Skip to content. | Skip to navigation

Personal tools
Sections
You are here: Home Breaking news 'Danny the Red' brings down the curtain on 20 years as Euro-MP

'Danny the Red' brings down the curtain on 20 years as Euro-MP

16 April 2014, 18:35 CET
— filed under: ,

(STRASBOURG) - Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the firebrand May 1968 student leader in France who then made Germany's Greens the world's most powerful environmental party, brought down the curtain Wednesday on 20 years as a Member of the European Parliament.

In a typically fiery parting speech that won a standing ovation, the European Parliament's impish Greens leader reiterated that "we need a federal Europe", that "nations are dead" and that "we must fight eurosceptics whether rightwingers or left."

After four five-year mandates in a parliament often decried for its lack of action and accountability, Cohn-Bendit is not running for re-election May 25, saying he is growing old and will concentrate instead on football -- travelling to Rio for the World Cup and making a film.

Known as "Danny the Red" for both his hair and his ideas, the now wispy white-haired 69-year-old has long been one of the most outspoken and provocative voices in the parliament.

"We will miss you," said political opponents Martin Schulz, the speaker who heads the Socialist group, and Joseph Daul, leader of the conservative European People's Party (EPP).

It was Cohn-Bendit who in 2011 helped bring a stormy end to Hungary's tumultuous six-month EU presidency, calling premier Viktor Orban "a dictator" to his face and demanding he respect European democratic standards.

"The European Union is not a doormat for wiping your feet," he said.

- Blunt talker -

Known for his blunt talk, he slammed German reluctance to support a debt rescue for Greece in 2010 as "politically very stupid" and "rather incomprehensible when you consider that two of the largest Greek creditors are German banks."

A stalwart defender of Europe's role in maintaining post-war peace, he urged EU leaders last month to boycott the 2018 World Cup in Russia over Vladimir Putin's actions in Crimea.

On Wednesday he had harsh words for nations who put their interests ahead of Ukraine's.

"Europe's common interests in Ukraine are not those of Germany," he said, referring to the concerns of German engineering group Siemens which has sizeable investments in Russia.

"Ukraine is fighting for freedom," he said. "If we abandon Ukraine, others will follow."

But the dour looks on some faces during his farewell speech were a reminder some had not forgotten his biting words and sharp tongue.

When European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso announced the much-awaited make-up of his 27-person team in the midst of the euro-crisis in 2010, the Greens leader retorted:

"Mr Barroso has promised a commission that will be more than the sum of its individual parts but the addition of several zeros cannot provide a positive result.

"We are faced with a commission that has no vision and no determination," he added.

Born into a German-Jewish family in France on April 4, 1945, Cohn-Bendit hit the headlines as a student leader during the May 1968 protests that helped send Charles de Gaulle into retirement.

Discovering the radical leader had German nationality, De Gaulle promptly expelled him.

Ever the iconoclast, Cohn-Bendit later espoused free market policies while still insisting on social solidarity, and fought for the environment while steering clear of the purists.

He remains a convinced pro-European, with a strong allergy to nation-states and nationalism.

"Europe is the future for our children," he said in his departure speech.

"In 30 years it will be China and India in the G8, not Germany, unless it is there as part of a federal Europe."


Document Actions