Party of the European Left - Press Release
Council of Chairpersons and Executive Board meeting in Paris (7-9 October)
The Council of Chairpersons and the Executive Board of the European Left met last weekend (7-9 October) in the headquarters of the French Communist Party, in Paris.
Both bodies emphasized on the rapid deterioration of the economic and social standards, which is spreading throughout the Eurozone and the EU. The developments in Italy and the forthcoming collapse of a series of French and Belgian banks is being "handled" by the neoliberal leadership of the EU through their decision for an infinite expansion of the EFSF, in order to keep on pumping European taxpayers' money to the continuous rescue of the speculative private banking system.
Neoliberal leaders are now behaving like religious fanatics: they refuse to acknowledge that their "rescue" policy is leading the Eurozone and the EU to destruction. At the same time, they reinforce authoritarianism and repression, in order to back up their unprecedented, ultra-austerity policies, which are turning Europe into a continent of impoverished workforce, a "dead man's land" of millions of unemployed, poor, homeless and excluded citizens.
The time of truth has come: The forces of the European Left have decided to intensify their efforts for the formation of a European social and political front of resistance and alternative. In 15 October European Leftists will join the global call of the indignants' movement and the on-going social initiatives all over Europe. In the next period, the EL will organize a series of simultaneous actions, in order to show that the neoliberal dead-end can and will be overthrown, when the real victims of the crisis, the lower and middle-class European citizens, realize that "we are 99%", as the demonstrators outside Wall Street are already shouting.  
The two bodies of the EL also discussed about the agenda of the Party for 2012, which will include a series of actions in the framework of the Citizens' Initiative and the EL's campaign for a European Fund of Solidarity and Social Development. During the discussions, the Executive Board decided to denounce the antimissile shield in Spain and express its support to the people of Cyprus.

Among these initiatives, the Presidency of the EL is expected in the next days to address an open letter of protest to the Chancellor of Germany, the French President and other institutional leaders of the EU, stressing their responsibilities for the on-going neoliberal, ultra-austerity and speculative policies, which are actually widening the economic crisis in the EU and lead to social destruction. 

During the meeting of the EL in Paris, these ideas were not only discussed internally, but also presented through the organization of a public debate, under the title "Europe: the time of truth", which was hosted by the PCF and included interventions, among others, by the President of the EL, Pierre Laurent, the presidential candidate of the "Left Front" for 2012, Jean-Luc Melenchon, the Greek Vice-President of the EL and president of Synaspismos, Alexis Tsipras, the National Secretary of the Italian "Communist Refoundation", Paolo Ferrero, the co-Chairman of the German Left (Die Linke), Klaus Ernst and the President of the Hungarian "Workers' Party 2006", Attila Vajnai.
   

Brussels, 11/10/11