Politics

Bravo, Président Macron – A présent, nous pouvons vous dire notre désaccord

May 15, 2017 Yanis Varoufakis

ATHENES – Avant le deuxième tour de l'élection présidentielle française, DiEM25 (le mouvement paneuropéen des démocrates, la plupart du temps de la gauche, que j'ai aidé à fonder) a promis à Emmanuel Macron de se « mobiliser pleinement pour l’aider » à vaincre Marine Le Pen. C’est ce que nous avons fait – générant la colère de beaucoup de monde à gauche – parce que maintenir « une distance égale entre Macron et Le Pen » était, selon nous, « inexcusable ».

Néanmoins, notre promesse à Macron comprenait un deuxième volet : s'il ne fait que « devenir un autre fonctionnaire du profond establishment européen », poursuivant l’impasse du néo-libéralisme qui a fait la preuve de son échec, nous « lui opposerons une résistance tout aussi énergique que celle opposée – ou qui devrait être opposée – face à Le Pen aujourd’hui ».

Soulagés que Macron ait gagné, et fiers de notre soutien clair de sa candidature, il faut maintenant remplir la deuxième partie de la promesse. Pas de « lune de miel »: nous devons nous opposer à Macron immédiatement. Voici pourquoi.

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0 Comments on this paragraph, 34 Comments on this article

j. von Hettlingen Jul 1, 2017

Yanis Varoufakis is critical of the euro in general and Emmanuel Macron's effort to "turn the eurozone into a state-like entity - a federation-lite" in particular. He says, "Europe is at the mercy of a common currency that not only was unnecessary for European integration, but that is actually undermining the European Union itself." And he asks, "what should be done about a currency without a state to back it - or about the 19 European states without a currency that they control?" He says, dismantling the euro will be costly, but there is little appetite for a "re-nationalization of sovereignty."
On May 15 Varoufakis wrote in PS: "Macron understands the folly in the foundations of the eurozone. And he has promised to work tirelessly to convince Germany that Europe must speedily create a proper banking union, common unemployment insurance, a debt-restructuring mechanism...." Perhaps he should question the wisdom of Greece joining the eurozone in January 2001 - it was left out in 1999 for failing to qualify for membership. The socialist finance minister, Ioannis Papandoniou in Greece, described joining the euro as an historic day that would place Greece firmly at the heart of Europe.
But the president of the European Central Bank, Wim Duisenberg, warned that Greece still had a lot of work to do to improve its economy and bring inflation under control. Greece had to make deep cuts in public spending. Despite austerity measures, euro membership was hugely popular in Greece, with polls suggesting that nearly two-thirds of the population were in favour of the move.
But Greece cheated its way into the eurozone, with the blessing of Angela Merkel's predecessor, Gerhard Schröder, who was widely blamed in Germany for supporting Greece's bid. Critics said the decision to allow Greece to join the euro would send the wrong signal to financial markets - suggesting that in future other, weaker economies might be allowed in without complying fully with membership criteria.
Greece had one of the highest inflation rates in Europe. Government borrowing was also much higher than would be permitted normally under the Maastricht Treaty - criteria that need to be met to join the euro. People thought then, a Greek membership would not make a huge difference for the eurozone as a whole. But the 2008 financial crisis laid bare Greece's public deficits and debt pile.
Yanis Varoufakis returned to Greece in 2000, a decision motivated by nostalgia and the abhorence of the conservative government in Australia. Was he opposed to Greece's bid for euro membership in 2001? The Greeks were aware of the tough decisions they had to make to qualify for euro membership. But EU decision makers, like Gerhard Schröder et al made the mistake by being lenient towards aspiring euro countries.
Instead of criticising creditors - most of all Germany, the author should be critical of the social laresse showered in his country by the PASOK politicians to win elections since 1981. The party had been in power too long and had grown lazy, corrupt. During the Greek crisis he said it was unfair that Europe decided to load the largest loan in human history on the weakest of shoulders - the Greek taxpayers, calling the bailout a "fiscal waterboarding." Yet he fails to realise that it's also unfair for Greek politicians to borrow heavily in the past to bribe voters.
Obviously Varoufakis has his idea of the eurozone, which has its perils and is far from perfect. It's true that it will be costly to dismantle the institution, given so much political capital invested in it. However Greece's failure to thrive economically has more to do with politicians' incompetence to boost growth, by investing heavily in human resources, technology etc. and less with the single currency. Disparity can only be handled when all countries get their act together.
Both Merkel and Macron are pragmatists and will seek common ground, despite ideological differences, because they realise they need to seize the momentum now to improve the European project. They may not succeed in reforming the eurozone during the terms of office, as it is a herculean task. What they can do is to adopt a piecemeal tactic to achieve small goals step by step. Varoufakis should give them a try.
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Susan Butler Jun 30, 2017

Self-centered, materialist, national interests motivate Germany in this era of the apotheosis of the individualist, seperationist Enlightenment, just as these values motivate most people and entities these days --to the exclusion of vastly deeper, broader, more satisfying and frankly more survival-friendly sentiments. This is the source of the deadlock in Europe.

However, there may be new memes emerging, ironically, out of such transparently poorly motivated measures as the US Republican attempt to thwack the poor and elderly by yanking their healthcare, a sentence of death to many. If they do this, they will get a howling earful. Just as the British government is now getting horribly embarrassed by the Grenfell disaster. Trump supporters have been duped into the idea that their concerns might actually matter, which, oddly, could backfire on him and empower them. People expect social good from government which is a common effort. Social goods are not discretionary, they are of the essence of any social contract like government, or even a residential lease.

Surely excellent health, education, housing, and employment will soon become our most urgently sought after goals rather than such narrow-minded ideas as productivity, monetization, globalization or profit?

Honestly I am exasperated by all this emphasis on the repayment of debt. As if money were scarce! Hugely implied by the Thatcher quote about socialism’s using up other people’s money. Money is not scarce. It is not a commodity; it’s a social construct. We as a globe are abundantly rich. That’s why we have umpteen billions of people. And can afford to make unceasing war.

Japan’s central bank is using QE to buy up its national debt, thus canceling it, which is not causing inflation there. We are a young species but we can learn. Things need to be reframed. We can and will create new frames of reference based on new values and motivations --such as survival.

Here we are rich beyond our wildest dreams squabbling over who gets the most whilst fouling our nest. Whatever we can do we can finance. We can employ millions at all levels doing meaningful work restoring degraded lands to deep rich soils and their consequent ecosystems, which are the primary productivity, while cooling the climate profitably for all. Touche.
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Mauricio Duran-Loriga May 22, 2017

As an exceptional event, I give you five on this article Yanis.
Both candidates were nuts.

If Macron tries to dismiss civil servants, his hologram will vanish.
France has had fiscal deficits for over 50 years in a row.
Welfare state costs are crowding out gross national savings so we can forget of productivity gains for ages. Same for flexicurity.

France is just one step above the PIIGS. This is why Macron desperately needs the banking union, Eurobonds, EuroTreasury etc... Because in absence of such mechanisms, by the next crisis the country will endure the same financial atrocities that the PIIGS keep enduring since the last crisis, courtesy of our German partners.

Parroting about closing fiscal loopholes and taxing the wealthy is pure marketing and no substance. And we all know it. If you want huge growth in fiscal revenues go cashless. At the expense of freedom of course.

Germany says NEIN to everything because it cannot accept debt mutualisation. Currently Germany has the upper hand at the ECB thanks to its outlandish current account balance surplus.

But if debts were mutualised, Germany would lose its upper hand, regardless of its current account balance surplus/deficit.

The ECB bond buying spree is a back door debt mutualisation in plain sight, designed and monitored by Schauble but marketed to the herd by Draghi, the independent central banker of the millenium.

If debt mutualisation was to become true, a set of rules would have to be implemented and Germany would be bound by that set of clear rules. NEIN. NIE.
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James Haughton May 22, 2017

should be " to avoid their share of income tax"
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Erin Harris May 21, 2017

Most people here, to judge from comments, know little of what really happened (and still is happening) in Greece and even less about DiEM25 and its principles. You just can't assume they do, Yanis. I'm one of the hard-core who've been following your blog for years. Let me just hold up a tiny light and state what strikes me as your core objective: restoring democracy to the EU -- thus, wrenching control back from banksters and technocrats like the new kiddo president who rhymes with Dacron.

Folks, please study up on DiEM25 and its worthy aims, before firing further misdirected cannonades at Yanis. The very last thing he’d want to do is empower another arrogant overclass intent on destroying national sovereignty -- and, indeed, nationhood -- and casually stomping on people who won’t slit their own throats.
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Barry Rosenfeld May 21, 2017

How ironic: Merkel will succeed where Bismarck and Hitler failed. Ha, ha.

The only problem now with the EU, in general, and with the Euro, in particular, is the presence of Germany in a way not fully foreseen by the early drafter of the "European Idea." The integration of Germany, an economic and financial drag in the shorter term, has unbalanced Europe in the longer term. The EU and the Euro have become instruments for German domination of Europe.

Neoliberalism and austerity are fine for Germany but, like the export of aspirins to dominated countries, it has given the importers headaches rather than treating them. Europe is too varied economically and culturally to have a one-size fits all approach to economic integration - and especially to alleged moral integration (Hungary and Poland are exempt from charges of moral turpitude as long as they toe the German line on economics. "Deutchland uber alles" is alive and well. But how will the "unter" countries respond over time?

Greece has become a "Greek tragedy" in the full meaning of the concept. The UK wants little to do with the EU. France has given the EU one more election. "Left" and "right" no longer seem to be the foundation for political analysis, but "top" and "bottom" seem to be a more fruitful way of looking at political choice.
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Andrew Cole May 21, 2017

The French role will be that of the lead domestic servant or Butler for the ruling Germans (as indeed German cartoons depict), whereas the other Eurozone creditors will fill the role of bailiffs to keep the serfs in line. Of the various things necessary for a single currency, Germany only allows "freedom" of movement (as in moving because your economy has been wrecked by internal deflation), because it acts as a cost free safety valve, the other things requirements of a common currency conflict with total German supremacy and cannot be allowed.
- Barry Rosenfeld May 21, 2017
  
  Sad - but true.
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Michael Parsons May 21, 2017

With Greece on iots knees and the elderly resorting to barter to survive as a result of the defeat of he 'xenophobic nationalists' there Varafakis has nothing itelligtent to left to offer.
A shame to describe patriots and nationalists as xenophobic, too - a nasty foreign-sounding word.
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Nana Siddharth May 19, 2017

I don't understand. Won't taxing assets that produce no incomes be beneficial, like a land value tax. It might prevent hoarding of assets.
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M M May 16, 2017

It is all the fault of the left machine, they want to govern by proxies, act by proxies, etc. by proxy but to pick all the fruits and keep them to themselves...Hillary, Michelle and now Brigitte... No respect for democracy or the rule of law, utter anarchy.
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M M May 16, 2017

By appointing a right wing PM, E. Macron already raised the "White Flag" ....
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Robin Prior May 16, 2017

How tragic that Germany is again in danger of leading Europe to ruin - this time not with bombs but fiscal policy!
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Henry Rech May 15, 2017

What I find interesting is that Mr. Varoufakis wants to replace one pan European hegemonic structure (the EU) with another pan European hegemonic structure (DiEM25). A DiEM25 governing structure would be no more democratic than is the EU, stuffed with a self serving elite no different than the EU governing elite.

And I would say he needn't worry about Macron shaping a new EU/EZ - Germany won't let him. As f0r reshaping France from the inside, where does he start? With the agrarian socialists?
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Steve Hurst May 15, 2017

One thing is clear from this and that is why Tsipras told YV to stay away from talks, it was doing everybody a favour. How can anybody deal with somebody who dresses to the left one day then dresses to the right the next then the next back to the left
- William Coyle May 18, 2017
  
  A a gay vegetarian, I find the above comments both offensive and inedible...
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- Steve Hurst May 16, 2017
  
  Travis
  
  The YV article encouraging the vote for Macron whilst at the same time clearly despising Macron is what is called a puff piece. A puff was a character paid by the table owner who hung around the gambling tables in Regency times exhorting somebody mid play to gamble in order to encourage activity usually to that persons detriment. If you think that is something to do with stable demands then the horse has already bolted that stable and is well on its way to the Hellfire Club
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- M M May 16, 2017
  
  Travis, in this life there are realists and there are surrealists!
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- Travis Hughes May 16, 2017
  
  He has a stable set of demands and beliefs if you bothered to read them.
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- M M May 16, 2017
  
  Steve, it is the old singing and dancing act...
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Peter Schaeffer May 15, 2017

In one of the last debates, Marine Le Pen stated that either she or Merkel would be the next President of France. The people of France chose Merkel. "Merkel means Merkel". Get used to it.
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M M May 15, 2017

Yanis, the only way E. Macron can squash the German Machine is through a collaboration with Le Pen. The more votes Le Pen gets at the upcoming GE, the stronger he shall become. On his own, E Macron is no match to the EU/EZ and the French internal forces. Incidentally, during the last debate that he had with Le Pen, she did tell him that he will come back to her for help, an offer which he rejected outright. Brigitte help......
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Sjoerd de Vries May 15, 2017

"...... because it can work only in a macroeconomic environment of investment-led growth". Significant investments in countries with extremely inflexible labor laws such as France will not come out of any country other than France (or maybe China). So something has to give.
I'm wishing President Macron good fortune in breaking the stranglehold of the unions and the 3000 pages of labor code.
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Alisdair Hamilton-Wilkes May 15, 2017

I am confused by Mr Varoufakis; rejecting Le Pen makes sense on almost any and every level, one simply cannot ignore some thoroughly odious policies and statements. However, the logic to this article and his posture regarding the EU and EZ is broken.

Herr Shauble and Shulze are against ‘fixing’ the Euro Zone because their electorates are firmly against it (in fact the German electorate was never really in favour of moving from the DM). Doing or appearing to do what your electorate wants in order to get elected is rather an essential point of democracy, even if it does look undignified and hypocritical sometimes.

Mr Varoufakis’s hopes and desires for the Euro Zone and the Diem25 manifesto are doomed to failure because they cannot be democratically achieved –there is no pan-European demos.

What the French, Greeks and Italians want is not what the German, Dutch and Finnish want. The ‘deep establishment’ can ignore this fact and push ahead and risk an even more severe backlash or it can hunker down and try to keep the EZ show on the road but it cannot reconcile so many electorates.
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Andrew (Andy) Crow May 15, 2017

"For Macron, a true progressive must not only support reforms that strengthen employers’ right to dismiss and manage workers; equally important are increases in social security for those losing their jobs, training in new skills, and incentives to take up new jobs."

The trouble with this position is that the second part never happens. Rather like (as you describe it, Yanis) Macron will do his bit to appease the Germans in the economic field and then politely ask to have his reward for being a good boy. And Germany will say 'nein'. Nein danke)

The employers will simply pocket their increased profits (and ship them offshore) and the comfortably employed 'insiders' will berate the dispossessed as workshy scroungers.

I don't see that Macron has any cards he can play. Le Pen didn't either, but she was prepared to kick over the table if there wasn't a new deal.
(cf Grexit is not the objective, but it may be the lesser of two evils as you describe the Greek position in your new book.)

Progressives opposing Macron in France (Oppose? How?) will simply be labelled as insurgent trouble-makers: anti French, backward-looking disaffected losers who can't hack it in the modern world. The media will have a field day.

Another victory for the fourth Reich? Maybe I am unduly pessimistic.
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Steve Hurst May 15, 2017

'The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples' money' Margret Thatcher

‘I’m afraid there is no money.’ Note left by Liam Byrne Chief Sec Treasury, Labour Guvnt on leaving office after the General Election 2010, Labour having gorged on expenditure to the extent the economy was morbidly obese with debt

The one standout from the EU debtors club is they will fight reform and paying their bills. The idea, if anyone can be as bold as to call it an idea, is that somebody somewhere will find the dough (the North) or it will be printed, (which is just a sort of currency debasement for the entire bloc that use the currency). When there is no appetite for reform as a precursor to euro restructure there is zero chance of euro restructure

If Italy which has a numerically worse problem that France spat out Renzi rather than reform then what chance France.

'Macron’s greatest difficulty will be the same as Hollande’s: dealing with Germany' Yanis V
Nope - this should be as follows -
Macron’s greatest difficulty will be the same as Hollande’s: dealing with France
Bonne journée

BTW One could always say that France's total tax revenue at circa 45.5% v EU average was too high for comfort and one of FR's problems; as is in all probability the FR social tax which roughly doubles the cost of taking a new employee on. FR's problem looks to be too little disposable income in citizens pockets hence low consumption hence low investment, Public spending cannot replace private investment and with ZIRP there is no shortage of capital
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PIERFRANCESCO PIERANGELINI May 15, 2017

It's a bit strange support him before and after to say that his political reform are wrong. The realty is a man of establishment can't reform the chain of errors created by establishment http://bit.ly/2riUn2O
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Steve Hurst May 15, 2017

Flippertygibbertry
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Michael Public May 15, 2017

It is a tragedy of politics that when the proles (proletariat) feel hard done by, they jump on any bandwagon that lets them vent (Trump, Brexit, le Pen) and simply ignore the real solutions that are on offer (e.g. Us/UK Green party, DiEm25 etc) because they are complicated or their previous brainwashing (thanks to the general media) considers such solutions 'communist' or 'only for gays and vegetarians' or whatever.
- Alistair Newton May 15, 2017
  
  I am sorry but your assumption that Brexit vote in June was based entirely within the proletariat is completely off the mark.
  
  Although there were rural communities which feared that their culture was being completely subsumed with 60% of the primary school intake had parents born abroad, the main driving force behind Brexit came from an intellectual rejection of the concepts behind EUSSR.
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- Alisdair Hamilton-Wilkes May 15, 2017
  
  The Greens, certainly the Greens in the UK, and DiEm25 are a shambolic embarrassment; how they could actually run a country is utterly unclear. The DiEm25 'manifesto' runs to a whole 8 pages of fluffy statements.
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- Andrew (Andy) Crow May 15, 2017
  
  Cynical, Michael, but sadly apposite.
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Bravo, Président Macron – A présent, nous pouvons vous dire notre désaccord

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