English
DiEM25’s online art auction: A new way of funding democratic movements and a new relationship between participatory politics and art
, 31/01/2019
DiEM25 is changing the way we do politics and fund our campaigns. From our first day, we declared that we shall not be receiving money from bankers, Brussels, oligarchs and assorted vested interests – that we would struggle with whatever funding our activists could provide from their meagre resources. Today, faced with the uphill struggle of participating […]
A radical new vision for the World Bank and the IMF – op-ed with David Adler, in The Guardian
, 31/01/2019
The president of the World Bank, Jim Yong Kim, will step down on 1 February – three and a half years before the end of his term – in search of greener pastures. His readiness to resign from the leadership of one the two most powerful international institutions is a worrying omen. But it is also an […]
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 […]
“Politics means leadership, not only giving people what they want. You have to convince them to get out of our national box” – EURACTIV
, 29/01/2019
Yanis Varoufakis, the Spitzenkandidat for the EUROPEAN SPRING, set up by DiEM25, told EURACTIV Germany that: “If the European Left were united, coherent and civilised, we wouldn’t have created Diem25, we’d have joined them. Now we are running against them, which is very painful to us,” the former Greek finance minister told EURACTIV Germany in an interview. In the interview, […]
“Ich bin stolz auf die Dämonisierung” – Deutsche Welle
, 29/01/2019
In der Finanzkrise zog er den Zorn europäischer Sparpolitiker und heimischer Eliten auf sich. Jetzt will Yanis Varoufakis selbst nach Brüssel. Im Interview mit der Deutschen Welle spricht er über seine Vision für die EU. Als Finanzminister Griechenlands verhandelte Yanis Varoufakis während der Finankrise 2015 – ohne Erfolg. Nach seinem Rücktritt gründete der Ökonom die paneuropäische […]
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. […]
DiEM25 & the EUROPEAN SPRING event on austerity, xenophobia, the euro and the environment – Thu 24/1, Berlin
, 20/01/2019
With xenophobic and authoritarian forces rising across the EU, societies in stagnation levels, and climate catastrophe on the horizon, it’s time to stop what we’re doing and rethink. The EUROPEAN SPRING, that will be contesting the May 2019 European elections in 11 countries, brings together politicians and activists to give a new, European perspective on these critical issues. Program: […]
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 […]
Mrs Merkel’s Athens visit, her fall from grace and Greece’s demand for war reparations – on BBC Radio 4
, 12/01/2019
Over the past two days, Mrs Merkel was in Athens on a victory lap to celebrate her successful subjugation of the Syriza government and the subsequent extension of the Greeks’ debt bondage. Nevertheless, even this subservient Greek government managed to upset her victory lap by mentioning the… war and the reparations the Greeks will continue to demand for the […]
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 […]
Discussing my candidacy for the European Parliament in… Germany – on Dissens
, 06/01/2019
Please jump to 1’20” for the English version part.
Realistic Utopias versus Dystopic Realities – Oxford University, Taylor Lecture, 12/2/2019
, 22/12/2018
The Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, Oxford University, kindly invited me to deliver the 2019 Taylor Lecture on 12th February 2019. In my book was addressed to my daughter regarding the economy I tried to offer her a simple, though not simplistic, account on how capitalism works and how it fails. Critics, correctly, pointed out that the book’s […]
Talking Brexit, Bernie and Left Internationalism with Yanis Varoufakis – VICE
, 22/12/2018
Varoufakis talks to us about what he’s planning with the veteran US politician, why Jeremy Corbyn has been slow to support his campaigning efforts in Europe, and whether it’s possible for the UK to “remain and reform” inside the EU. VICE: Can you start by telling me about your trip over to the US. What […]
On our efforts to unite progressives in Europe and internationally: A Buzzfeed News Long Read
, 22/12/2018
OXFORD, England — A police van smuggled Steve Bannon past protesters in Oxford last month, a stop on a promotional tour for his new project to boost “populist nationalism” across Europe. Bannon’s speech at the Oxford Union, a grand debate hall that has hosted the likes of Albert Einstein and Mother Teresa, made headlines across […]
Launch of Generation-s & European Spring in Paris, 6 DEC 2018
, 14/12/2018
Onwards with DiEM25-Generation-s-EUROPEAN SPRING and our New Deal for Europe
DiEM25’s European New Deal plan can succeed where Macron and Piketty failed – The Guardian
, 14/12/2018
If Brexit demonstrates that leaving the EU is not the walk in the park that Eurosceptics promised, Emmanuel Macron’s current predicament proves that blind European loyalism is, similarly, untenable. The reason is that the EU’s architecture is equally difficult to deconstruct, sustain and reform. While Britain’s political class is, rightly, in the spotlight for having made a mess […]
Our progressive internationalism – The Nation
, 14/12/2018
On November 25, at a hip “event loft” in Berlin, Yanis Varoufakis announced that he’d be campaigning for office in two countries at once. In the spring, the former Greek finance minister had declared his intention to run for prime minister back home in Athens—and in ordinary times, that might have been enough. Today, though, “discontent, xenophobia, […]
“Why we need a Progressive International”. With Christiane Amanpour on CNN Int
, 14/12/2018
Western democracies in chaos: In the face of divisive nationalist movements, DiEM25 co-founder and former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis wants the world’s progressives to fight for democratic rights and an International Green New Deal. Here he explains why. Source: CNN