Yanis Varoufakis starts movement to democratize the EU

[Childlike Empress]

Yesterday in Berlin, there was an event to start DiEM25, the "Democracy in Europe Movement ... 2025". Varoufakis is the head honcho seen in their video ad (with music by Brian Eno who is on board) jogging into the future:


Motto: "The European Union will be democratized. Or it will disintegrate!" I think there's truth to that and a movement to counter all that PEGIDA/UKIP neo-nationalism and fear mongering - based in part on valid criticism of the EU as it is - is indeed needed. In an op-ed in The Guardian a couple of days ago, Varoufakis writes:

[...] One simple, radical idea is our motivating force: to democratise the EU in the knowledge that it will otherwise disintegrate at a terrible cost to all. Our immediate priority is full transparency in decision-making (live-streaming of European councils, Ecofin and Eurogroup meetings; full disclosure of trade negotiations; ECB minutes, etc) and the urgent redeployment of existing EU institutions in the pursuit of policies that genuinely address the crises of debt, banking, inadequate investment, rising poverty and migration.

Our medium-term goal is to convene a constitutional assembly where Europeans will deliberate on how to bring forward, by 2025, a fully fledged European democracy, featuring a sovereign parliament that respects national self-determination and shares power with national parliaments, regional assemblies and municipal councils.

Is this utopian? Of course it is. But no more so than the notion that the current EU can survive its anti-democratic hubris, and the gross incompetence fuelled by its unaccountability. Or the idea that democracy can be revived in the bosom of a nation-state asphyxiating within transnational “single” markets and opaque free trade agreements.

Yes, our movement seems utopian even to us. However, the only alternative is the terrible dystopia unfolding before our eyes as the EU disintegrates; David Cameron celebrates the potential exclusion of some eastern Europeans from social security benefits; ambition is renationalised; xenophobia surges; and newer and taller fences are built begetting insecurity in the name of … security.

Remains to be seen how serious and practical that is, and how much of a personality cult it might contain, but in principle I say good luck!

 

[MikeG]

It's bound to succeed: the guy has such a glowing reputation after his performance in office.

 

[Childlike Empress]

It's bound to succeed: the guy has such a glowing reputation after his performance in office.

Oh, you'd be surprised about his reputation (if you'd look outside the propaganda bubble, that is).

Press conference:

 

[catsmate]

It's bound to succeed: the guy has such a glowing reputation after his performance in office.

Yeah. An academic economist and failed finance minister. Very meh.

 

[timhau]

The real cranks always eventually have to either walk away or found their own movement. Varoufakis is apparently not walking away.

 

[Childlike Empress]

Continues to make relevant noises, here in Switzerland arguing for Basic Income, a concept which should be called by its established name Unconditional Basic Income as he explains himself (so we get to avoid a huge bureaucracy for throwing some crumbs to the likes of Bill Gates as well).

 

[GlennB]

The real cranks always eventually have to either walk away or found their own movement. Varoufakis is apparently not walking away.

His analysis of the Greek debt problem was pretty much what the IMF is now pushing (the IMF hinted at the same thing last year, but not so strongly). VFs failings were not in the field of economics, but politics.

 

[Beerina]

Governments where the power-hungry can satisfy their desires should not multiply.

 

[Darth Rotor]

Yanis Varoufakis: if you're gonna dream, dream big.

 

[McHrozni]

His analysis of the Greek debt problem was pretty much what the IMF is now pushing (the IMF hinted at the same thing last year, but not so strongly). VFs failings were not in the field of economics, but politics.

No one is disputing that, in the short run at least, Greece would be best off if it had it's debts written off. However I'm rather amazed that some people still argue outright demanding other peoples' money through extortion while offering nothing in return is the best way a broke, weak state with no leverage to get that free money.

I'm also somewhat amazed how a person who wanted to rob foreign taxpayers in a most undemocratic way and then wants to to 'democratize' an inherently democratic institution that didn't pay up on his demand is not shipped to a mental asylum immediately. It's for his own good, after all.

McHrozni

 

[Roofgardener]

"Our medium-term goal is to convene a constitutional assembly where Europeans will deliberate on how to bring forward, by 2025, a fully fledged European democracy, featuring a sovereign parliament that respects national self-determination and shares power with national parliaments, regional assemblies and municipal councils."

Ummm.... a "sovereign parliament" ? Sovereign over WHAT ?
Sharing power with regional assemblies and municiple councils ?

This sounds like a massive expansion of EU powers, and a LONG way away from "democratisation".

 

[McHrozni]

"Our medium-term goal is to convene a constitutional assembly where Europeans will deliberate on how to bring forward, by 2025, a fully fledged European democracy, featuring a sovereign parliament that respects national self-determination and shares power with national parliaments, regional assemblies and municipal councils."

Ummm.... a "sovereign parliament" ? Sovereign over WHAT ?
Sharing power with regional assemblies and municiple councils ?

This sounds like a massive expansion of EU powers, and a LONG way away from "democratisation".

Yup.

Option 2: he doesn't actually want or is able to suggest any meaningful changes, but he doesn't want to drift into utter irrelevance either.

Funnily enough, I agree with him on this one. EU needs to expand it's powers if it is to stay around. I doubt I agree with him on how those powers are to be wielded - "democratization" is all too often the leftard code word for "collectivisation and party control".

McHrozni

 

[CapelDodger]

Ummm.... a "sovereign parliament" ? Sovereign over WHAT ?

A sovereign parliament of the EU. Just as the is US Congress is the sovereign parliament of that Union.

Sharing power with regional assemblies and municiple councils ?

A principle knows as "subsidiarity", where decisions are made at the appropriate level.

This sounds like a massive expansion of EU powers, and a LONG way away from "democratisation".

I don't see any expansion of EU powers suggested, just an increase in democratic oversight and accountability. More attention being given to subsidiarity might well see a transfer of EU power down to more local levels and to governing bodies under local democratic oversight. If the EU as currently governed is overly centralising, as many critics claim, such a transfer would indeed be inevitable.

A pipe-dream, perhaps, but then again possibly visionary.

 

[CapelDodger]

Option 2: he doesn't actually want or is able to suggest any meaningful changes, but he doesn't want to drift into utter irrelevance either.

He's promoting a conference, not any specific proposals. Specifics will be proposed - by him and others - and debated at said conference but this is not the time to introduce them.

Funnily enough, I agree with him on this one. EU needs to expand it's powers if it is to stay around.

You agree with yourself on that, not with Varoufakis, who suggested nothing of the sort.

I doubt I agree with him on how those powers are to be wielded - "democratization" is all too often the leftard code word for "collectivisation and party control".

What new powers are you referring to? Improved democratic oversight - which is what Varoufakis is advocating - doesn't increase anybody's powers. If the conference format restricts participation to leftists then it would have no credibility, but again that is not what Varoufakis is advocating. If it happens we can dismiss the whole thing then. Right and left will both have proposals to make and arguments to present, and if either side boycotts it they lose credibility.

The first thing to do is arrive at a conference format that can attract a wide range of participants. Not a trivial business, but doable.

 

[CapelDodger]

Yanis Varoufakis: if you're gonna dream, dream big.

If you ain't got the vision guy you ain't going nowhere in this business.

 

[McHrozni]

He's promoting a conference, not any specific proposals. Specifics will be proposed - by him and others - and debated at said conference but this is not the time to introduce them.

Conference that opens with the premise that EU is undemocratic is highly unlikely to produce anything meaningful. My guess is that he's really bitter that his attempt at extortion failed and is trying to sabotage the Union out of spite.

What new powers are you referring to? Improved democratic oversight - which is what Varoufakis is advocating - doesn't increase anybody's powers.

He advocates:
a sovereign parliament that respects national self-determination and shares power with national parliaments, regional assemblies and municipal councils

As Roofgardener said, this means the EU would become an actual union in the true sense of the word. I do agree it should do just that, but that is not "improved democratic oversight" and it most certainly isn't "respecting nation-state". It is doing away with the latter.

It could be he's just suffering from leftism, and is only able to use big words in incoherent sentences though.

McHrozni

 

[GlennB]

My guess is that he's really bitter that his attempt at extortion failed and is trying to sabotage the Union out of spite.

'Extortion' requires some form of power over the target of the extortion. What power did Varoufakis/Tsipras/Syriza have that might have seen their attempted extortion succeed?

I should mention at this point that the IMF proposals appear to be even more forgiving than anything that anyone in the Greek government proposed in 2015. Have they been secretly extorting for the last year or so to get an even better deal than their ... oh ... failed attempt at extortion last year? Wow, they must wield some pretty serious power eh? Plus terrifying political skills in delaying the final results of this capaign of extortion for an extra year in order to get an even better result, despite the hardships that sheer cunning has imposed on the country. We should be in awe of these people, surely?

Nothing you're saying at the moment on this subject makes one grain of sense McHrozni. Maybe you're in full kneejerk auto-rant mode, or maybe you're just actively trolling.

 

[ddt]

No one is disputing that, in the short run at least, Greece would be best off if it had it's debts written off. However I'm rather amazed that some people still argue outright demanding other peoples' money through extortion while offering nothing in return is the best way a broke, weak state with no leverage to get that free money.

I'm also somewhat amazed how a person who wanted to rob foreign taxpayers in a most undemocratic way and then wants to to 'democratize' an inherently democratic institution that didn't pay up on his demand is not shipped to a mental asylum immediately. It's for his own good, after all.

McHrozni

As just a small note on this rhetoric: more than 80% of what the Greeks pay off on their debts is to German and French banks, not to governments. This whole bailing out of Greece by government and EU credits is for a large part a roundabout way to bail out those banks from bad credits.

 

[McHrozni]

'Extortion' requires some form of power over the target of the extortion. What power did Varoufakis/Tsipras/Syriza have that might have seen their attempted extortion succeed?

The idea was that Grexit would be scarier than debt relief to EU. That was the power they pretended to yield, and when attempted, they turned up short and bent the knee.

It was an outright stupid plan from the onset.

I should mention at this point that the IMF proposals appear to be even more forgiving than anything that anyone in the Greek government proposed in 2015. Have they been secretly extorting for the last year or so to get an even better deal than their ... oh ... failed attempt at extortion last year? Wow, they must wield some pretty serious power eh? Plus terrifying political skills in delaying the final results of this capaign of extortion for an extra year in order to get an even better result, despite the hardships that sheer cunning has imposed on the country. We should be in awe of these people, surely?

IMF is making proposals that would benefit Greece. If you can't understand the difference between making a proposal and making a demand you probably won't be able to understand much about the problem at all.

McHrozni

 

[McHrozni]

As just a small note on this rhetoric: more than 80% of what the Greeks pay off on their debts is to German and French banks, not to governments. This whole bailing out of Greece by government and EU credits is for a large part a roundabout way to bail out those banks from bad credits.

Banks aren't institutions that exist in vacuum with no human intervention (or ownership), so I really don't see how this could change anything.

Not that it's true anyway.

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/150127131739-greek-debt-chart-780x439.jpg

It was true at the beginning of the crisis, but the taxpayer-funded bailout changed that quite substantially. Now Greece demands to be forgiven the money that was used bailing it out, with little or no consequences and without the Greeks doing what was necessary to ensure this doesn't happen again.

If anyone still needs an explanation as to why this won't happen, he, she or it is not competent on making comments on the question of the Greek debt.

McHrozni