DiEM25 hosted a riveting conversation in Berlin on October 7 between Yanis Varoufakis and Ece Temelkuran, and moderated by Özge İnan, aiming to answer the pressing question: “The EU is failing. What should we do?”

Saturday’s event held at Theater im Delphi delivered an invigorating dialogue, challenging perspectives and offering unique vantage points on the European Union‘s precarious situation.

Facing complex issues such as economic inequality, political divisions, and looming threats of conflict, the panel delved into nuanced discussions to diagnose the EU‘s current malaise and identify possible remedies.

Yanis Varoufakis, former Greek finance minister and co-founder of DiEM25, joined forces with Ece Temelkuran, an award-winning Turkish journalist, and Özge İnan, an acclaimed young journalist and author, to confront these issues head-on.

The discussion underscored the urgency for pragmatic, yet radical, changes that can sustainably reshape the lives of people in Europe. The need for a new social contract in Europe for global politics, with economic, social and climate justice at the centre, is the only way to combat the status quo in Europe – one that continually sees the EU fail in providing effective responses to crises, such as the war in Ukraine, migration, climate, housing, and the cost-of-living crisis.

The panellists offered different – yet often converging – viewpoints, aiming to move beyond the usual ideological entanglements that so often stifle constructive dialogue within the Left. The candid exchanges among Varoufakis, Temelkuran, and İnan set the stage for what may become a cornerstone for progressive, internationalist European thought going into crucial EU elections in 2024.

Yanis Varoufakis: “This is how I think of DiEM25 today: We are surfers. If you are a surfer, you must learn with patience. You swim out, it’s cold, it’s miserable. But what is your objective? Your objective is to be ready to catch the good wave when it comes. We [the Left] have missed all sorts of waves. We missed the good wave of 1929, we missed the good wave of 1945, we missed the good wave of 1968, of 1981, of 2008. We must not miss the next. Let’s catch the next wave—and let’s catch it together.”

Ece Temelkuran: “The fundamental contract of capitalism has cancelled the fundamental contract of democracy, which is equality. How did we gradually lose our faith in democracy? How will we change the fundamental conflict of our times? We are actually asking for democracy, with human dignity at the centre.”

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