Former Greek Finance mini­ster Yanis Varoufakis has been elected to lead the list of a new German political party in the European Parli­ament elections next year. 

“It is an honour that I accept humbly. I accept it because my candidacy sym­bolises the end of the North-South divide,” Varoufakis told a press conference in Berlin on Sunday following the inauguration of Demokratie in Europa, a German party set up by the Democracy in Europe Movement (DiEM25) as part of a trans-national electoral effort aim­ing at radical restructuring and democratisation of the European Union. 

Mynd: DiEM25

Yanis Varoufakis became the sym­bol of Europe’s anti-austerity movem­ent when he confronted Greece’s creditors and the ‘Troika’ in 2015. He was hig­hly critical of the economic policies pus­hed by Berlin during the eurozone crisis and has lamba­sted for­mer finance mini­ster of Germany, Wolfgang Schäuble, for “turn­ing the eurozone into an iron cage of austerity that is the very antit­hesis of a democratic federation”. 

While tirel­essly criticising the structural framework of the eurozone, Varoufakis describes him­self as a radical European­ist and ins­ists that the EU project should be refor­med, not abando­ned. 

“Our position, ther­efore, toward
the EU is: In the EU, aga­inst this EU!”

“Dis­m­ant­ling the EU would come at an exor­bit­ant cost to the weakest Europeans,” he tells Stundin. “This is why our movem­ent, DiEM25, was set up to oppose, at once, the EU esta­bl­is­h­ment and the disintegrationists who are calling for an exit from the EU either for nationalist rea­sons or as part of a left-wing narrative to reclaim democratic control. Our position, ther­efore, toward the EU is: In the EU, aga­inst this EU! - a position that we propose to def­end in practice by means of constructive disobedience: constructive proposals seeking moderation and unflinching disobedience to austerity and aut­horit­arian policies.”

When asked what he considers the great challenges for European progressi­ves in the 21st century, Varoufakis replies: “Our greatest challenge is how to prevent ourselves from being crushed from the right by the racist Right and from the so-called centre by the increasingly aut­horit­arian pseudo-liberal esta­bl­is­h­ment whose policies fuel the inequality and discontent that… reinforce the racist Right.”

Mynd: Wikimedia / Jörg Rüger

Varoufakis told the press conference on Sunday that the new party, Demokratie in Europa, had put forward a solid, comprehensive propo­sal of how to address Europe’s systemic crisis. “We call it a Green New Deal for Europe: a realistic, credible, rational and immedi­ately implem­enta­ble policy agenda for the whole of Europe.”

When asked about the Green New Deal and the viability of left-Key­nes­i­an­ism in the age of climate change, Varoufakis points out that climate change can only be properly addressed by mobil­is­ing massive resources to fund the green transition of our economy and society. 

“Nothing less than 5% of GDP annu­ally will do the trick. The question is: Where will the money come from? John Maynard Keynes, as well as the Roosevelt administration’s economists, had an excellent idea: Mobilise the idle cash of the idle rich not through taxes but through project bonds. Where Keynes is antiquated, but can easily be brought up to date, is that this cannot happen at the level of the nation-state. But it can happen at the international level.”

This, he says, is why DiEM25 is calling for a coordinated Green New Deal invol­v­ing coordinated large-scale bond issues by all European public invest­ment banks. “Meanwhile, our central banks stand by in the secondary bond market ready to buy these bonds if their inter­est rates begin to rise. In this manner, we will have a war chest of 5% of GDP to unle­ash aga­inst climate change. Once we have this, we can begin sensi­bly to talk about, and to fund, the import­ant changes that need to be introduced in our daily life.”

But will it ever be possi­ble to win mass supp­ort among the working and middle classes for radical action aga­inst climate change? Varoufakis beli­eves so.

“First, we need to offer vot­ers a realistic program. The Green New Deal that I sketched out is an example. However, we need to go further, as you say, in the direction of convincing the poor and the disenfranchised that green policies are good for them, not just good for polar bears and for the flora. This we can most certainly achieve if we use, for example, a carbon tax to fund social housing and education in supp­ort of the weaker citizens. Such a policy mix, that can turn the working class into committed environ­menta­lists, is what DiEM25 has been working upon, lea­d­ing to our European New Deal policy agenda.”

“We need to convince the poor and 
the disenfranchised that green
policies are good for them, not just good
for polar bears and for the flora”

As an EU citizen who has res­idential address in Germany, Varoufakis meets the conditions to stand as candidate there. While contesting the European Parli­ament elections in Germany next May, Varoufakis will continue to lead the Greek branch of DiEM25, MeRA25, and plans to campaign across Europe as a potential Spitzenkandidat. 

“The EU will either be democratised or it will dis­in­tegrate,” he tells Stundin. “And if, in the end, it does dis­in­tegrate only the forces of neo-fascism will be strengt­hened across the continent.“