[ad_1]
Police are heavily stationed in the center of the Eternal City. The headquarters of Italy’s Social Democratic Party, a stone’s throw from the Spanish Steps, has been sealed off. Socialist figures from across the continent, including Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, are in town to rally Europe’s centre-left parliamentarians.
On Friday, to a packed room in the building, Iracha García Pérez, leader of the Socialist and Democratic parties in the European Parliament, passionately explained the upcoming election campaign.
“The central issue of the campaign is to protect our values, our democracy and our security,” Garcia said ahead of Saturday’s convention. “This is what we are proposing to Europeans in 27 countries. We are proposing a future based on solidarity, equality and opportunity for all.”
Socialists prepare for election campaign
Socialists lead governments in Germany, Spain, Romania and Denmark, lead a caretaker government in Portugal, and remain the second-largest force in the European Parliament after elections in all 27 European member states. It is expected that this will continue to be the case. Union in early June.
But the important values they promote and promise Europe’s working classes, such as social justice and shared prosperity, may be at risk of disappearing from view. As the European Union struggles to continue supporting Ukraine to Russia and increase spending on its defense, there are calls to change priorities and fund new challenges facing the bloc through cuts to social spending. It’s increasing.
Do Europeans support increased defense spending?
“Public support for paying for defense is fragile,” said Marcel Schlepper, an economist and defense policy expert at the Munich-based research institute Ifo Institute. He recently published a policy paper on this topic with his fellow researchers.. The conclusion is that Europeans generally recognize the need for increased defense spending, but their attitudes change when it comes to their own country’s contribution.
Schlepper told DW that only four European countries, including Sweden, Bulgaria, Germany and non-EU member Norway, have more than 50% of people in favor of their governments increasing defense spending. .
But the real question people are avoiding, he added, is “are we willing to give up spending in other areas or are we willing to pay higher taxes?” .
Joachim Schuster, a Social Democrat from Germany and a member of the European Parliament, acknowledged that this is a difficult debate. But he said the issue was being discussed “irrationally and hastily”.
After all, he told DW, European members of the NATO alliance already spend three times as much on defense as Russia. Schuster suggested taking a closer look at where that money is being spent and whether some of it is being wasted.
Europe has a ‘very comprehensive welfare state’
Shuster said eliminating new debt issuance and instead calling for cuts in social spending is “ridiculous to some members of conservatives and liberals.” Why not introduce tax increases for high-income earners, he suggested?
Schlepper disagrees. He said Europe “has fairly comprehensive welfare states” and countries such as Germany, France, Italy and Spain spend between 27% and 32% of their GDP on social spending, while defense spending is low. He claimed that it was less than 2%.
He believes social spending needs to play a role in defense financing, given its proportion of the budget. “This could be by actually consolidating social spending, or at least not increasing social spending any further,” Schlepper suggested.
A bitter pill to swallow
But for European socialists, that would be a bitter pill to swallow. “We must defend our security and the European model, the social model,” Garcia said in his speech in Rome. But she also argued that the resources and fiscal policies needed to respond need to be discussed first.
“It is not necessarily social welfare that needs to be cut,” said Sven Miksel, a former Estonian defense minister who now represents the country’s Social Democratic Party in the European Parliament.
Mixer noted that recent events such as the coronavirus pandemic and the energy crisis tend to exacerbate existing divisions and social inequalities in society. That’s why it’s important to help those who are more vulnerable and place a greater burden on those at lower risk, he told DW.
But Mr Mixel also said he hoped voters understood that Europe was dealing with urgent threats to its security.
“It is essential that we do more for our military and security, because if we don’t, we may find ourselves in a completely untenable situation in just a few years,” he said. “And that’s that I don’t lie to voters.”
Editor: Martin Kubler
[ad_2]
Source link
