 Hello, hello, hello, and welcome. I'm Meroen Kellele. We are DM25, a radical political movement for Europe, and this is another live discussion with our coordinating team, featuring subversive ideas you won't hear anywhere else. And today we're doing something a bit different, because right now we're deep in electoral campaigning mode in two countries, Greece and the state of Bremen in Germany. As far as we know, this is the first ever for a progressive movement, campaigning in two elections in two different countries, just a week apart. Our political parties, Mero 25 from the ballot, as we said, in the national elections in Greece, German state of Bremen, and these are two very different bids. In Greece our party has been in parliament for four years. We're led by Yanis, former finance minister. In Bremen on the other hand, we're building something from the ground up with a local dedicated group of passionate first-time activists. So tonight we're going to check in on some of our candidates who are on the campaign trail and see what is electoral campaigning like in 2023, what challenges are they facing, how's the field looking, and how are they feeling for their chances. And you out there, you watching us on YouTube, if you've got thoughts, comments, rants, concerns, questions, anything you want to throw at us, put them in the YouTube chat and we'll put them to our panel. And now let's move to Yanis who's just returned, if I understand it right, from a trip of five cities in three days. How's it going? I haven't returned anywhere. I'm on the move. We did have that a few days ago. Now we are on another such four city tour. I was in Tricola in central Greece this morning, this afternoon. And now I'm at the port city of Volos, which is a very interesting place. The university town port, a place traditionally on the progressive side of politics, but unfortunately during this never ending crisis of ours, the Euro crisis that began in 2010, the municipality has been taken over by a person that can only be described as a mafia, an extreme right wing football team owner who uses mafia style methods to intimidate progressives. He's at the forefront of ecocide, of water privatization, of turning a local cement factory into an industrial level, a refuse burning site. So the burn garbage factory to produce electricity in the center of the city here. And anyone who objects is subjected to terror. Of course, fully condoned by the right wing government, which managed 25 here in Greece is trying to dispose during the selection. So you can imagine the stakes. We have managed governments, and I'm saying this with a great deal of pride, but also horror. We've managed to anger the most powerful oligarchs in Greece, not just this gentleman here, who's gone out of his way to beautify everybody involved in DM25 and Mera25. But that's quite fair, because we call him out for what he is, a mafia-style boss, and he's out there together. Threats have been issued not only to him, but also the main oligarchs running the show in Athens, and sometimes from London, ship owners, magnates. You see, I think everybody's familiar with the failure of the Greek state in 2010, the bankruptcy, the insolvency of the Greek state. The parts that be in Brussels, in Frankfurt, in Berlin, in Washington conspired when Greece failed, when the Greek state became bankrupt, and the Greek banks became bankrupt, along with the German banks, the French banks, to forget that it was a wholesale financial capitalist crisis in 2008, which, of course, in places like Greece, the weakest link took on just a gigantic dimension, not least because the Greek state was not able, unlike the German state, like the French state, didn't have the deep pockets to bail out the bankers and bail out the privateers. That insolvency, that failure of the Greek state, which was arrested by the largest bailout loans ever given to any country, anywhere, in absolute terms, not in relative terms. The first bailout was 110 billion, the second was 130 billion, the third one was 86 billion, the fourth one was equivalent of 110 billion. These are bailouts, these are monies that were transferred from the workers and the people of Europe, including Slovenia, you know, poor countries like Slovenia, and rich countries like Germany, they were transferred on to the bankers and to the oligarchs in this country, not to the people of Greece, there was no solidarity with Greece, there was solidarity with the worst oligarchic interests. So, you know, once those bailouts took place, we were locked in to perpetual debt bondage. And once our debt was well and truly unsustainable, our debt to the international lenders of the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, at that point onwards, they just took everything. They took public ownership, public assets, and they gave them to their friends. And for the last five years or so, they're in the process of effectively taking people's homes, effectively taking people's homes. Two million homes and businesses are being taken away and given to voucher funds belonging to the oligarchs stemming out of both Greece and of course the international oligarchy. The profit rates of these people, you see, this is what you must understand. This is not predictiveness. This huge amount of money to be made. The voucher funds will take at least 70 billion, 70, 70 billion from the private sector. You know, they come to you, you have a home, you have a mortgage of, say, let's say 100,000, they buy that mortgage for 3,000. In other words, they buy their right to extract 100,000 from you and they pay 3,000 for it. Do you understand that? Shall I say it once more? They buy their right to extract 100,000 from you for a mere 3,000. So even if they grab your home and auction it off and throw you into the street or your business and they only get 50,000, why do they care? They spend 3,000, they make for 47 net profit. These profit rates, you know, invest 3,000 to get 47. This is in capitalism. This is a bonanza for the worst oligarchs and voucher funds in the world. At the same time, you know, they get their airports, they get their ports, they get our roads, motorways that have been partly built by taxpayers money, partly built by European taxpayers money. And the oligarchs, they call this, there are about five oligarchs, quick, plus several funds that come from abroad like Macquarie that has taken over our electricity distribution network squares that are trying to get our water, Lafarge, the French cement factory that's taken over the cement factory here in Volvos, turning it into a power station burning garbage. You can imagine the effect on the environment. And we met at 25. I think you should all be proud of this. We actually named them. We are the only part that they are standing in parliament and named names, names and numbers who extracted how much from the Greek people. The result is that we are persona non grata in the media because the same oligarchs own the media, all of them. Every single channel is owned. Television channel, radio channel is owned by one of them. One of them, a certain Mr. Marinakis who also owns a football team for good measure. Another oligarch, not a guy here in Volvos, the mafioso that I was telling you about, Marinakis is a big fish. These people have absolutely no compunction whatsoever. On the one hand, I'm just bringing in lots of different themes but just to give you a whiff of what's going on. There are television channels like Marinakis's Mega and Alaphuzos' Sky television. Those channels on a daily basis, demonize anybody who dares, speak out in favor of the peace process in Ukraine because for them, the NATO line war till the end, till you put in falls or Moscow is taken by Ukrainians, in other words, ludicrous, a ludicrous project which would drag on for 10 years turning Ukraine into a new Afghanistan. Their channels, television channels, they are presenting themselves as the greatest supporters of Ukraine, which of course they are not. They're supporters of the continuation of a war that can be catastrophic for Ukraine. They vilify anybody, Merot25 in particular, me in particular, for advocating a peace process. And you know what? The same owners, Alaphuzos of Sky, Marinakis of Mega, they own the tankers that transport the vast majority of Vladimir Putin's oil. And this is, if you want, a monstrous hypocrisy. Okay? Now, the other day, one of these channels, Mega, banned every single Merot25 representative from the channel. Yesterday, Mikhail Skritharis, a comrade who is running in the Saloniki, was about to go to the studio and he was called and told not to bother. Our video clip, which is by law, must be screened. We were told, don't worry, it won't be screened. So they even flout the electoral law, which says that during an election campaign, parliamentary parties have a certain amount of free airtime on television. They say, no. You, but most are owner, you're out. Last weekend, one of the journalists working for a newspaper by Mr. Malinakis, actually a nice guy, somebody who has interviewed me many times in the past, in the last seven years or so. He asked me for an interview and he sent me 11, 12 serious questions. And I sat down and spent hours, hours, answering them to the best of my ability. We ended up with a, you know, 1500 word interview. Poor guy. At the very last moment he was told by Malinakis, you're not publishing this article, this interview in my newspaper, F of. So that article was never published. We put it on a website and said, here you can read the article commissioned by a Tanea, Tanea is the name of the newspaper, Tanea, journalist, an interview that that particular journalist was not allowed to publish on his newspaper. And does anybody care? No. The real tragedy, however, is the way in which the establishment has managed to appropriate the political system, including the left, including the left. You may recall that in 2015, I was part of the government with Alexis Tsipras in Syriza for five stupendous months. We caused a lot of trouble to the oligarchs without frontiers by resisting their bailout plans, their plunder of Greece in the name of the oligarchy without frontiers. The people of Greece stood by us, even though every single channel vilified us, even though Mario Draghi, who was then the president of the European Central Bank, shut down the Greek banks. This is an act of financial terrorism. They shut down our banks in order to force the Greek people to force us out of government so that they wouldn't have to deal with a government that didn't agree with them. Tragically, we called Alexis Tsipras, who was prime minister then, and I was a very loyal minister to his prime ministership. He called for a referendum. Truly, I didn't expect us to win it because of all the vilification, the media working against us, the ATMs not functioning. You get imagine. Not only did we win it, but we got 62% of people backing us. This is where the tragedy begins because that very night of the referendum, Alexis Tsipras, my former comrade, decides to capitulate to the oligarchy. I decide not to follow him, and I designed the ministry. And since then, we've been at loggerheads. He spent four years in government implementing the worst austerity, the worst privatization, the worst looting of the Greek people on behalf of the left. That was lethal for the left. One of the reasons why we created the DM-25 was that, that great defeat of the left here in Greece. And remember that we created the DM-25 in February 2016, six months later, after that capitulation by Tsipras. We created it in Berlin to signify the internationalism in action that we proclaimed and which constitutes our very political DNA. We didn't create a political party here in Greece. We didn't go electoral, as we used to say. We were hoping to create circumstances for a coalescence of progressives around the DM-25 of progressive parties that could take our European Green New Deal and run with it. But by 2018, two years later, it was clear that the Tsipras series of government were not going to change their minds. They were going to go headlong into serving the oligarchy. Initially, reluctantly, at some point, enthusiastically. And they are still called the coalition of the Erartic left party. So you can imagine, imagine something worse than Thatcher. Doing what Thatcher did, only worse, on behalf of foreign powers in the name of the Erartic left. And that will give you an idea of the tragedy of Greece. At the same time, we have a communist party, a party of about five, six, six and a half percent, which unfortunately is not interested in collaborating with us. I will say something that may seem far-fetched, but this is a communist party whose greatest nightmare would be the revolution. They wouldn't know what to do if the revolution took place. They don't care about the revolution. They don't care about it and presenting themselves as the monopoly of the youth vote in particular on the left of the fallen and compromised series of party. They attack us viciously, the communist party. We never attack them. We never reciprocate. We are good Christians when it comes to them. We turn the other cheek. But it's getting a bit tiring, especially when they call me that we consider Merit 25 to be the last vestiges, the last reinforcements of capitalism, unbelievable stuff. All in the service of maintaining a cartel of political parties, the political system. And I have no doubt that you folks in comrades in Germany, Merit 25 Germany, you will once you get bigger than you are now. You will come against this cartel of the existing political parties, Greens, centrists at the Bay, at the Bay, even Dillinge, who consider parties like ours to be entrant in the same way that Coca-Cola or Pepsi-Cola, if a local company comes out and produces a local cola that does well, Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola forces against, they forget their antipathy and conflicts. And they bind together to prevent the cartel from the newcomer. So instead of creating a left unity, we are now being bombarded both by both from all fronts. From the right, the extreme right, the series are compromised. Former comrades, the communists, they are, it is as if Merit 25 is a common enemy of the political system. And I suppose it is, because we are truly democratic. We come with fresh ideas. We show, we are radicals in the sense that we want to overturn capitalism, but at the same time, we make proposals, very rational proposals of what could happen tomorrow morning, and social disciplines. So that really angers the communist party, because for them, unless social disciplines, nothing good can happen. And I have to tell you, between you and I, maybe it's because of my bodily fatigue. It is tiring. It really gets tiring, comrades. All the vilification, the constant need to prove that you're not an elephant, the constant need to answer ludicrous questions. I mean, yes, there was in the debate, the television debate, six political leaders. We had six different themes. One was the economy and growth and development. The second one was, what was it, foreign policy. The third one was the state, institutions, justice. The fourth one was energy and the environment. The fifth one was, God knows what that environment was, something like the youth, the young, the next generation, and so on. And you get one question per theme from one journalist sitting opposite, representing an oligarch. So, you know, you can imagine how much I had to say about the economy. The question I was asked was, Mr. Varafakis, you considered, you consider the euro to be a problematic currency. How can anyone trust you to be in government alongside with them? Second question, if the Turkish army were to take a barren rock in the middle of the Aegean, what would your first move be, which is an impossible question, because if you say I'm going to order the armed forces to respond immediately, you're a warmonger, and you're keen to start the war. This is how you get portrayed. If you say you're going to hold back and try to have negotiations, you're immediately a turncoat, a national traitor. So, the kind of question Mr. Varafakis, why do you murder and eat children in the morning? Because, you know, even if you start saying, but I don't, immediately you're negative. If you say I do, you're a murderer. That was the kind, I'll tell you, I'm tired. But at the very same time, and here's how I'm going to end with good news. When you're out there, and 15 year olds, 80 year olds come to you and they say, I just want to hold your hand, because you give me hope. Then you're revived. Then hope comes back, then energy comes back. But now that I'm in a mood of confessing with you, I don't mind any of this, except the attacks by leftists. That is the worst part of the job, comrades. To be attacked by leftists who really are looking at you as the worst possible enemy. They really hate people who are, maybe in their heart they are still keen to overthrow capitalism. If they had the choice between killing you and overthrowing capitalism, they would choose the former. And that is sad. But on a good note, back in 2019 when we were running, we were running also against a small party of former comrades who split from Syriza, called Popular Unity. Like you noted. As well as others who were, who never believed in merit 25 in team 25, they considered us to be too apathy, too lifestyle, too Brianine or Roger Waters, Julian Assange oriented people. Well, the good news is that now they are part of us. They've joined us. We have forged an alliance for rapture, we call it merit 25 alliance for rapture. And we are, if opinion polls, which are actually good, they show us almost doubling our vote. Almost. If those opinion polls are realized on the 21st of May, we may be on to building a new, large, left progressive green alliance. And then the oligarchs will be really pissed. Thank you. Thank you, Yanis, for that very candid and open assessment. Fascinating and admittedly depressing in places, but very encouraging. Really, really appreciate it and very interesting. Judith Maya from Berlin has been part of the merit 25 campaign in Greece for quite a while now. More than a few months, I think, a few weeks at least. What's your assessment in the spirit of DM 25 internationalism? How are you feeling about everything there and what's going on for you? It's very inspiring. I love seeing it all come together. And I love seeing how far we've come because I also visited Greece for the 2019 campaign and a few times since then, but especially the contrast with the 2019 campaign is very big. We've seen that with the election of, well, in 2019, Merda 25 got nine seats in parliament. And since then, they have just come so much further, professionalism in so many ways. They have abilities to reach people that we can only dream of in our other countries, where Merda is just getting started. There's so much production of materials to convince people, obviously, videos from parliamentary interventions, but also on the streets, when you look on the streets, it's like they have now stands in major cities, sometimes like 10 stands, or something, where you can just walk along the pedestrian zones and suddenly come across a bigger area with seating, where you can stop by, sit down and watch some videos or get some material about Merda 25. It's quite remarkable. Compared to that, our campaign in Bremen is still on the activist level. So that also has some appeal. I think it's great. It's also in the pedestrian zones, but not with this huge area with seats and videos, but rather doing stunts, almost like Extinction Rebellion kind of things that draw attention in the public space. Also with video projections, very modern stuff, I love it. So I like these two campaigns in different ways. What is the same in both is that they both have international support. People come from other countries to support the local groups. They come for a weekend, they come for a week. In my case, I came for a bit longer, but I think it's good for both sides, both for the people who are coming and for the people working locally to see that we're all one. We're all fighting for the same goals, for the same policies, and so on. Some examples of what connects these two campaigns on a policy side is, for example, housing. Housing is a very big topic in Greece where people are starting to lose their homes in Bremen, where basically the same happens, only that a lot more people are already renting in Bremen. Reversing austerity is a common theme. Reversing privatizations, especially keeping the health service in public hands, and also the specific prices. These are topics that don't even just apply to Germany and Greece. I think they are European or even worldwide topics, but also smaller things, like education, better funding for teachers, moving against the privatization of education, so a common topic. Police violence, surprising, isn't it, that both Greece and Germany took a turn towards police violence in the past few years and seeing a trend here. Pro-refugee policies, obviously in Greece that means stopping the dying on the shores of the Mediterranean. And in Bremen, well, there's less that they can do, but they're also against front-ex, they also want to provide a more dignified welcome to the refugees that wind up in Bremen. Democratization, a lot of ideas for how to bring more citizens are also a big part of the program in both Bremen and Greece. And then there are some things that only make sense on a national level, like Greece is aiming to reduce VAT, which makes sense because there's currently 24% in Greece and in Germany it's 19%. So there's more room for reducing it and national topics like what do you do in a conflict with Turkey obviously don't apply to Bremen. Instead of reducing VAT, Bremen has a very interesting idea to create a basic dividend for its citizens from Bremen corporations using also an e-commerce tax like Barcelona does and a special fee on cruise ships so that Bremen citizens, Bremen is one of the poorest states in Germany would get extra financial support. So I think that it's really inspiring in that we're all pushing in the same direction and very often with the same exact same policies but where that's not possible it's still very similar and I love to see this commonality which is much, much greater than in the existing European parties like the ones that are represented in the European Parliament that have some kind of some kind of alliance but they don't really have much in common beyond that they don't generally go to support each other but also on policy level there can be in completely different camps in what they're trying to do so I really think that this is the way forward. Thanks for that you did as you mentioned it's international membership that participates in our local actions and also our members who help to shape our campaigns and co-write our policy programs and it's really a transnational European spirit and I'm really excited to bring in now the Bremen team who are of candidates and also volunteers who are powering this start-up campaign I think you gives us a nice segue into introducing Jan Genen Leander Ryssler Nomazulu Sata and of course our resident Johannes Fair who watches of our live stream will be familiar with but he's also over there so why don't we move to Mera25 that's the name of our political party Bremen, Mera25 Bremen Central Johannes and the guys welcome Thanks Meran very exciting to join you and yeah there's another guy from Berlin that was sent out to help one of our Mera25 campaign me here in Bremen we're in the midst of lots of campaigning material in our little headquarters so to say with a lot of posters a lot of chaos around us some weeks of exciting and exhausting campaigning behind us it's great fun it's a very different campaign than in Greece because we are really starting from zero up not much money but excited people international support as you did mention and yeah it has been some weeks and now I'll hand over to the locals Jan and Leander who also candidates here for us and who can tell you a little bit about how the experience was for them Yeah, hi me, Jan Bremen Collective I don't think the difference could be any bigger from what we are doing here in smallest state of Germany, Bremen compared to the fight you are fighting over there in Greece so first of all we stand with full solidarity here with you listening to all the trouble and all the barriers and the power you are fighting against so we have our full solidarity we're following your campaign closely and yeah we're with you and we hope to contribute to the overall success of our thing and to the fight you are doing over there well even though the difference is just vast I think there are some similarities thanks Judith up front for this excellent introduction beside of having the same goals which unite us which is working for the many instead of for the few the course of the general perception of politics and to see what's possible over there I think there's also similarity of we have also encountered let's say borders and limits of politics policy doing here in Bremen well from first hand right we have experienced how impenetrable the political system generally is as it is so here in Germany we have a 5% hurdle meaning that either you reach 5% of the votes generally you give to a party or you basically having no person in parliament so that first of all is a big is a big objective for us because as a party we have been around as DMS here since 2018 but as a political party we basically coming out of the blue totally totally unknown nobody knew us so that is that is a big step we're doing and that is a big challenge and the other party is having this huge budgets well established pumping hundreds of thousands into state campaigns here full time politicians with experts setting their agenda and so we reaching also the limits although we are very far unfortunately of pissing of the really big guys but we are reaching some limits of the political system I would say and yeah just quite disappointing for me for us I guess to see the role of the media so I don't think they really able of picking up the true questions of the people here at the moment so that's from the start so the questions being made are just out of the needs out of somewhat out of context of the reality of the people here and then the media coverage well fighting struggle struggling we do on our best and we are working with all of the support from all of our DMS and made our people worldwide or European wide at the highest most professional level possible but the media coverage is the response is very low so we don't get too much attention we don't getting articles not few discussion panels being invited on the coverage is way too low for us to be able to get our progressive ideas through so this is something we are very struggling with here and we saw we reaching some limits and some borders here and it is giving me personally a hard time and was felt very insecure at the beginning and then also I had my times where it was tough to keep up faith and power especially at the beginning of the campaign but when we started to get out flyers with the posters with the actions talking to the people on the streets that is basically where for my perception everything changed the response is amazing people coming up to us on the street shouting you are the only ones who really who don't want to make a fool out of us or people coming from the side and pushing your bag good and not wishing you are the best you bump into people who voted already for you by a letter or they just say I am definitely going to vote for you so the response is amazing it is the fact that these people not only have just read our program and got very excited by our progressive ideas but also the fact that they understand and they get the idea of our which is totally new to them and they appreciate it that is amazing that is fantastic and fascinating and that it gives us me personally a lot of energy and one thing which is as of this is the last weekend so on Sunday is the election and as for me personally I think the exact figures to the exact outcome of the votes on Sunday for me is already secondary because what we done here is we planted a seed and the best thing to see is that it works that we have the right ideas for the right time for the people and they respond to it and that is fantastic because we are contributing with this little seed and we would like so much to see this grow all over Europe everywhere all over Germany and we can contribute and we are contributing to this so this is already a fantastic thing I think the sign of times are definitely on our side and this is not just for us for Bremen but for us all besides of course not focusing so much on all these obstacles and all these hurdles which were put in our way and I don't know the press not really being cooperative but we now also need to empower ourselves be our own press and find ways to work with given constraints and this would never have been possible without the true international solidarity we had from our friends from it's actually hard to mention all the countries we got support from it's been outstanding how many comrades from all over Europe even I mean far beyond Europe came here and I mean we wouldn't have made it until this point if there hadn't been enough people crazy enough and convinced enough and being selfless enough to travel all the way here to help us collect the signatures to get well to be allowed to be voted for in the first place and now doing performance arts on the streets a lot because I don't know we actually don't have so much money as a movement so we somehow need to work around it and then also bringing messages in a completely different way than I've seen before at least in Germany from regular politic meaning I mean yeah it's just not being boring in the same way that German people are used to it and also getting the harvest and getting the response on the street that I also think we to a certain point deserve for being as courageous as we are and being against all the arts as we try to be I wanted to just add at the end that I also should send regards from the rest of the team who cannot be in the livestream with us today so Anya, Katrin, Tilo, Zara, Madita all the others who also parts of them joined during the time send their solidarity to everyone absolutely thank you for that guys let's see you nodding your head there as Lea and Njernma talking Tell us Firstly I would like to thank the people who came to assist us internationally you know from the Netherlands Portugal and also our comrades they came to to assist us and I was really moved I had such great hope and this solidarity first of all among ourselves and then going out spreading the same message of solidarity I think that was very that was an experience for me I live outside Bremen it's Bremen yes but it's outside Bremen so I would like to talk about my experiences that I had during this campaign and it was extremely exciting to say the least much as I would have wanted to interact with people of my age but I found myself interacting with young people actually who know this party surprised because this party is new Bremen especially and they were first time voters they are first time voters they are people from schools they've just turned 18 all their university students and their questions were very very positive they spoke about climate change what is your party saying about climate change what is your party saying about migration what is your party saying about people who are dying in the Mediterranean sea these are young people this is how political as totally are I was so moved I was positively moved this party we may not make it on Sunday but this party is for the youth for the coming generation as Yan said we are setting up a foundation for them if we make it this is what we want we want to make it but then the thing is if we did not we should never be very disappointed set up a foundation for our children and children's children when they start articulating what it looks like look we want peace is your party talking about peace look whoever got that in Europe there will be a war these are questions that you should I found myself talking with them it was extremely exciting they would say for instance we have problems about energy we may not have had problems in energy in the previous winter what is your party saying about energy crisis here in Europe what is your party saying about Europe that seems to be going going in oblivion to say the least we don't know what direction Europe is taking us what is your party saying about the Nord Stream pipelines that were blown up who blew them why is the government not investigating such touchy questions they would ask don't you realise that energy politics is linked to national security and what is your party saying they were very strong questions I was able to tell them that look migration and climate change are linked together if migration is taking place it simply means they affected the climate change from the south and then I was able to tell them this is not the time to tell the youth that China is to blame or global north is to blame for climate change I think the time is gone the time now is how do we global south and global north tackle climate change what are the alternatives or fossil fuels to renewable energy those were those were questions that kept me going there is a place where I go every saturday with my flyers that's where I meet them or in buses or in the marketplace I love going to the marketplace giving them they will also ask me look where from the african continent what is what drives you to be in this politics and then I will tell them look Mira is an international party and we are looking to Africa as a neighbor continent we have a lot of potential between Europe and Africa our politics our speaking our communication with these young people was very broad I was really touched and I could speak more but I think let me give a chance to others to speak thank you very much for that lovely really appreciate your input and lovely to hear of your experience we are getting some there is one comment in the chat here someone asks I think a rather cynical comment does dm25 have any achievable positive policies well I would encourage you to go to the Mira25 site of of Greece or of Germany Mira25 Bremen there are concrete policies that could be implemented tomorrow on housing, energy climate policy there is a 36 page PDF I don't know if any of the guys from Bremen before we move we move to another speaker would like to chime in and summarize in one minute or so what exactly we can offer in Bremen which must be a question surely what are you for because we are not a protest party we have got some very innovative crowdsourced proposals from some of the best minds in the progressive world perhaps you would like to chime in guys maybe because our program of course has a lot of proposals I think we have one mine would be for sure free public transport because that's something that we German government spent 100 billion on the military last year and doesn't have money for free public transport in their cities so kind of ridiculous so that's something we could do tomorrow if we wanted to and if the right people would have the say about having people's councils and having an outlook on models of democracy which can be as stable or even more stable as the current models while at the same time being fairer and we have great suggestions regarding these issues Yes I think you did mention some before but maybe the person was not in and so we stand there for what we call the new Bremen solidarity so we want to make solidarity in all sort of directions so this works into all directions meaning between the people we want to change legislation and the way we do politics to make solidarity possible between people but also from the city to the people and this involves also the economy the possibility and them being solidarity also solidarity with the people and this includes many stuff as already mentioned a few for instance housing was mentioned before so we are planning on directly on directly enforce and increase the budget for many good projects that are already in Bremen for instance housing first projects who are there to get people off the streets for housing because the right to have a house is directly linked to many other crucial elemental rights such as participation health and so on and so forth so this is something we would be speaking out for directly and making ourselves strong for so housing policy Thank you, thank you for that so there you go a summary of their policy platform a couple of minutes Okay, let's move to Eric Eric Edmund who is now a Mara 25 spokesperson in Greece and has become quite irregular on the oligarch owned TV stations when they have the guts to let him on How's it going? Yeah, I've been rubbing shoulders with all the wrong people it's been a hell of an experience they don't have a choice that's the only reason they're forced by law to give us a certain platform and because the spokesperson of the party they will say no it's the last that allows us some kind of platform so we try to make the most of it but very quickly on the question that was just asked about the achievable policies of Maras in general it's an understandable question towards the left in general because we do have this kind of like we're known for being a bit pie in the sky as a political family however it's very unfair towards DM and specifically towards the Maras because one of the main pillars on which we base our whole identity and our political thinking is being realistic that's what they are in Mara Greece stands for and I also know that in Germany the sort of motto of the party is realistic rebellious and radical realistic means not to wait for some kind of socialist revolution until we change the world but rather building that change on sort of steps on stepping stones towards that socialism small ideas like what our comrades friends in Bremen said that open up society's appetite towards a different way of running society of running the economy of running politics and the rest of it and that unlocks bigger and bigger doors towards more and more radical solutions once we've proven that these smaller ones are effective they mention some of them in Greece we're even more humble because of how extreme the situation is, we're talking about things like lowering VAT VAT in Greece is at 24% this is in a broken economy in Germany which is multiple times stronger in terms of financial power the VAT is 19% and in broken little Greece is 24% this isn't a economic policy it is a political policy forced on Greece in order to subjugate it what we're saying is let's lower VAT it's a very small radical thing however because to lower VAT means for the first time in over a decade saying no to Brussels saying no we're not going to do it I'm sorry if you're not going to put the well-being of our country and our people first then we will and we're going to do what is necessary and if you're going to attack us as a result of that we sincerely hope that our fellow European citizens will see the justice of our cause and will stand on our side and prove that the real European Union is us the people and not the people in Brussels and Frankfurt so it's this kind of realistic simple policies that however unlock bigger and bigger changes now I must say that what the Bremen team has been saying has been really filling me with a lot of hope and joy and guys I mean I remember our first meeting a year ago when we were sitting around kind of looking at each other and we're like is this possible can we even do this you know and look at you right I'm not the kind of guy to say I told you so but I'm going to leave it there floating in the air because I kind of did tell you so it's you know when that madness enters you and you like you start doing things all of a sudden a bunch of stuff that you couldn't even have imagined was possible becomes possible just because you're doing it and by doing it more and more doors open that you couldn't even have imagined when you set off and I think that's an important thing to say because there might be a lot of people watching us right now who are thinking yeah okay there's something special about Bremen not to say you guys are not special you are special and we're special but also we're not you know what I mean it's anybody could do this you just need to do it and then the DM family will be right there by your site and help you do it because we do need to do this everywhere the kind of project that we're we've set out on and I think this is very important and it's easy for us here increase to forget it as we become bigger and bigger I am very mistrustful personally of the kind of effect that bourgeois representative democracy can have because once you get part of this system and you start being in parliament and you start going to committees and you start going to votes you think that that is the way to radical change and it absolutely is not it's not this system is designed to replicate itself and to defend itself you're not going to create radical change by going to committees what if we're serious and this is what Yanis was hinting at at the beginning of the talk if we're serious about the kind of change that we want to do then we will need a mass movement behind us people who are not necessarily our members but who have an appetite for the kind of fight that we're recommending to people because we're recommending a fight we're not we are not setting out to do your run of the mill political work we're not here to play around with and tweak the system we're here to radically change it and to radically change it means to set out against a number of invested interests that absolutely don't want a single thing changed and they will fight us savagely and you're not going to be able to fight that fight if all you've got is a bunch of votes because votes come and go once every four or five years what you need is an invested movement that is there by your side as you fight that fight there might not be members of MEDA there might not be candidates but they are part of that struggle so what we're doing needs to be rooted in society and in all these different parts of the mosaic that make up the fight that we're fighting we're not the only ones asking for free transport in Bremen we're not the only ones asking for environmental policies there are other people that have been doing it for many more years than us and we need to be part of that political ecosystem and build that kind of with them and be that electoral edge through the MEDAs yes that adds that's our part to this ecosystem but we need to be rooted in the bigger project otherwise they're going to eat us alive they're going to crush us and that is the bigger fight and that is what I'm afraid here in Greece because we get so caught up in the regular campaigning that I just want to make sure that we don't forget how important what you guys are doing is that really is so much closer to our radical heart and soul as a movement your kind of campaigning the way you represent what it is that we're trying to do and yeah I mean the last thing I wanted to say is about having the right idea which you all mentioned even if you feel like that idea it might not be its time it's important to say it regardless if you're convinced of the idea if you know that the idea is correct and this is something we talked about in the DM Academy because down the line something might happen that again you couldn't even have predicted it was impossible to know but that event might make your idea obvious all of a sudden to a bunch of people and they will recognize that you've been saying it all along you are the party that was warning and was preparing people about this thing that has now happened whether it's climate change whether it is whatever something happens and you know the free public transport becomes the obvious choice for Bremen and you are that party that was saying it all along don't play that cynical political game I think of trying to go any way the wind blows and just say whatever people are saying right now because that is the way to get votes today play the long game play the game about 4 years from now 10 years from now be true to what that's how you build a real movement that is honest to itself and is solid and is not going to break under pressure and that is how once you do get to power you're in a much safer place because you have made it to that place of power with your original program of what you were saying all along and you meant it so now that you're in power you didn't sacrifice those points to get there and you have a much stronger base from which to implement that program than you would have done if you were playing that cynical game promising everything to everyone and the rest of it that's it from me I don't have anything else, thank you it's lovely to see you all Thank you Eric wonderful we are at the top of the hour but if we can extend just a little bit we've got two more comments first Lucas, Lucas February our communications director based in Berlin who's also been very active on the Bremen campaign Lucas Thanks madam, actually I'm one of the few of us here who has been lucky enough to witness firsthand not only the campaigning in Bremen but also what's going on in Greece so the two things we're talking about today are just like some of us here I've just come back from Athens where I was there for a wonderful DM25 Academy in which dozens of people not just us here from the DN team but also the AMRs from all over Europe joined for series of events and workshops and also to join the Meta 25 Greece on the streets as they end of this electoral period and in Bremen it's been my absolute privilege to be there on the ground on the streets with Jan, with Leander with Anya, with Noma and the rest of the team to try to help them as best as possible to make this happen and as we near the end here not only the livestream but also those two campaigns especially one in Bremen you know what have we accomplished here you know what's the significance of this I think it's important for us to keep this in mind as we alluded to in the beginning Meta this is it has a very historic element to it this is the first time that a left-wing political project is running in different national elections at the two different countries basically at the same time right and like Jan also alluded to I think what we've accomplished here is we've planted these seeds and I think 5, 10, 15, 20 years from now once this has grown and flourished as we all hope that we will I think we'll be looking back to this moment and then it maybe will be clear to us with a little bit of distance just how significant this was and I think ultimately the really valuable thing that we've done in planting these seeds is to respond in kind to a message that was sent by the powerful by the oligarchy you know quite some time ago their message was we don't care about borders you know they have no respect for borders their assets their money it moves freely across borders they will take the money that they've made speculating in one country or in some other shady way or exploitative way they'll take it to a different country to your country they'll buy up your apartment building and then they will exploit that as well right then exploit you so they have no respect for borders and I think the reply that we've sent here is we're over borders either we don't care much for them we'll join forces from Bremen to Berlin to Athens to the Saloniki to Rome to Milan and who knows where else in the future and we've told them you know we're coming from the smallest local council to the biggest of parliaments we're coming I like it thank you thank you Lucas let's close with Juliana Juliana Zieter who is the first person for Mera25 in Germany Juliana I'm losing the power of speech here that's what happens when we go over the island Juliana thank you Magran so yeah I don't want to repeat anything I think everything possible has been said I just want to at the end add two things one is of course a huge thank you to the people of Bremen and of course to the people who supported the project but I think without your trust and without your work none of this could have been possible also as Eric mentioned me Eric I can very well remember where we started and I just saw you last weekend and I think the transformation has been huge in terms of you know thinking about how this could be and then everything all the actions to see them play out the projection on the huge building standing there with you guys and seeing that was just an amazing moment and I think the journey of Mera25 in Germany is young still but this is for sure a milestone like it has been mentioned and this is the second point I want to say what I really realize is that of course new parties come up once in a while also in Germany but the special thing about us is that we are a full-fledged party that we have policies that you know most parties they get created they start very small and they have to work on having content but we as the movement we always had strong policies and now to see them kind of manifest into this party to be electable because this is something that is new that before we pushed as a movement other parties to adopt our policies and now those policies are out there and we have people representing them and people like Jan you know recording videos talking about these issues real people as I think you know has been already said not politicians not people who are you know they're in for the political game but people who can say okay I'm a citizen of the city I'm standing here with these ideas and I'm presenting them to people and I'm doing that without any you know I'm not shying down from standing here and standing up for myself and for other people and I think the resonance has been amazing I haven't seen one person on the street who was like oh no a small party it was like it was very interesting for the people to see a party with so much content so much policy already because this is not where usually small parties start and this is also one additional seat that we have planted is for people to have like this feeling of hope that there might be someone to show up and really be electable so yeah a huge thank you from to the Bremen team from me and good luck to you to all of us for next Sunday and also to Greece for the elections and for the rest of the campaign yeah that's it from me Thank you Juliana and we are truly out of time so on that we will close thank you to everyone who came here to join us especially to the Bremen team who I know are right in the middle of campaigning and don't have that much time I know the Bremen team are right now moving into another live stream and there's a link in the chat for any German speakers that would like to join that and thank you to all of you out there for your support we could not do it without you we could not stick it to the oligarchy without you we have no big funders we have no deep pocketed paymasters no shadowy foundations that we owe favors to were a movement for you for the many and if you'd like to join DM25 or donate to DM25 five years a month or whatever you can afford then just head over to dm25.org and you can become a member in a couple of minutes thank you again to our panel and to you out there who are watching live good luck to our campaigning teams and we'll see you at the same time the same place two weeks from now