We, the Euromemo group, feel compelled to speak out against Germany’s recent decision to deny the former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis entry to the country.
On 12 April, Germany’s Interior Ministry prevented Varoufakis’s participation in the Palestine Congress, a conference in Berlin, alongside the British-Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu Sitta, Rector of the University of Glasgow, and the Palestinian researcher Salman Abu Sitta. The German authorities also banned Varoufakis’s political activities in Germany.
These German decisions are in sharp violation of the basic principles of the European Union, including the freedom of movement, freedom of thought, and freedom of speech and assembly. Because there was no legal basis for the ban, these decisions to deny basic rights to an EU citizen violate also the rule of law.
We express our concern about the state of European democracy and the rule of law and urge the EU bodies to tackle the issue immediately and decisively.
For our analysis of the Israel–Hamas 2023-24 war and the growing turmoil in the world, see chapter 6 of Euromemorandum 2024.
On behalf of the EuroMemo Group, the Steering Committee
