by JOHANNES STERN
MERA25, the German offshoot of the European DiEM25 movement led by former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, focuses on the question of the Gaza genocide in the European election campaign.
In its statements and election broadcasts, the party condemns the genocide of the Palestinians, castigates the complicity of the German government and allows Palestinian doctors to speak out, describing the horrific conditions on the ground. Their representatives regularly participate in anti-genocide demonstrations and are therefore, like other opponents of genocide— including Jewish organizations—exposed to massive state repression.
For example, MERA25 was involved in the organisation of the Palestine Congress on 12 April in Berlin, which was brutally suppressed by the police. Varoufakis himself was initially banned from entering Germany by the German authorities, who then imposed a general political ban on him. In a statement from MERA25, it is stated that Varoufakis has therefore “sued the German authorities for violation of his fundamental rights and defamation” and announced that, if necessary, he would also “sue in the European courts.”
The Socialist Equality Party condemns the ban on Varoufakis in the strongest possible terms. Obviously, this is not just about the former finance minister, with whom the German state worked closely at the time to enforce the EU austerity diktat against the Greek working class.
The action is part of a sweeping assault on democratic rights and aims to suppress any social and political opposition. Under conditions in which the ruling class is resorting to the extreme method of genocide, preparing a direct NATO war against Russia, massively arming and planning historic attacks on the working class, the ruling class is establishing a police state.
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