May 3, 2017
After Germany and Italy, Yanis Varoufakis launches DiEM25 in Greece
He picked Thessaloniki for starters.
By Panagiotis Mandatzis
Photos: Socrates Baltagiannis
Thessaloniki — As the capital of northern Greece wakes up still celebrating it’s football club’s PAOK FC’s triumph in the Greek semifinals the headlines are dominated by a retired policeman’s confession of murdering his six-year-old daughter and the government’s latest negotiations with the country’s creditors, and Eurogroup chief, Jeroen Dijsselbloem who has been slammed in the European Parliament over his controversial “booze and women,” comment about the southern Eurozone countries.
On the same morning, at the “Ioannis Vellidis” convention center, Yanis Varoufakis, the country’s former Minister of Finance, a man who has questioned Eurogroup’s authority multiple times, is holding a press conference to introduce the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) to Greece. DiEM 25 is a pan-European movement warning of the “EU’s imminent disintegration and aiming to democratize it before it is too late.”
Prominent members of DiEM25 such as world-wide academics Noam Chomsky, Slavoj Žižek, James K. Galbraith, Srećko Horvat; artists such as Jean-Michel Jarre and Brian Eno; and activists such as Julian Assange and Srećko Horvatt, as well as activists from all over Europe, are calling on European citizens, despite their diverse political traditions to take action against the economic oligarchy in order to restore the EU and make it a realm of shared prosperity, peace and solidarity for all Europeans.
It’s the first press conference Varoufakis has held in Greece since he resigned from the Syriza government almost two years ago. If he’s tired from his three-day visit to Ecuador earlier this week, it doesn’t show. Confident and determined, he presents the New Deal for Greece — part of the “European New Deal”, as he calls it, which was announced in Rome on 25 March in a similar press conference.
DiEM25 chose Thessaloniki for its first public event in Greece because of the city’s history: this is where Avraam Benaroya, a Jewish socialist, founded the Socialist Workers’ Federation; where the bloody general strike of tobacco workers took place in May 1936, leaving 12 dead and more than 200 wounded; where Giorgos Lambrakis, an MP of the United Democratic Left was murdered by far-righters, and also where Giannis Chalkidis, a member of Lambrakis Youth and of the United Democratic Left, was also murdered in 1967, during the Greek military dictatorship.
Varoufakis claims that Greece is in generalized quadruple bankruptcy: the state, banks, corporations, and the people are all bankrupt. DiEM25 is proposing a debt restructuring for both private and public debts, as well as the reduction of all tax rates through six specific reforms, that according to Varoufakis constitute common-sense requirements to put an end to the economic crisis: An immediate and drastic reconstruction of tax rates; A concurrent end of austerity and deficits with an equivalent restructuring of the public debt; A Public Non-Bank Payment System, for the multifaceted cancellation of arrears owed and nonbank payments — a program to fight poverty and social exclusion; A public corporation managing non-performing private loans — a moratorium on the auctions of primary residences; A public development bank who will be managing public property, and whose stocks will be transferred to state insurance funds; Protection of wage labor and entrepreneurship: no more quasi-subordinate workers, and a five-year exemption from insurance contributions for new companies and start-ups.
According to him, these reforms can be implemented without any further negotiations with the troika, while Greece stays in the Eurozone on its own terms. “Greece,” says Varoufakis, “will follow Charles De Gaulle’s empty-chair strategy. This time we’ll wait for them to come to us with a reasonable proposal. We won’t repeat the mistakes we made in 2015.”
It’s been two hours, and reporters are still blasting Varoufakis with questions, many of which are particularly harsh towards him. Varoufakis is undeterred: “No one has been attacked as I have been by the media and political opponents in the last few years,” he comments. Some of the reporters accuse him of an anti-European rhetoric and claim that his agenda jeopardizes the country’s future. His answer is that his aim is to help save the EU, not lead to its downfall. For Varoufakis, there is currently a coalition destroying the EU (Wieser, Dijsselbloem, Eurogroup). “Our proposals for Greece and Europe aren’t jeopardizing the future. What endangers our future is the complete compliance to the troika and the successive bailouts.”
Later on the same day, I ask a group of middle-aged, well-educated people at a cafe located in a typically middle class area, whether they have heard of DiEM25 and their opinion of Yanis Varoufakis. Despite not knowing much about his initiative, the mere mention of his name triggers a passionate conversation. Pretty soon they are ignoring my questions, arguing between themselves: “He’s the only one who tried to discuss the Greek crisis abroad,” one says. “He’s a fine scientist, but no good for politics,” someone else interjects. A woman among them thinks quite highly of him because “he isn’t systemic; he stood up for his beliefs and that’s why he isn’t a minister anymore.”
Someone else says that Varoufakis is a narcissist and that stirs debate further. Last but not least, one of them keeps insisting: “Are you on his payroll?”
A controversial figure or not, Yanis Varoufakis doesn’t go unnoticed. The following morning, when we meet him in Aristotelous Square, several people approach him for a handshake, inviting him for a coffee, or asking him for a selfie. I ask him about the feedback he receives from his encounters with the public. “We live in a soviet-like era. You see, in the last years of the USSR, the communist party guidelines to the media were completely at odds with what the people actually believed. This is what’s currently happening in Europe, and in Greece, specifically. People believe exactly the opposite of what the media claim,” he replies.
He is convinced that Greeks don’t accept the TINA doctrine. “I speak with the people on the street, at shops, with taxi drivers. Last night, I was stopped by the crew of a garbage truck, and they told me the same — that they won’t comply with TINA, that there has to be an alternative.” It was the need for that exact alternative for Europe, and for Greece in particular, that gave birth to DiEM25: “In the spring of 2015, people witnessed that there was an alternative, that you could actually say no to Dijsselbloem, to Schäuble, to Draghi, to Lagarde.”
But now, Europe is facing a bigger challenge than Grexit back in 2015. Answering my question about the second round of the French elections and the “Ni Le Pen, Ni Macron” (Neither Le Pen, nor Macron) slogan of the French protesters, he is emphatic: “That’s complete nonsense. It’s egregious for left-wing people. How dare they say such nonsense when they know for a fact that one of these two will become president?” But he is keen to add that DiEM25’s criticism towards Macron still stands. “Our current support goes hand in hand with our determination to protest against him once he is elected.”
That evening, back in “Ioannis Vellidis” Convention Center, DiEM25 is officially introduced to the public. Attending are people mostly aged 25–50, who seem curious to learn what the former minister has to say. The event kicks off with a stage play by director Giorgos Maniotis, titled ‘The Tree’ and performed by actor Nikos Magdalinos. “Since they turned the parliament into a farce, we turned theater into parliament,” Varoufakis comments on the play.
Following are thirty two-minute messages by members of DiEM25. They are videos recorded by DiEM’s prominent members around the world combined with short live speeches delivered by members of the DiEM25 Spontaneous Collectives (DSC) attending the event. The DSCs are the foundation of the DiEM25 across Europe since according to Varoufakis, DiEM25 is not a political party, but a grassroots movement. It is up to the members whether the DiEM25 develops into a political party.
During the event, we meet Vassilis Rokos, 28, a political scientist and the coordinator of the Thessaloniki DSC, which was created about a year ago and has 250 members so far. “For the first time in years, we feel like there’s a democratic and transparent political organization. We’re self-organized. Anyone can become a member or create a DSC through the DiEM25 website” he tells me.
In their short messages, local members of DiEM25 talk about “constructive disobedience” against the elite and the troika. There is also a lot of angry talk about the conversion of the no result of the 2015 referendum to a yes by the SYRIZA administration.
When Varoufakis addresses the public, he sits on the steps of the stage and reminisces, somewhat bitterly, how the Greek media mocked him for sitting on the steps during a Greek parliament session.
He stresses the need to democratize Europe, making reference to the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle: “Democracy is the regime where the poor have the power, because by definition the poor are the majority. Democracy isn’t a privilege you lose when you go bankrupt.” He refers to Wolfgang Schäuble and his doctrine that democracy and elections shouldn’t be allowed to change the economic politics of a country in debt. “This doctrine is deconstructing Europe,” Varoufakis says. “The only way to claim our countries back is international action.”
Varoufakis doesn’t lose his cool even when he is interrupted by someone at the back shouting “why didn’t you do all these things when you were in power?” “Because when I proposed them, I was kicked out of the Eurogroup,” he answers.
In the end, despite the bleakness in Europe and in Greece, Varoufakis remains optimistic. “We Greeks have the talent to find happiness and hope in the midst of misery and despair” he says, “and this is irritating for many, both in Europe and in Greece.”
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