August 23 marks the seventh anniversary of Spain’s political elites betraying the people and condemning us to misery.
In the middle of August, seven years ago, with hardly any previous debate or taking into account the will of the people, the political elites decided to reform the Constitution on their own, to submit the country to the creditors of Spain’s public debt. We have suffered the serious impact of this economic catastrophe, starting with cuts in public spending, particularly in social policies, which have led, inexorably, to reductions in freedoms and the loss of democracy.
August 23, 2011, with the reform of Article 135 of the Spanish Constitution, will be remembered as the day when Spain was subdued.
But Spain’s subjugation through debt is not an isolated case. Far from the perfidious discretion of constitutional reform, we highlight the atrocious submission of Greece, where the machinery of the European Union’s establishment had no qualms about showing its strength and began a campaign to overthrow de facto a government determined to fight for its people, in a historic episode of how technocratic authoritarianism subjugated a government and forced it to betray the popular will that gave it its mandate. Not to mention the various forced poisoned bailouts on some of the countries most affected by the crisis.
In this subjugation to the debt we find the seed that leads us to reductions, to an economic model that forgets people and condemns them to misery, and that, ultimately, is one more tool for the powerful to impose their will from the shadows.
Therefore, DiEM25’s Provisional National Collective for Spain has decided to join the campaign for the repeal of Article 135 of the Spanish Constitution, promoted by the citizen campaign #10añosdeCrisisEstafa (10 Years of Scam-Crisis).
The people of Europe cannot really be free as long as they are subject to debt.
We will fight to free ourselves from the various constraints that bind us and, turning the crisis into an opportunity, we promote a new economic policy for Europe (our European New Deal) that will take us out of the vicious circle of austerity and make social Europe a reality.
Divided we fell, but we’ll save ourselves together. We’ll get our democracy back.

Marc J. Almagro is Policy Coordinator for DiEM25 Spain.

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