On the occasion of his election as the head of the German Democracy in Europe movement for the European elections, EUROPE met on Sunday 25 November with the former Greek Finance Minister and founder of the Diem 25 movement, Yanis Varoufakis. The latter presented the electoral strategy of his pan-European movement, discussed possible coalitions in the next European Parliament and gave his vision of the Brexit negotiations, at a time when a special European summit had just ended (see EUROPE 12145) (Lucas Tripoteau and Pascal Hansens)
Agence Europe - Why have you decided to head a list in Germany?
Yanis Varoufakis - First of all, our political movement, Diem25 or Democracy in Europe, was inaugurated in February 2016, here, in Berlin. This is not an accident.
It is indeed about the future of the EU. Nothing good is going to happen in Europe.
Germany is the powerhouse of Europe. We need to emphasise the importance of Germany in this transnational movement, in order to overcome the national divisions. So, we’ve decided to begin in Germany.
The struggle is not between France and Germany, North and South, East and West, but it is between forces of progress and authoritarians, either from the establishment or from the racist right.
Where will you run candidates throughout the EU?
We’re running in Greece, with Diem25, here [Germany] with Democracy in Europe as well as in France with our friends and colleagues of Génération.s. We also aim to run in Italy, as we’re about to create a political party. Also, in Portugal with LIVRE, in Denmark with Denmark Alternativet and in Poland with Razem.
And the list is going to grow as we’re moving towards May 2019.
What will be your strategy at the European Parliament? Do you aim to set up a group or to make the GUE/NGL group stronger?
Our aim is to form our own group, but at the same time we are trying to collaborate with anyone, on the programmatic and substantial basis, not on a personal or symbolic basis.
Anybody can play with us on our European ideas, which are in our political agenda.
Could you work with ‘Maintenant le peuple’, which has been founded by La France insoumise, Bloco and Podemos?
We can work with anyone that wants to have a discussion with us, about what must be done.
What we are not going to do, is stop using old-style politics, where people get together around the table and come to agreement.
What we have issued is an open call. I indeed wrote personally to Pablo Iglesias, to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, to Gregor Gysi, to all the progressives as well as to the Greens.
We have tabled a political agenda for the EU. Let’s get together and see where we are, what we would like to do differently. And on this basis, we can build an alliance.
But we haven’t had any discussion yet.
If you get a majority, will it be enough to reform the EU? Because the majority of the Council of the EU is composed with Liberal, Conservative and Populist movements.
We have discussed, for 2025, implementing our key reforms. 2025 is not the year when we want to introduce changes. It’s the deadline.
We have a chance to make a difference in Europe, because Europe is disintegrating. But we don’t have much time. That’s why we try to set up a deadline. We need to warn all the Europeans that we’re losing the battle.
At the moment, the racist-nationalists and the establishment parties govern the EU, only because of this fake clash amongst themselves. I’ve said ‘fake’, because they are accomplices, they are not real enemies. Macron needs Salvini and Salvini needs Macron.
What we are trying to do, without any funding, is to oppose both forces at the same time on behalf of the European progressives.
We have specific policies that are extremely modern, reasonable and realistic but at the same time very radical, to make a big difference.
How will we implement them? Only if we win the elections.
What are your views on Brexit?
I personally campaigned against Brexit. The EU is awful, terrible, undemocratic, but the solution is not to disintegrate it, but to contest it and to change it from within.
We lost the referendum. And after long debates with our members across Europe, we decided to respect the referendum outcomes.
And this is why we would like the UK to stay as close as possible the EU while leaving the EU, to respect the verdict of the people and at the same time, to maintain the close links between the UK and the EU.
Holding a second referendum makes no logical sense. Firstly, it cannot happen because it takes a year to organise it and by that time, Brexit will have happened.
Even if we do that, what do we ask the British people? The first referendum was easy, as the citizens had to choose between leaving or staying.
But now there are at least 4 options: no Brexit, hard Brexit, Theresa May’s Brexit, a Brexit with no replacement solution, etc. And when you have three or four or five options, you cannot ask a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ question.
What we stand for is very simple. The deal that Theresa May got is the worst as possible; it entirely destroys the sovereignty of the UK, but it does not safeguard the closeness of UK and the EU. The people then should decide, through general elections, but there shouldn’t be an additional referendum.