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Alex Lessmann is the political director of the Bavarian Pirate Party
Previously, he was one of the spokesmen and luckily for us he speaks Catalan
He will explain us what the German Pirates' view is towards Europe.
Hello and good afternoon.
My name is Aleks Lessmann and I’m the political director of the Bavarian Pirate Party,
the largest regional wing of the German Pirate Party.
International, and more specifically European, politics are something which literally run through my veins thanks to my multicultural background.
I was born in Ulm in Germany and raised in Madrid; I studied Political Science in Cologne and finally moved to Munich.
Like many of you, therefore, my roots are varied. The Spanish, or Catalan, part of my family dates back to the Arabs which were in control of Spain for over 800 years.
The German part of my family dates back to the Huguenots who fled France to find their fortune in Germany. All of you can tell a similar story, or at least know of someone who can. They are typically European stories.
Germany, as well as Spain and Catalonia have always been countries which have seen high levels of immigration or international movement.
As a result, they have always been deeply involved in international relations and the world of politics.
But what has that got to do with the Pirates? There is practically no movement which is as international, as internationalist, as the Pirate Party.
Founded in Sweden, the ideas of this liberal civil rights movement spread like wildfire across the world.
We can find Pirate Parties in almost all of the world’s continents (we only still have the South Pole to conquer) and in 60 countries.
First and foremost in Europe, of course, but also: in Africa: the Tunisian Pirate Party even had a Secretary of State just after the revolution;
in both North and South America: Recife in Brazil saw the founding of the Brazilian Pirate Party not one month ago;
in Oceania: I don’t remember one single International Pirate Party (our umbrella organisation) conference without the New Zealanders;
in Asia: There is a Hong Kong Pirate Party. The Taiwanese Pirate Party is currently being founded. There’s even one in Nepal.
There are Pirate Parties everywhere - and no wonder! As a 21st century party with our roots in the internet culture, we know no borders. For us, the world is one big community. The world is our oyster!
As an internationalist and as a European, I don’t think it’s right to see European issues as “foreign policy”. This might have something to do with my own personal story, but it also comes from my understanding that European politics are not just “foreign” topics.
Nowadays, someone who thinks of other European countries as “abroad” show just how much they still have to learn about this new century.
In a Europe where we are all affected by the consequences of neoliberalism and the power held by corporations - led by the banks and other financial institutions - it has become clear that now is the time to break this hold that the markets have on us.
It’s time that a party remembers that a company is nothing without its employees. A party needs to be present, needs to promote the idea that in politics, it is people and their ideals which drive exchange: political, social and, of course, economic.
All we ever seem to be talking about is bailout packages, budget cuts and rising taxes. The drachma and the peseta, exits, bankruptcies and the Euro crisis
- which is actually more of a crisis of market radicalism and the financial markets, a crisis in the financial system as a whole. A crisis in neoliberalism which has been contaminating us for the last thirty years.
Every day all we see is the politicians in power who seem to have forgotten —between the little things in everyday politics, that Europe is more than just the Euro,
the Schengen Agreement and Frontex, which only serves to let people who only want a better life within our borders die right on our doorstep.
In our everyday discussion, we still forget what being European means. What unites Europe. We, the Pirates, know that some of the founding principles of the European idea have a liberal origin.
Modern Europe can still be summed up with the three famous words: “Liberté, égalité, fraternité”
Liberty, equality, fraternity - or as I prefer to put it: Solidarity.
We need a Europe - and a world - in which everyone is free and can decide for themselves. Where restrictions regarding what we can and cannot do are reduced to an absolute minimum.
A Europe in which Eurocrats, whose interests are controlled by lobbies, have all of their responsibilities removed and handed back to the people.
We need a Europe in which every individual is treated in exactly the same way.
The gap between the rich and the poor has done nothing but increase over the last thirty years, not only in Germany, but also in the whole of Europe and beyond its borders.
This is the consequence of a radical market policy which considers people as nothing more than a commodity - “human resources”. A commodity like carbon, petrol or steel. Like money...
Things cannot go on like this.
We need a Europe in which all of the people are brothers. Every single one of us knows that problems are much easier to solve when we approach them together.
The European idea is much, much more than what those in charge in Berlin, Madrid, Barcelona, Brussels or anywhere else try to convince us.
The dream of a united Europe - liberty, equality, fraternity - shouldn’t be left in the hands of the politicians in charge. It’s an incredible dream, and its results are something we can really be proud of.
Nowadays you can cross from Portugal to Poland without having to show your passport even once.
The idea of Europe has achieved something which we thought was impossible, or which actually was impossible, in the past: during the last 70 years there has not been one single war between member states of the European Union,
although unfortunately we cannot say the same within country borders.
The idea of solidarity within a historical and cultural community tends to become forgotten in amongst all of the daily things we have to deal with. But it is something which is so important!
Not only does it give us a common identity, it should also help us realise that working together is so much stronger than the collection of national or economic egoism that we see today.
It’s time to throw neoliberalism out the window - all it is interested in is egotism and does not take into account the people and their destinies. It’s time we found such forgotten qualities as empathy and solidarity.
I don’t want to live in this Europe full of bureaucrats and administrators, led by what lobbies and corporations want
I want to live in a Europe for Europeans and their guests. A Europe fiercely proud of being one of the first civilisations and characterised by a long, complicated history which has shaped the world in which we live today.
A Europe in which throwing its arms open in welcome to a founding member —like Greece— is more important than what the banks or financial community wants.
A Europe which at heart understands that more than just mere economic and financial union, social union is just as important. In which its citizens are individuals, not just consumers.
Maybe, and let me be an idealist here for a moment, a Europe which sees itself as a Europe marked by solidarity, not a confederation of egos.
The German Pirate Party embraces the idea of a unified Europe. But we are also aware of the fact that the Europe in which we live is terribly antidemocratic,
and in which the European Parliament needs to fight for each and every individual right.
The system according to which the European Union is organised does not allow room for a Parliament which can control what the Commission is doing.
The German Pirate Party wants a Europe of the citizens, for the citizens; a Europe which is aware of the differences between the cultures making up the continent.
A Europe based on cultural regions and not political nations.
We are fully aware that politics on a grand scale happen at a European level, and that is why the German Pirate Party wants to work together with all the other Parties in Europe to promote a European Pirate Party.
Representing positions from all of the different European parties which will help democratise Europe, will help promote a more social Europe and will stop cutting individuals’ civil rights all in the rather inappropriately-named “security policy” which helps nobody.
Liberty, Equality, Solidarity - the most important principles for us Pirates and the basis for all of our other ideas.
And we’re certain that they are the best principles for creating a better Europe. A Europe which works together towards making a better world.
These are the principles which govern what the Pirates are doing now, and will continue to do in the future.
The new movement for the 21st century. A movement by its citizens, for its citizens.