Newly elected to the head of the European Left Party, Heinz Bierbaum, a polyglot German from Die Linke and veteran of politics, gave EUROPE his vision of the challenges to come for the European Left, his opinion of the new Commission, chaired by a compatriot he knows well, Ursula von der Leyen, and the perils to come for the post-Brexit period (interview by Pascal Hansens)
Agence Europe - In your speech on the occasion of your election to the European Left, you said the Left in Europe was in a difficult situation, referring to the European elections. Why do you think the European left-wing parties are currently struggling so much?
Heinz Bierbaum - The European Left is indeed in a difficult situation. That was made clear by the European elections. The problem is that the European Left was not able to present itself as a real political alternative to the neoliberal political trend and to the rhetoric of the far right.
Moreover, the European Left is still divided over the European elections. We had different strategies. We had the European Left with its Spitzenkandidat, then we had the movement “Maintenant le people!”, initiated by Jean-Luc Melenchon, and we had also the Movement Diem 25 of Mr Varoufakis. That was not very helpful. But the main problem has been not being able to be visible.
AE - And why do you think there was this lack of visibility?
HB - We should have a clearer political profile. We have good points, but we don’t have a really strong political profile…
AE – The European project itself is divisive within the European Left: some European left parties think that Europe is impossible to reform, while others think it is still possible to be reformed. What is your position?
HB - I think we almost all agree that treaties of Maastricht and Lisbon cannot be the basis for the construction of the Europe we want, a Europe which is democratic, social, ecological, and peaceful. That’s quite clear.
The question was always whether or not it would be possible to reform the European Union. I think based on the current European treaties, it is not possible.
But I don’t think that’s the main question. I think it’s quite an abstract question. I think it’s more important to launch political processes, for instance to change the political climate and to create the conditions to move the European project in a different direction.
AE- What power balance do you think you would be able to use to redirect the European project, for instance given that you don’t have any representatives at the Council, and hence at the European Commission, and the GUE/NGL is the smallest group in the European Parliament ?
HB - It’s true that the GUE/NGL is a very small political group at the European Parliament. But nevertheless, we must strengthen our cooperation between the GUE/NGL and the European Left. That was not case in the past. It was not enough.
We should also have better cooperation with other political forces too. The starting point is the European Forum, which has already taken place three times, in Marseille, in Bilbao and recently in Brussels.
And from my point of view, it is very important to have a good relationship with the trade unions. At the European Forum in Brussels, Luc Triangle, the General secretary of IndustriAll, said for the very first time that he is ready and willing to cooperate with the Left.
AE - In your first speech, you said you want to widen the European Left to new political parties or movements. Do you think it’s possible to recruit new parties or movements without compromising the coherence of the party itself, and its political identity?
HB - I am a little bit sceptical about the chances of getting Podemos or PTB on board, to get them as members or even as observers of the European Left. For me, it is more important to strengthen our collaboration. We need a political debate between the European Left, Podemos, PTB and others. It is a precondition to have them on board in the future. We should not focus on a formal membership. We should focus on a political debate between us. When we look at our programmes, there are not so many differences.
AE - Speaking of politics, the new 'von der Leyen' Commission has championed the Green Deal, the green transition, through green growth. Is this the way forward for you?
HB - That’s a core question. It’s good that the European Commission is talking about the need for a green deal. But what does it actually mean? Ursula von der Leyen’s Green Deal is certainly more of a neoliberal and capitalistic approach. We want to go beyond capitalism. We need to focus on the content, not on the title.
Same for green growth: what does it mean? We need growth in sectors that are very important for society in the future, such as electromobility or renewable energies, and we need degrowth in other sectors.
AE - With the decisive election of Boris Johnson, it is now a foregone conclusion that Brexit will take place. What is at stake in the negotiations on relations between the Union and the United Kingdom?
One of the major issues will be to keep the Northern Ireland peace agreement. Regarding the future trade deal between the United Kingdom and the European Union, one thing we should look at is the freedom of movement of workers.
AE - Do you think the UK might be tempted by competitive gains through social dumping?
Yes, of course, there is always that risk. The question of the freedom of workers is always linked to the question: under which conditions? Social dumping is already a reality in Europe.
AE - Von der Leyen and EU institutions are planning to organize a 2-year-conference on the Future of Europe. What are your expectations?
I am very sceptical as to the outcome. Because we remember when von der Leyen was a German minister. And our experience with the politics championed by Ursula von der Leyen was not very positive.
There is a need to reform the European Union, for example, in order to strengthen the role of the European Parliament. We must discuss it within the European Left, because our members have different positions.
AE - But Ursula von der Leyen has already said she wants to give the European Parliament more power?
We will see, we will see. We will see what those platitudes actually lead to.