Recorded at the 6th DiEM25 Academy in Prague, this fishbowl-style discussion takes on one of the most difficult questions facing our movement: how can DiEM25 speak credibly about peace, security and anti-militarism in Eastern Europe?
Since the escalation of Russia's war on Ukraine, DiEM25's anti-NATO position has faced deep suspicion across former Eastern Bloc and non-EU European countries, where NATO and EU membership are often understood not as abstract geopolitical choices, but as protection against Russian domination. Participants from Poland, Romania, Hungary, North Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Belgium and beyond bring their own histories into the room: memories of state socialism, the trauma of post-1989 neoliberal shock therapy, inequality, national humiliation, propaganda, and the lived experience of being caught between empires.
The conversation moves beyond the false binary of NATO versus Russia. It asks how the Left can reject both Putin's imperialism and NATO's militarised order without sounding naïve, indifferent or detached from the fears of people in the region. Speakers discuss "campism", polarisation, the failures of Western left messaging, and the need to connect anti-war politics to everyday struggles: falling living standards, social cuts, privatisation and the enrichment of elites on all sides.
What emerges is a call for a third option: not submission to NATO, not accommodation with Russian power, but a democratic European security architecture based on diplomacy, treaties, dialogue, class solidarity and the shared interests of people across borders.
A necessary, uncomfortable and deeply honest conversation about what anti-war politics must become if it is to mean anything in Europe today.
Brasil