DiEM25 UK
“Brexit, for all its ills, has reinvigorated British democracy” – Cambridge Union address, 8 NOV 2019
, 11/11/2019
Last Friday (8th November 2019), I delivered a Cambridge Union address on (what else?) Brexit. My opening message was: “Instead of moaning about the state of British institutions, rejoice! For all its many ills, Brexit has reinvigorated British democracy.” Unlike most continental European parliaments, the House of Commons remains at the heart of decision making and, […]
Caroline Lucas & Yanis Varoufakis search for what went wrong with democracy – THE BIG ISSUE
, 21/10/2019
The Green Party MP and the MeRA25 leader journey from democracy’s inception through the tumultuous Brexit period and through to the year 2035 There’s chaos on the streets of Westminster as the activists of Extinction Rebellion bring traffic to a standstill to highlight the urgency of action on the climate crisis. If the old democracy […]
Progressive Internationalism & why a Corbyn government is the only cure for a terrible Brexit – openDemocracy video interview
, 21/10/2019
At this year’s The World Transformed, we caught up with some of the key figures in the movement for a new economy and politics. In the grand finale of our exclusive series, Yanis Varoufakis speaks to ourEconomy about Brexit, the coming UK general election, a constitutional assembly for Britain, and his agenda of a new Bretton Woods, public […]
Boris is doing a troika, not a Varoufakis – IRISH EXAMINER
, 27/08/2019
ATHENS – Ever since Boris Johnson moved into 10 Downing Street vowing to re-negotiate the United Kingdom’s withdrawal agreement with the European Union, the conventional wisdom among many Brexit opponents has been that the UK’s new prime minister is “doing a Varoufakis” and will be crushed in similar fashion. The BBC’s Katya Adler reported from […]
IQ Squared presents Yanis Varoufakis and Brian Eno on Money, Power and a Call for Radical Change – London, 4th November
, 09/08/2019
The liberal order is under threat. Increasing inequality, the rise of far-right nationalism and the climate emergency pose unprecedented challenges. It’s time for some radical thinking. On November 4th Intelligence Squared is bringing to its stage two of the world’s great radicals – Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister known for his trademark leather jacket, motorbike and […]
Jeremy Corbyn’s finest hour? IRISH EXAMINER (Project Syndicate)
, 31/07/2019
Jeremy Corbyn must expose Boris Johnson’s no-deal Brexit as a Trump-deal Brexit and put forward Labour’s plan to end the interminable Brexit ordeal immediately, suggests Yanis Varoufakis Boris Johnson is the first British prime minister in a long time who is free of dilemmas regarding his approach to the European Union. For better or worse, Johnson’s […]
What the Labour Party-DiEM25 collaboration is all about – speech by Yanis Varoufakis, now with video
, 18/07/2019
On Sunday 14th July, the Labour Party and DiEM25 leadership teams agreed to embark upon a common agenda for Europe and beyond. Later that day, the collaboration was announced at the closing plenary of the International Social Forum convened by the Labour Party at SOAS, London and opened by Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour […]
Since the Withdrawal Agreement cannot be re-negotiated before Brexit, only a stark General Election can clear the air – The Telegraph
, 05/06/2019
Theresa May’s sequence of strategic errors has rendered impossible a soft Brexit. By adopting red lines consistent solely with a hard Brexit, while denying herself the option of walking out without a deal, the Prime Minister engineered the current stalemate. Now, Mrs May is about to bequeath a poisoned chalice to her successor. The next […]
Should Jeremy Corbyn commit to a second referendum? The Independent
, 12/05/2019
Should Jeremy Corbyn adopt an unequivocal commitment to holding a second referendum? Under normal circumstances, it should be an easy question to answer: democrats who think of referendums as a useful injection of direct democracy into our system of representative government, should be in favour. And those who are sceptical of referendums should be against. […]
DiEM25 and the European Parliament election in the UK: A proposal
, 23/04/2019
DiEM25 members are currently debating our collective stance viz. the European Parliament elections in the UK (that, remarkably, may or may not take place). Since 2016, DiEM25 has been on the right side of history regarding Brexit. Our position was the result of a boisterous internal dialogue and a series of all-member votes that have […]
FT Alphachat 28 MAR 2019: On Democracy, Europe, the UK and Greece
, 05/04/2019
Alphaville’s Jemima Kelly and Izabella Kaminska sat down with Yanis Varoufakis, former finance minister of Greece and current organiser of a trans-European group, DiEM25, of what he calls “radical Europeanists” — in favour of union, without deflation or austerity. Mr Varoufakis answers criticism from the left, pointing out that even if the euro or the […]
Brexit: On May’s mistakes and the best road ahead – Financial Times video
, 31/03/2019
Sharing a taxi with the FT to give my view on how Prime Minister Theresa May undermined herself – and on the steps that must be taken next. https://www.ft.com/video/01aef2cb-81b9-4dbb-9f8b-85a0c9559097
BBC Question Time, Sheffield 27th March 2019
, 31/03/2019
“Britain needs a People’s Debate on its business model and its Constitution independently of how Brexit pans out… The most sensible way would be for the UK to exit the EU but stay in both a Custom’s Union and the Single Market for an indefinite period (though not forever). After the People’s Debate is complete, […]
Why Norway plus gives Britain the time it needs to get out of its Brexit mess – op-ed in The Telegraph
, 27/03/2019
Brexit is, undeniably, important. The Prime Minister’s faulty negotiations have now turned what the majority of the British people considered an opportunity into a national crisis. However, now is perhaps the moment to reflect that, in an era of trade wars, geopolitical realignment and existential threats to our nations’ democracies, Brexit is not as important as we […]
A Speech of Hope for Britain – The NewStatesman, 20 MAR 2019
, 24/03/2019
The memory of past greatness can be debilitating for a people who feel they have failed to rise to a historic occasion. We Greeks have been burdened by this sensation at various moments in our postwar history: in 1967, when we failed to prevent a military coup; or more recently in 2015, when we allowed […]
Britain needs to choose its dominant Brexit strategy – The Telegraph
, 28/02/2019
Imagine that we knew the day of our death. Our lives would change drastically. Though we know we shall surely die, not knowing precisely when the mortal coil will be shuffled off makes all the difference, allowing us to live life productively on a day-by-day basis. For exactly the same reason, the fixed deadline embedded […]
Jeremy Corbyn’s necessary next step: A Speech of Hope for Britain – The Independent
, 31/01/2019
Britain’s prime minister has been remarkable in resolutely following a ruinous path that she keeps insisting remains the least perilous road to Brexit. Theresa May’s first crime against logic was to trigger Article 50 without a plan of what to do on 29 March 2019 if no deal had been struck with Brussels. Her second was to forfeit […]
Britain needs a People’s Debate, not a second Brexit referendum
, 24/01/2019
Britain is teetering on a knife’s edge: about to crash out of, or back into, the European Union. Either outcome would represent a defeat for democracy in the UK and in the EU. Crashing out would inflict substantial economic hardship on the weakest in Britain. It would boost jingoism and parochialism, drive England further apart […]
The Brexit clock must be run down, not re-set – op-ed
, 24/01/2019
The overwhelming defeat that Britain’s Parliament inflicted upon Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plan was fresh confirmation that there is no substitute for democracy. Members of Parliament deserve congratulations for keeping their cool in the face of a made-up deadline. That deadline is the reason why Brexit is proving so hard and potentially so damaging. […]
Turning Brexit Into a Celebration of Democracy – Project Syndicate op-ed, 26 DEC 2018
, 14/01/2019
Paradoxically, while the current Brexit impasse is pregnant with risk, the British should welcome it. Their discontent with the choices before them is an opportunity, not a curse, and more democracy is the antidote, not the disease. ATHENS – Discontent without end looms over Britain. Leavers and Remainers are equally despondent. Her Majesty’s Government and […]
At the Edinburgh Festival, in conversation with Jeremy Corbyn on reviving socialism, with Maria Alyokhina (Pussy Riot) on despotism, and with Shami Chakrabarti on liberty
, 08/01/2019
In 2018, the good people behind the Edinburgh Festival kindly invited me to host a series of discussions under the title KILLING DEMOCRACY? My remit was: Further to explore the question of whether the current form of financialised capitalism is devouring democracy, reflecting on my work with the Democracy in Europe Movement (DiEM25). In a series […]