WEBVTT

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Hello.

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This is Yanis Varoufakis
with an end of the year message

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on behalf of
everyone at DiEM25,

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our pan European
Democracy in Europe Movement,

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to all of you.

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This year's festivities
come in the midst

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of a genocide that
will stigmatise a

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whole generation.

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Yes.

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At this time of year,
like throughout

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the year, we must
look after our loved ones,

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celebrate their
achievements,

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take care of our nearest
and dearest who

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need our attention.

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But we can't celebrate
freely while thousands

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of children are being
slaughtered in the

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Holy Land with the
full complicity of

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our European Union.

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Our leaders from Von
der Leyen to Olaf Scholz

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and Manuel Macron, even
the European Party of the Left,

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are being
criminally complicit.

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And, by the way, so are
we by associatio, 

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to the extent that
we let them.

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Ever since the seventh
of October, when Hamas

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broke out of the Gaza
prison camp, as every

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Palestinian has a duty
to, but with acts of

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atrocious violence that
can never be justified.

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Since then, the entire
European political class

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has behaved as
morally superior to

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both Palestinians
and Israelis,

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when in truth,

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it was Europe that
has been responsible

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for centuries long
antisemitism,

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for the holocaust.

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And since the 1920’s, the Nakba,

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the steady, systematic
ethnic cleansing of

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Palestinians, an ethnic
cleansing, which today

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unfolds as a fully
fledged genocide.

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By not intervening to stop the
slaughter in Gaza,

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in the West Bank, but also
in Yemen, in Ukraine,

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in Syria, in Kashmir,

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Europe is proving that
human rights are to us

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that which the Bible
was to the Spanish inquisition,

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a cover, a veneer of ethicality

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with which to cover up
our European settler

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imperialist society's
utter brutality.

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We, Europeans,
have lost sight of

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a terrible fact.

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Human rights are
precisely that which

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Europe and the United
States never intended

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to grant the oppressed.

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To those who needed them,

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in the Middle East, in Africa, in Asia,

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but also in our depressed
working class areas

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in Europe, in Britain,
in the United States,

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in the West.

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The whole Western litany
about human rights is a sham.

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It is only an excuse
to bomb, to shoot,

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and to violate
those who actually

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need human rights.

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And to do this to
them while pretending

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that we're somehow
morally superior.

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What is happening today
in Gaza, in Kashmir,

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in Yemen, in Syria, in
Nagorno Karabakh, will

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determine our capacity
as Europeans to live

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freely in our own
countries in Europe.

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To live without fear of
oppression or indignity

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here in Greece, in
Germany, in France,

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in Spain, in Portugal, in
Britain, in Ireland.

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As Julian Assange
continues to rot away

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in solitary in Britain's
Guantanamo for having

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dared to expose to
us the crimes of our

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governments committed
in our name against our

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interest, our right to
know has been shattered.

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While the European Union
continues to fund the

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few who have more money
than they know what to do with,

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while starving
the many and refusing

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to fund the green
transition without which

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there will be no future.

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Our own societies
are being poisoned

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spiritually, and our
species' survival

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becomes less likely.

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With the toxification
of our politics and

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our planet proceeding
so swiftly, it is

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easy to lose hope,
to give up, no longer

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to look up, but this
is not inevitable.

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DiEM25 proves,
by our very

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existence, our activism
that a democratic,

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compassionate, and
radically progressive

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Europe is not just
possible, but that it

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is here in DiEM25, in
our political parties, MERA25,

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here in Greece,
in Germany, in Italy,

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soon in other countries.

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Next June, Europe is
going to be staging

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another sham European
parliament election.

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We, DiEM25 and MERA25,
our political parties,

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are going to be running,
not because the European Parliament

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can change
anything in itself,

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but because your voice must
resonate in its chamber.

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It must be amplified
in there so that it can

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be heard loud and clear
out there across Europe.

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So that our voices,
your voices, can expose

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our rulers' lies and
hypocrisy.

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To resonate in there as a first
step towards liberating

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your voices so that
they can together become

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a surge of reason and
humanism, a surge that

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reclaims our continent,
our countries, our

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cities, our villages,
our neighborhoods.

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From whom?

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From the oligarchy, who
feast on humanity and

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nature in the interest
of profit and, of course,

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from exporting
arms, weapons to

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their former colonies.

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In this struggle to
raise hell in the

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European Parliament
on behalf of heaven

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and, therefore, to
save our souls, our

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species, our planet.

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We need your help.

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Your support has been
central, essential

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in keeping DiEM25
alive in terms of our

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operations, the spirit
of our democracy,

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our mission, our campaign.

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DiEM25 has been, for
years now, fueled

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by uncommon people
like your good self,

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people who demand a
different peace loving Europe.

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A Europe whose
prosperity is common

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and divorced from
the logic of profit.

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For that, our resolve
and our commitment

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must walk hand in hand.

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Only so will we turn
this bogus sham of

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an election for the
European Parliament

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into a useful campaign.

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Our political parties,
MERA25, are geared

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to do exactly that.

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So on this holiday
season, we ask you to

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stand with us again.

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Your contribution can
make all the difference.

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Together, we can bring
DiEM25's message, voice,

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to the floor of the
European Parliament.

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That won't change Europe
by itself, but it will

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give Europeans a chance,
a shot at reclaiming

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the right to know and to
be heard, an important

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opportunity to empower
the many, not the few.

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In the process, and
since this is the

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festive season, let me
add that as DiEM25

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has proven in
all our get togethers,

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we can do this.

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We can do what is
right by Europeans

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and by the world and
by the planet while

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having fun as well.

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So a happy holiday
season for everyone.

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Carpe diem.