Courtesy of Mish.
In a Ziet Online interview, Sahra Wagenknecht, Die Linke vice president and economic spokesperson, says the “The euro splits Europe” and there is no benefit to the EU.
ZEIT ONLINE: Ms. Wagenknecht, what is the biggest advantage of the European Union mean to you?
Sahra Wagenknecht: After the Second World War, the united Europe has brought peace. But ever since the Maastricht Treaty and the Lisbon Treaty, the European Union has developed in a direction that primarily serves the interests of big business and banks. … Integration reduces the welfare of the majority in Europe along with growing anti-European resentment. We have 19 million unemployed in the south of Europe and a disastrous austerity policies, for which the European Commission is responsible as part of the troika. Entire countries are incapacitated and plunged into the social abyss.
ZEIT ONLINE: Do you agree your life partner Oskar Lafontaine, that Germany should withdraw from the euro?
Wagenknecht: He has not suggested that Germany exit the euro, but that a new currency system with stable exchange rates and capital controls in place of the Euro occurs. The euro as introduced, does not work, but divides Europe.
ZEIT ONLINE: What’s the alternative? Return to the D-Mark?
Wagenknecht: It is clear that a resolution of the single currency must not allow exchange rate speculation. There must be institutions that hold the currency market stable. And it needs capital controls.
ZEIT ONLINE: You argue like the AfD.
Wagenknecht: I beg to differ. AfD top candidate Hans Olaf Henkel is a neo-liberal economic lobbyist who throughout his life seeks low wages and welfare cuts. The AFD is not for a social Europe.
ZEIT ONLINE: The Left Party is the AfD for the poor?
Wagenknecht: Nonsense. Even the middle class would benefit from more welfare state and a better wages.
ZEIT ONLINE: Is end the EU the only message of the Left Party before its European Congress?
Wagenknecht: That’s not our message. We want a Europe that is socially and democratically and met, for example, the tax evasion by the rich and corporations with uniform tax rates at a high level. We hope that there will soon be a much stronger active resistance from the people of Europe and that the frustration just does not discharge in the election of right-wing populist parties.
ZEIT ONLINE: Will your party will discuss how to deal with military operations?
Wagenknecht: Of course. I find the current debate on more military involvement in Germany spooky. We’ve seen that the military operations in which we have participated, such as in Afghanistan, the people did not benefit. On the contrary, thousands of civilian deaths were the result. Humanitarians do not need bombs. German soldiers have no place abroad. …
