Yanis Varoufakis

Yanis Varoufakis is a former Greek finance minister who oversaw the high-stakes negotiations with Germany during the sovereign debt crisis.

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“”Yanis Varoufakis talks again, insults everybody
—Politico[1]

Political career

Varoufakis was nominated as the finance minister by Tsipras. The five-month battle was fought in the tabloids as well as the boardroom. Yanis was picked for his ability to charm people, to the extent that a Portuguese MP wrote, “Damn, the Greek finance minister is sexy”.[2] Der Spiegel, meanwhile, read like the introduction to the German version of Fifty Shades of Grey: Naturally Schäuble is the big spoon cool, collected, a modest leader, a good teacher. Varoufakis is hysterical, egocentric, uncivilised, a naughty undergrad. (Does it go into detail about his massive reform package too?)[3]

He resigned to assist negotiations of Greece with EU.[4] He then created the DiEM25 (Democracy in Europe Movement 2025).[5] DiEM25 is a movement that aims to democratize the European Union, to make states, cities, regions and even the workplace more democratic.[6]

Political ideas

The Syriza party, of which he was a member, wanted to raise the minimum wage and nationalize hospitals.

Varoufakis called himself an "erratic marxist".[7] He is in favor of a basic income, which he calls an Universal Basic Dividend, funded not via personal taxation but by the state taking a share of all equity issues (and hence owning a part of every business).[8][9] He is also opposed to austerity.[10]

He believes that the European Union isn't really democratic and its policy is influenced by lobbyists, technocrats, bankers... He wants to democratize it. He also thinks capitalism is bad for democracy.[11]

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References
  1. Cereulus, Laurens, "Yanis Varoufakis talks again, insults everybody", Politico (Updated 25 Decemer 2015, 7:11 AM CET).
  2. https://www.ft.com/content/e449635a-ad3a-11e4-a5c1-00144feab7de
  3. http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/greece-deal-shows-hostility-between-schaeuble-and-varoufakis-a-1020968.html
  4. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/greek-debt-crisis-live-referendum-yanis-varoufakis-tsipras-resigns-despite-referendum-no-vote-10367825.html
  5. https://www.rt.com/news/331927-democracy-europe-movement-disintegration/
  6. https://diem25.org/manifesto-long/#1455748951573-1298e273-a7be
  7. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/feb/18/yanis-varoufakis-how-i-became-an-erratic-marxist
  8. https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/basic-income-funded-by-capital-income-by-yanis-varoufakis-2016-10
  9. Finance Universal Basic Income via Partial Public Ownership of All Capital says Yanis Varoufakis, Medium, July 14, 2017
  10. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/24/stories-2015-yanis-varoufakis-syrizas-anti-austerity-motorbiker
  11. http://www.ted.com/talks/yanis_varoufakis_capitalism_will_eat_democracy_unless_we_speak_up/transcript
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