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It is crunch time in the European Union. The cold putsch against the Syriza government was designed to put a stop to potential progressive reforms at the EU level; the referendum on Brexit threatens to lead to further EU exits; and under pressure from many states, the European Union is treating war refugees from the Middle East inhumanely and working with NATO to keep them out. The political elites in the member states and in Brussels need to decide between abandoning their subservience to financial capitalism and pursuing an increasingly authoritarian style of governance. The choice is between social democracy and authoritarian executivism. Currently, it seems as though governments would rather govern to the detriment of their citizens than reduce the profit rates of financial capital. The Five Presidents’ Report describes a strategy aimed at doing just this, and the European left would be well advised to have developed a coherent response to it by 2017.
