EL elects new President and vice-chairpersons

The Party of the European Left has just elected a new Presidency in the third Congress, hold in Paris, from the 3-5 December. Pierre Laurent, secretary general of French Communist Party is the new President and the vice-presidency will now be constituted by four vice-chairs – Alexis Tsipras (President of Synaspismos, Greece), Marisa Matias (MEP, Left Bloc, Portugal), Grigori Petrenco (Member of the Executive Committee of the Communist Party of the Republic of Moldova) and Maite Mola (International Relations of Spanish Communist Party) and a new treasurer, Diether Dehm (Die Linke, Germany).

The decision of changing the statutes to comply a presidency with more than one vice-chairman/woman was taken to assure a geographical representation of different parts of Europe and a more active and dynamic management in a time that Europe needs a strong Left, capable to proportionate a real alternative to neoliberalism and capitalism that rule the current European governments and plunged into the present crisis.

In order to build a platform of resistance and combat the austerity measures and the attack to social rights, the European Left has drawn a political plan of action for the next years, the European Social Agenda, which was approved by the Congress by unanimity.

It is time to pass to action, and only strong European initiatives can provide a systematic alternative to an economy based in the markets. We need, therefore, to show our compliance to react to the challenges that take place in the current system. The European Left decided to be the first party to use the "citizens initiative", recently launched by the European Union, to take action against the "European Fund for financial stabilization" and the austerity plans implemented in several countries.

This initiative is the creation – contrary to the "European fund of financial stabilization" – of a EUROPEAN FUND FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT. This fund aims to finance public investments that create jobs, expand training, research, useful infrastructures, and reach achievements in the field of the environment. Funding this fund should not depend on financial markets because we want to reduce the omnipotence of the markets, which is at the heart of the crisis, but money should be created by the ECB. The taxation of transactions is necessary, but not enough to accomplish our objectives for a more just world.

To meet this challenge, European Left will initiate a grassroots campaign, very large, well-prepared, reasoned, organized at European level, in all the languages and with events in the different capitals.

It's about using the instrument of "citizens' initiative" to promote the mobilization of citizens against the logic of European treaties and as a mean to shake the balance of powers and achieve the most concrete results.

The European Left comes out from this Congress enforced with the entry of new parties, which were formally accepted on the first day of the congress: Belarusian Party of the Left "Just World", Bulgarian Left, Red-Green Alliance (Denmark), Communist Party of Finland, the Left Party (France) and United Left (France). With thirty one effective members, and seven observers, from thirty different countries, the EL shows that is a plural left with a common face and with a strong plan of action based on an alternative for Europe and a way to resist to the crisis.

Besides the new presidency, a new Executive Board was also elected by consensus and will hold its first meeting on the 15^th January.

In the congress, several motions on very important issues to EL were adopted and can be consulted soon.