“It is good to see people coming to these discussions and being here at a time when trust in institutions is at an all-time low – trust in national institutions and European institutions. We know it not just because we hear it in the conversations we have but because of Europe’s own measurements in the Eurobarometer. For about five or six years now it has been sending warning bells about extraordinary numbers who are falling away from their belief in democracy or the potential even for democracy in Europe.
We have moved past the point of democratic deficit which was talked about for so many years, into a democratic disconnect where people don’t even see where the path might be and that is a very dangerous moment.
Of course that has all been deepened by the crash… and European institutions instead of engaging in dialogue have given us a diagnosis of a one-size-fits all deeply ideological neoliberal prescription for privatisation, for liberalisation and for austerity – polices which have never been shown to work anywhere in the world, and which we knew going into it has never worked anywhere in the world.”
