An interview with Marc Botenga by David Broder (Jacobin). Last week’s elections produced grim results for the Left across most of the continent. But in Belgium, the Workers’ Party made a historic breakthrough.

The global economic cramp is particularly badly digested by the European Union and by the central project of European unification, the monetary union in particular. This has led to an existential crisis of the union itself, with as provisional highlights the Greek drama and the British exit. In this article, we will drill for the foundations of this unique project and the causes of the instability in the 21st century.

In 1917, a hundred years ago, two revolutions took place in Russia: one in February and the other in October. The first led to the abdication of the tsar, Russia’s absolute monarch, to a separation of the Church and the State and to universal suffrage. The second, carried out by the people to the slogan of “Bread, Peace and Land”, brought the seizing of power by the Communists (called the Bolsheviks).

The crisis of the political center has given the Workers' Party of Belgium a new lease on life.