DIE LINKE this weekend voted on its programme for the European elections in May. After long and fruitful discussions the programme was decided with great majority on Saturday evening. Directly after the congress the representatives assembly was held, which was called upon to decide on the list of DIE LINKE representatives for the GUE/NGL faction in European Parliament.

With its programme DIE LINKE is determined to fight for "a society, in which all people can live free, autonomous, and with dignity" on European level. People must be able to decide on their own future, the programme states, there must be social security, good work with good wages, education and health care for all.

The programme further states: „The political offer of DIE LINKE designs a Europe that is more social, more just, ecological, feminist, peaceful and open-minded. Together with its partners of the European Left (EL), unionists, and social movements, DIE LINKE has formulated concrete answers which will now be put to discussion on a European scale. With the prime candidate of the European Left, the head of the Greek left alliance SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras, we link to the impressively led fights in Greece against social cuts and unemployment, against fascism and military interventions – and for solidary alternatives. The time for fundamental policy changes has come.“

DIE LINKE prime candidate for European elections is Gabi Zimmer, Member of European Parliament since 2004. Further delegates on the list of which the first ten places were elected in single vote and places eleven to twenty in group vote are: Thomas Händel (MEP), Cornelia Ernst (MEP), Helmut Scholz (MEP and former member of the Executive Board of the EL), Sabine Lösing (MEP), Fabio De Masi, Martina Michels (MEP), Martin Schirdewan, Sofia Leonidakis, Malte Fiedler, Paola Giaculli, Keith Barlow, Ruth Firmenich, Michael Ehrhardt, Ida Schillen, Gotthilf Lurch, Jennifer Michelle Rath, Martin Dolzer, Katrin Marie Hitzler, and Nick Woischneck.

DIE LINKE received strong support from the Party of the European Left. Maite Mola, vice chair of the European party, addressed the audience with a militant speech. She mentioned several examples of how the unstoppable collapse and destruction of the European model even pulls its protagonists into the abyss.

The need for alternatives arises among the people in Europe, she said. It was no surprise that the people especially in Greece chose the left alliance SYRIZA with Alexis Tsipras as its head as a way out of the crisis. The EL also presently held its 4. Congress in December in Madrid and decided on thematic axes for its aim to rebuild Europe.

She was sure that DIE LINKE will do its very best to achieve this aim. For one, it will take part in the EL debt conference in Brussels on 10th of April. And it strongly supports the fight in Spain against the proposed law to prohibit abortion. She said, the aim has to be to create a more social, more democratic, and freer Europe.

See election programme: http://www.die-linke.de/wahlen/europawahlen-2014/europawahlprogramm/down...