Open letter from the European Water Movement on the Greek elections
Brussels, 19 january 2015.
Greece will vote for a new government this week. These elections are a great opportunity to reverse years of austerity and unfair measures imposed over Greek people by the Troika. Among those measures, the privatization of water services, challenged by a great mobilization of Greek civil society and now blocked by justice.
Despite the international scaremongering campaign run by the supporters of the Troika, the European Water Movement calls on all social movements and civil society to stand up against this interference. The Greek people are sovereign to choose their own government and those parties that oppose austerity and want to run policies based on principles of social equity, focused on people's rights and the defense of the public and commons. The European Water Movement also calls especially on those candidates that have campaigned for the Human Right to Water and against privatization of water in Greece and at European level for accomplishing with their position statements.
We encourage the future government to be the first country in Europe to apply the Human Right to Water and Sanitation, as defined and declared by the United Nations, and as supported by over 1,9 millions citizens in Europe in the European Citizen's Initiative on the Right to Water.
Ensuring the Human Right to Water in Greece, the country most affected by the Troika, would be a groundbreaking message. And an encouraging signal not only for the Greek people, but also for those across Europe and globally that are opposing water privatisation, designing viable alternatives to it and defend water as a commons and a human right and not as a commodity.
In solidarity,
European Water Movement