SOCIALIST MEP Paul Murphy yesterday claimed the referendum on the EU fiscal stability treaty was “made for the bankers” at a United Left Alliance event in Dublin.
Mr Murphy referred to an article in The Irish Times yesterday that said the Institute of International Finance in Washington had said that a No vote would damage the country’s ability to borrow.
“Incredible article in The Irish Times today whereby the bankers are telling us that they’re scared of a No vote. Of course they’re scared of a No vote. This is a treaty made for the bankers,” he said.
People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said the ULA would be campaigning vigorously for a No vote in villages, towns and cities around the country ahead of polling day. “The only weapon the Government has in this campaign is fear and that’s the one they intend to deploy,” he said. He accused the German and French governments, and the ECB, of demanding “that the big banks of Europe be protected”.
Socialist TD Joe Higgins predicted what he described as “the usual attempt” by the Government and media to portray those on the left of the political spectrum as anti-European.
“We will show that we are the real Europeans in the sense of standing up for the ordinary working people of Greece, Portugal and Spain. We are standing with our fellow European working people,” Mr Higgins said. He said the ULA was “bitterly opposed” to the “dictatorship” of the financial markets, adding that it was “scandalous” that elected governments “fall down on their face in worship” in front of the markets.
People Before Profit TD Joan Collins said she wanted to “denounce” the treaty as “democratic sham” which aimed to put budgetary policy into the hands of “unelected EU institutions”.
