The Marginalised “Others”: Social Patterns of Inclusion and Exclusion in Europe during the Financial Crisis Vis-à-Vis Social Injustice and Violence

The proposed paper is based on empirical research curried out in the period 2013-2016 in the frame of a research project commonly carried out in Greece and Germany and financed by the German Government. Starting point of the paper’s considerations is the assumption that the foundation of all European legal order is the European citizen himself and his protection by all means. Leading European figures, among them the President of the European Central Bank Mr. Mario Draghi in his speech on the occasion of awarding him the De Gasperi Price, urgently warn European leaders to take concrete action against raising social inequalities which challenge in the long run the European welfare state and social cohesion in Europe. Leaving aside the fact that these trends will surely be further boosted by migration to Europe, one observes that during the financial crisis the principle of solidarity (in the very terms of “fraternité”), suffered a lot under common state action in terms of austerity measures. Against this background research carried out makes evident that the future of Europe very much depend on reducing social inequality. As a matter of fact, social inequality strengthens all forms of populism and far-right political movements, threatening, thus, the European legal order and the European project as such. Based on project results the paper finally formulates basic policy recommendations. Methodologically seen, research is based on different types of materials, i.e. parliamentary debates, newspapers articles, transcribed semi-structured interviews, etc., subjected to a computer-aided content analysis (Atlas-ti software).