Liana Kanelli is a Communist Party (KKE) member of the Greek Parliament.

She is a member of three parliamentary committees: National Defense and Foreign Affairs, Institutions and Transparency, and Road Safety. She is also a member of the Council of Europe, the Western European Union, and the Greek Committee of the International Peace Council (EEDYE).

Kanelli has worked as a journalist for the past 35 years and, in 1997, she founded the political, cultural and historical monthly review, "NEMECIS" which was published until 2011. An active public figure, she has been elected onto various journalists’ union bodies, and has received awards for her social activism and work combating racism.

An outspoken, popular figure, Kanelli spoke to Empire in Athens about how Brussels and Berlin are "imposing and blackmailing politics" and how Greece was misled into joining the euro.

In this extended interview, she expresses her thoughts about the politics of the European Union and Greece's place in it.

View more on www.aljazeera.com/empire