Together with hundreds of MPs from all over the world, I signed the letter submitted by Senator Bernie Sanders to the leaders of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to ask these financial institutions to annul, cancel, eliminate the debt of low-income countries, as a necessary and urgent response to the global crisis of COVID-19.
I signed this letter with conviction, because for us, humanists the protection of life is far superior to economic interests. Today, in a world where large financial conglomerates continue to strengthen, while millions of people live in the anguish of not being able to feed their families, it is essential to put all our efforts to protect those who are most affected by these two pandemics, the health pandemic due to the expansion of the virus and the terrible social pandemic due to the increase in unemployment, precariousness and hunger.
I urge all humanists in the world to join this initiative, inviting their governments to ask for the total cancellation of the debts of those countries that cannot afford to pay. Today ALL resources must be destined to cover the needs of millions of desperate people and not a single dollar must be diverted into the pockets of the world financial system.
Many MPs participated in this initiative, which was signed among others by former British Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn, by Ricardo Monreal, majority leader in the Mexican Senate, by Golriz Ghahraman, member of the Green Party Aotearoa New Zealand, by the French MP Jean-Luc Mélénchon, by Adam Bandt, leader of the Australian Greens, by members of the Israeli Knesset Ofer Cassif, Aida Touma-Sliman and Ayman Odeh, by Maya Fernández Allende, nephew of Salvador Allende and by Colombian senator Gustavo Petro.
Translated from Italian by Ilaria Cuppone
