Bebbe Grillo:Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal and France could create a "cartel" against Berlin.

“They are telling us that the European economy is in recovery because the reforms are working. And the government has been celebrating the 0.1% growth in GDP in the first quarter of 2015 as a trophy. The reality is, however, that: - since 2010, our GDP has lost 10 points;- since the beginning of the crisis about 100 thousand companies have gone bust with the loss of more than a million jobs, and out of every hundred young people, fifty are without a job.

And (as we hope others will do), we can examine the state of our country in terms of the index called “Benessere Equo e Sostenibile” {Equitable and Sustainable Well-being} instead of using the Gross Domestic Product, and we become aware of a drama that is ever more ferocious. In this tragic recessionary vortex, the countries that have suffered the greatest setback are those in Southern Europe: as well as Italy, there’s Greece, Spain and Portugal. The economists all over the world and a few German hacks have called us “PIGS“. After depriving us of our future, they have insulted us in the media.

Today we are at a crossroads.. The first round lost by Alexis Tsipras against the Troika, demonstrates that for Berlin, Brussels and Frankfurt there is no alternative to “austerity Europe”. This is confirmed by Renzi’s “Jobs Act” and the growing amount of trickery he’s coming up with.

It’ll be difficult to get out of this trap, but it is possible if we manage to build an alliance among the Mediterranean countries that can break the logic of German mercantilism. Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal and France - together - represent the third biggest economy in the world. We could create a "cartel" and get greater contractual power with Berlin. 

Someone has already done it before us: the countries of ALBA, formed in 2001 as an alternative to The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) that was what the United States wanted. The political principles and the concept of social cooperation that the countries of Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Cuba have signed up to, can be our source of inspiration to fight the domineering and neo-liberal process at the basis of the endless crisis in the West. They’ve had the FTAA, and soon, we’ll have TTIP.

Today there are movements and parties not delegitimized by years of power and of compromising with the corporate-financial lobbies that can, or must, start to think of a new supportive Community that can reject the diktats of the Troika. The dawn of a new Europe is close at hand: a great Euro-Mediterranean alliance of sovereign States that can give back freedom, civilisation, sovereignty and democracy to our own people. Something that can ensure no one is left behind.

We continue to work to take this project forward - it’s a key project in our manifesto for the European elections, and we are discussing this for the first time today, 13 March 2015, in the new Chamber of “Palazzo dei Gruppi”.
The time has come for us to take action!” M5S parliament