Petition: We all are Icelanders

Dear Icelandic friends,

Let me share with you a few reactions to your current fight against the outrageous blackmail of the British and Dutch governments regarding the debts of the failed Icelandic banks.

First of all, you are right to resist the demands of London and The Hague. Those two countries’ regulators have failed to properly monitor the banks acting on their territories (and both have been obliged to pour billions to rescue their own national ’banking champions’). And if unfortunately British and Dutch customers have been caught up into the Icelandic private banks collapse, it is primary an issue for the British and Dutch authorities which allow them to do so on such a large scale.

Second, London and The Hague have no moral right to blackmail you about the accession of your country to the EU. I am certain that they do not even have the support of their own citizens for such a shameful action. You are yourselves put into a tragic economic and social situation because of these private banks collapse. The EU was not created to put people into financial servitude, neither to push them into greater poverty. Quite the contrary! The more you case will be made public in the EU, the less London and The Hague will be able to defend their current position. And in any case, membership to the EU is not worth the price of decades of financial servitude. The European Parliament should vote as soon as possible to deny London and The Hague’s blackmail about your accession.

Third, your country has no more, no less obligations than what the European regulations plan in the case of private banks collapse. And till it happens in your country, nothing was really planned for that kind of situation. So play by the European books, if any, and nothing more. And do not hesitate to underline that Mr Brown and Mr. Balkenende did not dare to ask Washington to compensate for all the losses incurred by their citizens in the Lehman Brothers collapse. So no reason to have a different treatment for Iceland! Once again, the EU is made for putting the small and the big countries on an equal footing in terms of rights. Something the Dutch people are certainly very conscious and which may get you a very benevolent attitude from them.

Fourth, don’t bend to the ’bankers’ kind of attitude that both London and The Hague are having. They do act with you as if they were a bank managing a mortgage : what’s their next step if you refuse their ultimatum? Foreclosing Iceland and expelling you out of your country? Don’t forget that it is not only in Iceland that people are fed up with the banks’ behaviour. All over Europe and the world, and in UK in particular where the City is increasingly felt as a threat to people well being, feelings are turning very sour towards the banking establishment and its political puppets. So do resist and you will find support from everywhere.

Last but not least, if you want to play it safe, just do as the British governments always do with the EU, just say that you will comply, and once inside the EU do exactly the contrary of what you said. It has less panache, but it is definitely very effective.

In any case, to prove that all Europeans are not like the British and Dutch governments, Newropeans is launching a petition called « We all are Icelanders, fed up with paying for banks failures » and aiming at gathering popular support for you resistance to the current outrageous ’financial order ’: