palimetakis 🇵🇸

An alliance of leftwing European political parties co-founded by former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has lost access to its bank account. The Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) said on Tuesday that its account was “closed suddenly and without warning” on 8 October, and the group has lost access to tens of thousands of euros. The organisation has not named the bank, citing legal reasons, but spokesperson Erik Edman said the account was held in Belgium. “We asked the bank for an explanation and requested an extension,” he told Novara Media. “It declined to explain its decision and refused the extension.” He said DiEM25 was unable to confirm “whether its decision was politically motivated”. However, he added, “through conversations with other organisations in Belgium, we have heard accounts suggesting a worrying pattern in which progressive political organisations appear to have been disproportionately affected by debanking.” The bank account was where DiEM25 supporters had been sending small monthly donations. Edman said it has two staff members and an office in Belgium and is at risk of being unable to pay salaries, social security contributions and rent there. The group has started an emergency fundraiser to cover its immediate costs and says it is looking for a new bank in Belgium. “Why did they do it?” Varoufakis, who is also DiEM25’s secretary general, said in a video statement. “You may say [it’s because] we are insufficiently supportive of the oligarchy, of genocide… but of course we couldn’t possibly comment.” Varoufakis served as an MP for DiEM25’s Greek offshoot, Mera25, between 2019 and 2023. He founded DiEM25 with Croatian philosopher and political activist Srećko Horvat in 2016. The 192,000-member organisation also has parties in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. In February, Varoufakis was indicted in Greece after saying on a podcast that he had taken ecstasy over 36 years ago in Australia. Mera25 described the prosecution as politically motivated, saying Greece's judiciary was going after “whoever refuses to bend the knee”.