argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Brussels-Turkey, playing with xenophobia
Xabier Letona Biteri @xletona 2016ko martxoaren 22a

What if we were refugees? What attitude would we like any country to show with us? The question is obvious, therefore, one might think it would be more. But it is not so clear, apparently, given what our EU rulers are doing with refugees in the Middle East. It means that in order to release the slaughter we have to leave the base, if not festive. In the absence of empathy and solidarity, the response will end at the bottom of the sea, such as the Syrian refugees in the Aegean; or those caught in the camps of Lesvos and Idomeni; or in the refugee camps of Turkey.

I don't know how far from Aleppo to Athens, Via Michelin told me I couldn't calculate. But I know that there is very little room for solidarity in fear, and that the EU’s move is based on fear, which leads EU Heads of Government to sign an unworthy agreement with Turkey.

It is much more demagogic to emphasise that the European Union is founded on solidarity and cooperation, when it feeds on xenophobia from the rejection of refugees.

The key to the rulers is not the fear of losing the house or welfare, but the loss of the vote. It's not the authority, but it's the authority of more and more citizens: work, home, car -- the fear of losing well-being among fingers is increasing in the society of precariousness. The street beggar sign is very clear: “You can be next.” Increasingly direct messages indicate that the foreigner will take away the work and that if he is neglected, the man will rape his wife or daughter. One of the greatest shame that has been happening in Europe since the Second World War is about solidarity, not fear.

Only in this way can we understand that in Europe the spectre of xenophobia is ever stronger. If we are not able to show the opposite, that is one of the main consequences that can result from the refugee crisis, and there are not a few of the serious consequences that this can have in the medium term.

It would be a tremendous demagogy to say that the tender arrival of one million or two million people can be managed. It is much more demagogic, however, to stress that the European Union is founded on solidarity and cooperation, when it feeds on xenophobia by the rejection of refugees. I do not know to what extent the recent history of Europe is being looked at today, but the one who explores on the net will see tenaciously that from there there is not much room for fascism.

IRUN-GURS yes, Via Michelin says that there are 143 km from Salies (Biarno) to a concentration camp that welcomed thousands of Basque and Spanish refugees. France received over half a million people in deplorable conditions who fled the Spanish Civil War.

The day after the Second World War, 11 million people of German origin were expelled from several countries of eastern Europe for revenge against the Nazis. Millions of other citizens had to start a new life in a territory other than their home. In the early 1990s, the Balkan war also scattered thousands of refugees across Europe.
Turkey has received 2.7 million refugees, most of them from Syria, in Turkey. Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt have also received millions of fugitives. The generosity of the EU has no limits: in September I was ready to receive 160,000 refugees, now it has regressed to 72,000. That is the core of the agreement with Turkey: Let Turkey be a EU janitor. In return, money, for the Turks to gain the right to move more freely within the EU, and for the negotiations to enter the EU to speed up certain economic issues.

The EU will re-expel the thousands of refugees arriving in Greece from Turkey, and in theory, for each displaced person they will receive another from Turkey, but for now with a limit of 72,000 people. The expulsion of thousands of people is not in line with EU law, but where the law is a trap. As established by law, they will be able to apply for individual protection from the EU and then automatically be expelled in the civilised European model, in compliance with the right of appeal granted by the rule of law. Showing a higher degree of hypocrisy is a disease.

Will that revered memory help us?