PARIS (FRANCE).- “We do not have to accept everything the European Central Bank and the European Commision put on the table,” said France’s former Education Minister Benoît Hamon after a lunch meeting with DiEM25’s co-founder Yanis Varoufakis. “There is a third way,” he added, “a way that Yanis Varoufakis is helping to shape.”
Échanges avec @yanisvaroufakis sur la nécessité d'une alliance des progressistes européens. #ConvergencesSociales (1/2) pic.twitter.com/5rGU5FiZeT
— Benoît Hamon (@benoithamon) January 9, 2017
Hamon, a rising star on the socialist camp and supporter of a basic income for all French citizens, is currently racing for the party’s primary that will choose its presidential candidate at the end of this month.
“I am particularly sensitive to Mr. Varoufakis’ concept of “constructive disobedience”
Benoît Hamon and Yanis Varoufakis.
DiEM25’s co-founder underlined the need for an “International Progressive” to take on the “Nationalist International” that is effectively emerging across in Europe and beyond.
“I am particularly sensitive to Mr. Varoufakis’ concept of “constructive disobedience,” said Hamon, who also warned about the dangers of the eurosceptic narrative his opponents on the left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Arnaud Montebourg, are fueling. “We start questioning the common currency, then tomorrow it will be [Europe’s] open borders [that will be in question]… I do not know where this ends,” he lamented.
According to Hamond, walking away from the European project may actually send voters into the arms of the extreme-right’s Front National.
“It is important to understand,” Hamon stressed, “that it is possible to favour both: European cooperation and social progress.”
Related articles:
Le Monde
Le Parisien
Le Journal du Centre
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