Economist, politician and the former Greek finance minister welcomed the easing of the German debt brake but believes that defence spending will not generate growth where it is needed.
At a time when Europe is trying to regain control of its defence in the face of Russia’s war on its soil and the US’ apparent withdrawal, some dissenting voices are speaking out against the continent’s further armament.
Visiting Brussels, Yanis Varoufakis refuses to mince his words yet again. “The rearmament of Europe is the next great folly of the European Union,” declared the co-founder of the pan-European leftist DiEM25 movement in an interview with Euronews.
“It’s going to make us less safe. It will make life nastier, more brutish, shorter in Europe,” he added.
The left-wing economist believes expanding Europe’s military would “dissolve the social fabric” without guaranteeing security. “It’s a way of weakening Europe in the name of making it stronger,” Varoufakis explained..
Opposed to an agreement between Moscow and Kyiv proposed by US President Donald Trump, Varoufakis instead calls on Europe to put its own peace plan on the table.
“We should reject Trump’s plan. But we need to have our own. The first step will be to immediately and without a second doubt reject Donald Trump’s land grab, his attempt to grab the underground riches of a part of Europe,” he stressed.
“We need to counter-propose our own peace plan. Rearming Europe, buying more weaponry from British Aerospace, from Dallas, from Rheinmetall, this is not going to make any difference to Ukraine. Ukraine needs a peace plan from Europe now”.
In his view, this agreement should guarantee Ukraine’s sovereignty and its connection to Europe while keeping it “outside the two blocs, the Russian bloc and the NATO bloc, and allows us, as Europeans to come to their assistance, to rebuild their economy and society.”
According to Varoufakis, if Europe wants to play a role on the international stage during this period of major geopolitical tensions, it needs first and foremost a “political union” to gain “legitimacy”, not an army.
‘Buying shells and putting them on a shelf is not productive’
Faced with the United States’ withdrawal, the 27 EU member states are taking their security back into their own hands, giving the green light to a plan to rearm Europe, including a budget of €800 billion.
The European Commission has also proposed that member states derogate from the EU’s orthodox budgetary rules to finance their defence spending.
In Germany, Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz has opened the door to relaxing the debt brake to allow investment in the country’s infrastructure and defence.
This is a 180 turnaround for the otherwise prudent country, which favoured strict fiscal rules for Greece during the financial crisis.
As the former Greek finance minister who opposed Europe’s austerity policy, Varoufakis positively greeted this paradigm shift — albeit with some reservations.
“Of course, I welcome the end of the debt brake,” Varoufakis said, however noting that Merz “wants to indulge in military Keynesianism.”
ADVERTISEMENT“Instead of investing in life, he is investing mostly in death. And if you look at it from a realistic macroeconomic point of view, this is not going to generate growth where it is necessary,” Varoufakis explained. “When you buy ammunition, when you buy shells and put them on a shelf, this is not a productive investment.”
Asked whether pacifism might be tantamount to giving Russian President Vladimir Putin carte blanche to pursue his imperialist ambitions and invade other countries, Varoufakis concluded, “Pacifism is never a good response to invasion, but opting for endless war is not rational either.”
Watch Euronews’ interview with Yanis Varoufakis in the player above.
