Joint statement of the: President of the European Left Party (EL), Gregor Gysi, Chairman of the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ), Mirko Messner, Chairman of the Slovenian Levica (The Left), Luka Mesec

Stop the wars and not the refugees! Declaration of the International Meeting Against Foreign Military Bases, June 29^th, 2018, Kaiserslautern Germany. Participants from Germany, Netherlands, France, UK, South Korea, Spain, Italy, USA, Ireland, Greece, Austria, Switzerland agree to the following.

The Congress of the Democratic Party of the People (HDP) took place on Sunday the 11^th of February 2018 in Ankara (Turkey). The Party of the European Left (EL) was represented by its Vice-President Pierre Laurent. The HDP organized its Congress in a Sports Park. Despite a security perimeter of 500 meters all around the park, closed streets as well as strip searching and identity checks by the police and the military, 32 000 people came to hear the message of HDP. It was then a «display of power on the part of HDP, at the heart of a police state», according to Pierre Laurent.

The conclusions of the Marseille European Forum, who took place on 10-11 November 2017, were presented on the 30th of January 2018 to MEPs at the European Parliament, in Brussels. The need for a thorough debate on the experience of this first forum -trying to bring together progressive forces from the Left, the social-democracy and the ecological forces- was expressed from all the participants.

The Party of the European Left (EL) would like to express its strongest rejection to the newest attack of the Spanish state on freedom of expression, following its threat to illegalize the activities of Askapena. Furthermore, we are denouncing the judicial proceeding against Askapena and 5 of its militants, which – according to the established report – annuls personal rights like the freedom of association as well as the lack of guarantees which had been and are given in the process, and we are rejecting the possible “preventive incarcerations” of the five companions.

Bajo el pretexto de la “lucha contra el terrorismo”, el Presidente turco Recep Tayyip Erdogan está llevando a cabo desde hace varios meses un verdadero proyecto de terror y guerra en su país, especialmente en la región kurda de Turquía. Este estallido de violencia contra los kurdos y el pueblo de Turquía se puede definir como crimen contra la humanidad y ya ha causado varios centenares de víctimas, entre ellos muchos niños, y 200.000 desplazados. Y ahora, Selahattin Demirtas, co-presidente del Partido Democrático de los Pueblos (HDP) que obtuvo 10% en las últimas elecciones, está directamente amenazado por el Presidente Erdogan.

Under the pretext of the “struggle against terrorism”, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan leads for several months a real project of terror and war in his country, especially in the Kurdish region of Turkey. This outburst of violence against the Kurds and the peoples of Turkey can be defined as crime against humanity and has already made several hundreds victims including many children, and 200,000 displaced.