People, power and Varoufakis - VPRO documentary - 2016
277Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek minister of finance has started a grassroots pan-european movement listening more to what the people wants. When Varoufakis presented his new movement DiEM25, he took up the fight with the financial sector and the large companies which, according to him, are cannibalising politics. His movement is gaining support from the people rapidly over Europe.
Original title: Volk, macht en Varoufakis
If the European leaders won’t listen to the citizens of the 28 countries that make up the Union, it will disintegrate before long, says Greek economist and former minister of Finance Yanis Varouvakis.
What is the most frightening thing for the political order in Europe? It's not terrorism, neither migration nor the international competitive position: it’s democracy. That is why Varoufakis started a political movement, which is rapidly joined by all sorts of civil initiative organisations, from Berlin to Zagreb.
What would a new, truly democratic Europe look like? As a minister, Varouvakis noticed that a politician doesn’t have any real power: real power lies with the people who control the economy.
The City of London is a state within the British state, so it’s a model representing the power of corporate Europe and the end of democracy. It’s a situation which is growing out of control, says German sociologist Wolfgang Streeck. In great detail he explains how we, using increasingly innovative financial manoeuvres, have bought off a political crisis in Europe and postponed the ‘day of reckoning’.
Another example lays in the Spanish town of Pontevedra, where former resident and prime minister of Spain, Mariano Rajoy, has been declared persona non grata. Rajoy granted a sixty-year concession for a large piece of coastal property to an extremely polluting paper mill. This is a typical example of how the old corrupted politics worked. The local population are not going to take it anymore.
Democracy is a greek word: demos (the people), kratia (power, rule).
Does Varouvakis’ pan-European movement stand a chance? Can it really create change and save democracy?
With: Wolfgang Streeck (German sociologist), Yanis Varouvakis (Greek economist and former minister of Finance), Migual Anxo Lores (mayor of Pontevredra, Spain) and Mark Boleat (City of London lobbyist).
Originally broadcasted by VPRO in 2016.
© VPRO Backlight April 2016
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Credits:
Director: Jos de Putter
Research: Marijntje Denters
Production: Jolanda Segers
Editors: Marije Meerman, Doke Romeijn
English, French and Spanish subtitles: Ericsson.
French and Spanish subtitles are co-funded by European Union.