A collection of Spring with demonstrations for cal and human issues affecting that, between scenes of riots testimonies, 300 hours of filmed more democracy and against the Member States of the European and political analysis, describes accounts, is never enough to regime of President Bashar al-As- Union. Against the backdrop of 10 years of successive crises. understand the horror of the vic- sad. The rebellion then took on the Greek financial crisis, the tims. Broken people who organise arms to face repression, particu- rise of populism becomes clear. themselves to survive. The direc- larly within the Free Syrian Army, The second episode treats the tor's objective in showing the which was then supplanted migration emergency. In 2015, Syrians' strength is to imagine in several regions by Islamist the arrival of thousands of ref- a better future. A documentary groups, including the al-Nusra ugees on the Greek and Italian that seeks to reveal humanity Front which is recognised as an coasts put the European Union to through horror, to show the truth armed wing of al-Qaeda. the test. Without consulting her of war and of the life that goes on.

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