Yanis Varoufakis

Varoufakis has said that capitalism only brings terrible burdens, ⁹ that Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto “remains unsurpassed” as a work of political literature, ¹⁰ and said that it is time to “blow up” European electricity markets to prioritize non-traditional energy sources in Europe. ¹¹ He supports the far-left concept of universal basic income, ⁸ the environmentalist concept of a Green New Deal for Europe, and reduced meat production. ¹²

In 2019, Varoufakis said that former President Donald Trump is part of a “neo-fascist international” and that the “Make America Great Again” slogan is one of the rallying cries of this supposed neo-fascist international. ¹² In 2023, he said that Europeans “created” the Israel-Hamas war, ¹³ called the war a “genocide” with the full complicity of the European Union, and claimed Christianity is a veneer for European imperial societies. ¹⁴

Career

Yanis Varoufakis is a Greek radical-left politician and former finance minister, socialist economist, professor, and co-founder of the left-of-center organization Progressive International. ⁴ According to left-leaning British newspaper the Guardian, Communist thinker Karl Marx is one of Varoufakis’s heroes. ³

Varoufakis was Minister of Finance of Greece from January to July 2015. As minister, he compared Greece’s creditors to “terrorists” despite the possibility that the country could face the world’s largest sovereign default and departure from the Euro currency. Varoufakis resigned from this ministerial role in July 2015 after then-Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras decided to implement economic reforms preferred by European leaders despite a referendum in Greece that opposed these policy reforms. ^{1 15 16 17}

In February 2016, Varoufakis co-founded Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) with Sreck Horvat to advocate for radical-left politics across Europe. DiEM25 then founded MeRA25, a Greek political party that is led by Varoufakis, in 2018. From 2019 until 2023, Varoufakis was a member of the Greek Parliament representing Thessaloniki as a member of the MeRA25 Party. ^{1 5 7 18} Varoufakis will stand for election as a member of MeRA25 in the 2024 European Parliament elections to combat what he considers a “democratic deficit” in Europe. ¹⁹

In 2018, Varoufakis’s DiEM25 partnered with the left-of-center Sanders Institute think tank, which was formed following U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) 2016 presidential campaign, to launch the left-of-center Progressive International. At Progressive International’s launch event, Varoufakis participated in a roundtable with Sen. Sanders. ²⁰

As of February 2024, Varoufakis is the executive director of left-of-center Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25). He is a fellow at the left-wing Sanders Institute, which was formed in the aftermath of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’s (I-VT) 2016 presidential campaign by Sanders’s wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders. ⁶ Varoufakis is a co-founder of the left-of-center organization Progressive International, ⁴ affiliated with the left-of-center Institute for New Economic Thinking, ⁷ and on the advisory board of the Centre for Post Capitalist Civilisation. ⁸ He has written for left-of-center publication The Nation, ²¹ published several books, and taught economics in Australia, in the United States at the University of Texas at Austin, ²² and in Greece at the University of Athens. ²³

Political Activism

Yanis Varoufakis is a self-styled “erratic Marxist” ² and “libertarian Marxist.” ²⁴ He says he comes from the political left ¹⁶ and has been called “leftwing” by the Financial Times. Varoufakis has said that Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto “remains unsurpassed” as a work of political literature and argued that it foresaw global capitalism of the 21st century, offering a way out of contemporary financial challenges. ¹⁰

Varoufakis has also said that former President Donald Trump is a part of a “neo-fascist international” and that the “Make American Great Again” slogan is one of the rallying calls of this supposed neo-fascist international. ¹²

Varoufakis is critical of capitalism, says that capitalism only brings terrible burdens, and claims that feminism and democratic capitalism are incompatible. He supports left-wing and left-progressive economics ⁹ and has called online retailer Amazon’s Alexa system a “centralized totalitarian system created to satisfy Jeff Bezos.” ²⁵ He supports creating a system in which all shareholders of a company are equal for voting purposes, has argued meat production must diminish substantially, and supports the far-left concept of universal basic income. ⁸

Varoufakis also supports a carbon tax across Europe, setting ceilings for carbon dioxide and methane gas emissions, and the left-wing, environmentalist concept of a Green New Deal in Europe. ¹² He has said it is time to “blow up” European electricity markets, wind down “simulated economic markets,” and have large-scale, Manhattan Project-style investment in non-traditional energy sources in Europe. ²⁶

Foreign Policy Views

Yanis Varoufakis has said that Europeans “created” the Israel-Hamas war. ¹³ In December 2023, Varoufakis released a video in which he referred to the 2023 Israel-Hamas war as a “genocide” in which “thousands of children are being slaughtered in the Holy Land” with the full complicity of the European Union. In this video, he also claimed that Christianity is a veneer for European imperial societies and that “human rights” is an excuse often use to bomb and shoot those who “actually need human rights.” ²⁷

Varoufakis opposes the current status of the North American Treaty Organization (NATO) ²⁸ and has been critical of recent European policy decisions to challenge Chinese Communist Party economic activities in Europe. ²⁹

Personal Information

Yanis Varoufakis was born in Athens, Greece, in 1961. ²² His father was a steel engineer and a communist. ²⁴ Varoufakis studied economic mathematics at the University of Essex and mathematical statistics at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. In 1987, he received a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Essex. ²³