Yanis Varoufakis

Yanis Varoufakis talks again, insults everybody

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

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”. 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?)

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

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". 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). He is also opposed to austerity.

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.