On 9th January 2017 I had the pleasure of linking up with Benoit Hamon in Paris, to discuss with him DiEM25’s Progressive Agenda for Europe and, in particular, our policy of constructive disobedience. See below for a report of that meeting. It is with great pleasure that I heard the news that Benoit has just won the first round of the Socialist Primaries. Congratulations Benoit!
The following is a re-post from DiEM25’s site – click here – …
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.”
“I am particularly sensitive to Mr. Varoufakis’ concept of “constructive disobedience”
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.”
