Yanis Varoufakis: Covid-19 has “turbocharged“ the EU’s failures

The former Greek finance minister on Boris Johnson’s recklessness, Keir Starmer, and why he believes the UK should now pursue a no-deal Brexit.

By George Eaton

Greek former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis addresses the audience during an event to mark the official launch of the Democracy in Europe Movement (DiEM) in Berlin on February 9, 2016. / AFP / TOBIAS SCHWARZ (Photo credit should read TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP via Getty Images)

For Yanis Varoufakis, lockdown has not been a time of contemplation. “I have more work now than I ever did. As you know, everything has shifted to Zoom meetings, which means zero separation between the private and the public,” he explained when we spoke recently, during one such video call.

The 59-year-old economist, former Greek finance minister, game theorist and “erratic Marxist” has divided his time since Greece’s lockdown began in mid-March between his summer house on the island of Aegina and his country’s parliament in Athens. Varoufakis was returned as an MP last July as one of nine representatives of MeRA25, the Greek wing of the pan-continental Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25), which he co-founded in 2016.