“We have to restructure the debt so the majority of the peoples of Europe can reactivate and mobilize the money to objectives other than the financial adjustments”. Within those objectives is to “put the wealth of our society in service of another kind of development”, with a massive public investment, sustainable and respectful to the environment”, explained Pierre Laurent.  He also spoke of a sort of Marshall Plan, without its colonizing dimension, that allows solving imbalances, followed by a new social protection system, since “there will not be a solidary project in Europe without wealth distribution”.

It was like this that the President of the European Left expressed himself while making the closing remarks of this Seminar for a European Debt Conference, which took place in Rome the past 11th of June.

Pierre Laurent, who classified the meeting as “extremely useful”, explained that the problem of debt will be a very important working subject in the preparation of the V Congress of the Party of the European Left, taking place in December, in Berlin, and that more meetings are needed in the next few months to deepen and progress initiatives about the subject.

This seminar, as its name states, marks the beginning of the works to a European Conference on Debt, to take place next year, organized by the European Left. But it will not be the first international encounter to discuss the subject. Back in April 2014, the European Left organized a big Conference in Brussels, followed by the 1st European South Forum, in Barcelona, and then the Alternatives Forum in Paris, both last year.

The next European Conference on Debt is part of the Plan of Action and the Alliance Against Austerity, to fight troika and its neoliberal politics, in which the European Left is working for over a year.

Pierre Laurent insisted in the creation of a “permanent forum” allowing the reunion of political, social and union forces, to work on the issue of debt and other questions about Europe, since the changes that may happen will not be long lasting if they don’t have the support of other countries, as he stated. In this regard, he said that “the need of solidarity between our forces is absolutely necessary because otherwise, in adversity, nothing will be possible” and he remembered what happen with Syriza.

Assertive, he argued that today there are forces able to carry out change, “considerable forces doing great mobilizations but without a common political vision”, giving the examples, among others, of the fight against TTIP – which has a particular strength in Germany – and the hard fight against the French labour reform. He added that those forces must converge and “the European left is the one who has to create the spaces for that convergence, because that convergence will not happen if nobody takes the political initiative. And there aren’t many forces on a European scale able to take such responsibility”, discarding the social democracy.

For all that, he encouraged, “we need political initiative and audacity” since this is a political struggle of primary importance, “to face a reproduction system of financial accumulation that generates poverty, inequalities and blocks the development of our societies”.

He pointed that the opposing forces are numerous and that austerity implemented against the peoples causes a considerable political detachment, as well as an increase of populism and the far right.

He concluded addressing directly all those in the room: “The battle I propose you is essential and of political reconquest”, explaining that is it not only a battle at European level but rather, in these times of imperialist counter-offensive, a worldwide expected battle.