Rearming Europe is the EU's next folly, Yanis Varoufakis tells Euronews
Economist, politician and the former Greek finance minister welcomed the easing of the German debt brake but believes that defence spending will not generate growth where it is needed.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/03/10/rearming-europe-is-the-eus-next-folly-says-yanis-varoufakis
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Economist, politician and the former Greek finance minister welcomed the easing of the German debt brake but believes that defence spending will not generate growth where it is needed.
READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2025/03/10/rearming-europe-is-the-eus-next-folly-says-yanis-varoufakis
Subscribe to our channel. Euronews is available on Dailymotion in 12 languages
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NewsTranscript
00:00Faced with the U.S. withdrawal, the EU 27 are taking their security back into their
00:10own hands.
00:13The member states have approved a plan to rearm Europe with a budget of 800 billion
00:17euros.
00:18However, on the left, some contentious voices are raised against European rearmament.
00:25Europe's rearmament is the next great folly of the European Union.
00:29It's going to make us less safe.
00:32It will make life nastier, more brutish, shorter in Europe.
00:36It will certainly dissolve what social fabric we have left after 20, 30 years of crisis.
00:44It is a way to weaken Europe in the name of making it stronger.
00:50The European Commission has proposed that member countries deviate from the EU's rules
00:54of budgetary orthodoxy to finance their defense spending.
00:59For his part, the future German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has opened the door to an
01:03end to the debt break to enable Germany to finance its own rearmament.
01:09This represents a 180-degree turnaround for this prudent state, which was notably in favor
01:14of restructuring Greek debt during the 2009 crisis.
01:20The former Greek finance minister welcomes this paradigm shift with some reservations.
01:26Of course I welcome the end of this debt break, but there is no silver lining here
01:32because Mr. Merz, the way he's announcing it, it is clear that what he wants to do is
01:35he wants to indulge in military Keynesianism.
01:37Instead of investing in life, he's investing mostly in death.
01:42And that, even if you look at it from a realistic economic, macroeconomic point of view, it's
01:47not going to generate the growth where it is necessary.
01:54When asked whether pacifism might be similar to giving Vladimir Putin a blank check to
01:58invade neighboring countries, he replies that pacifism is never a good response to invasion,
02:04but that opting for endless war isn't rational either.