Blair: Europe must stand with Greece
Former British premier speaks to Kathimerini about the challenges of the post-Covid era
In an interview with Kathimerini, former British prime minister Tony Blair talks about the rise of authoritarian populism, relations between Greece and the United Kingdom, Turkish aggression, the Western world versus China, and the outlook on Brexit.
I think you are right. For me it is about certain values of fairness, social justice and the belief in equality. These values are applied to the modern world based on reasonable evidence. This way of doing politics avoids the ideology of the left that sees collectivism and state power as an end in itself or the right that sees people not as part of society but individuals that struggle on their own. It believes in supporting and helping people but it does so in a way that is attuned to the modern world.
Today, for example, the single biggest challenge for Western politics is the technology revolution. It is more important than who owns what industry and old-fashioned tax and spend.
Modern politics should be first about ensuring that the fruits of this technology revolution are spread equally so people get opportunities and you don’t get this big digital divide. Secondly, you should make sure that you are using the technology to improve the quality of the services and what governments as well as the private sector could do. So, this politics has got strong values that are timeless but the policies have got to adjust to modern times. ‘I am very worried about what Turkey is doing in Libya… and also about the relationship between Turkey and Greece. And Europe’s got to make it quite clear that it stands with Greece in this,’ Tony Blair tells Kathimerini. those divisions, then it is really dangerous. I think that when people experience the populism of left and right, they realize what they have lost but recovery is hard… by it that they are not looking at other problems. We should not lose our focus on it. This is a big challenge and this is a challenge that Europe would have to respond to in a united way. we are a successful modern economy for the future. We have to invest massively in education in order to achieve this and we should have a relationship with Europe that is practical – so, for example, we might be out of the single market but we should be cooperating. We have huge interest in doing so in areas like defense and security. It is absolutely clear that Europe’s big challenge is how it deals with the instability that is coming out from the northern part of Africa. How can it deal with instability unless there is a common defense and security mechanism? Britain has an interest in aligning with Europe on that in policies. And also, I think there are lots of things we can do around science and technology, energy, climate change. These are all things where we can work closely with Europe. We must forge an identity in a way that we keep most of our independence but we cooperate strongly with Europe where it is in our interest to do so. That’s the way to make the best out of Brexit.
The time has come for the West as a whole – America and Europe – to take what I call a strategic view of China. Up to now we’ve been reacting to China in a narrow way. The result is individual policies that cannot be brought together in what I call a “strategic framework.” And here again pre-Covid there was an issue but post-Covid there’s going to be an even bigger issue. There’s no doubt that America has moved to a severely hostile position right now. In my view this strategic framework should be done by what I call three pillars – which are: confrontation when necessary, competition where it is inevitable, and cooperation where it is possible. There will be times when we should stand up to China and make very clear that we would defend our position, our interests and our values.