“What I will wish for in 100 years is that Europe does not become dark-skinned by force.” This shocking statement was not made by some far-right politician but by former PASOK MP, minister, and European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities (1999-2004), Anna Diamantopoulou.
She stunned some of the audience when she made such statements at a panel of the annual conference of the “Circle of Ideas” a think tank.
After talking about a “difficult and shocking trip to 3 African countries, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Ghana, which are incredibly poor” with no development prospects, the former EU commissioner hastened in a dramatic tone to point out that “but 80% of their population is under 35 years old.”
“Nigeria alone in 2045 will have 400 million, i.e. more than Europe” the ex Commissioner said and spoke of countries that have no development prospects and are “full of young people who have nothing to do and nothing to eat.”
Reactions
“I wonder if she thought to talk about the exploitation of their natural resources by others, colonialism and make a more coherent presentation of the historical reality,” commented Lefteris Papagiannakis, Director of the Hellenic Council for Refugees, on a post at news website parallaximag.gr.
“She probably didn’t want to spoil the punch line by linking immigration to violence and making a well-chosen indirect reference to population replacement theories with a crudely racist comment about “dark Europe,” he ironically added.
“She speaks like a representative of colonialism and tribalism of the 19th century” commented Alexis Haritsis, a SYRIZA MP, on a post on X/Titter.
(1/2)Χτες η κ. Διαμαντοπούλου, σε δημόσια εκδήλωση, ευχήθηκε να μη γίνει η Ευρώπη «σκουρόχρωμη».Απορώ ειλικρινά αν αυτό έμαθε από τη θητεία της επι μακρόν σε ευρωπαικούς οργανισμούς: να μιλάει σαν εκπρόσωπος της αποικιοκρατίας και του φυλετισμού του 19ου αιώνα.
Αλλά πέρα από αυτό pic.twitter.com/Rhqbr3SKyG— Αλέξης Χαρίτσης (@alexischaritsis) November 7, 2023
“I honestly wonder if this is what she learned from her long term in European organizations: to speak like a representative of colonialism and tribalism of the 19th century.”
“Such logic is the blood donors of the extreme right. The normalization of racism, the instrumentalization of insecurity, the inability to meaningfully discuss global inequalities leads there. And this is not changed by any vows to “European modernization.”
She scared the public playing with conservative reflexes and insecurities cultivated in the last years with the Mitsotakis government to have reduced its migration policy to the Evros fence, noted daily avgi.gr
It should be recalled that not long ago, Anna Diamantopoulou was “flirting” with New Democracy that was promoting her for a high-ranking position at the OECD.