Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has sued the German state after it imposed an entry ban on him, his MeRA25 party said on Thursday.
The party said in a statement:
“Faced with this clear violation of German and European legislation, and after consultations with MERA25 Germany and its legal team in Germany, Yanis Varoufakis is suing the German authorities in the German courts and reserves the right to appeal to the European ones, for infringement of basic rights and defamation.”
The party noted:
“The unprecedented decision by the German authorities in April to ban Yanis Varoufakis from entry and any political activity was only the beginning. The outrageous violations of every principle of the rule of law continued, in a Europe that is sinking more and more into totalitarianism.”
Calling European citizens to “stand against the arbitrary, totalitarian and brutal invocation of national security to abolish basic civil rights,” it added, “After all, nothing threatens the security of citizens, in Germany and the rest of Europe, like the loss of our basic rights!”
Yanis Varoufakis wrote on X:
“Yes, I am taking the German state to court. Primarily to defend the right of German citizens to know who accuses them, when, and under what rationale – information that the German state has scandalously denied me on the grounds of… national security!”
On 12 April, Berlin police dispersed the Palestinian Congress less than two hours after the event began. Police later cut the electricity and cancelled the last two days of the conference, which organisers said was intended to take stock of Germany’s military support for Israel’s brutal war in Gaza.
Germany also banned Varoufakis from entering Germany and barred him from participating in any political activity in the country or engaging in similar exchanges on the online platform Zoom.
In Germany, a staunch ally of Israel, the war in Gaza is provoking growing opposition as the Palestinian death toll approaches 35,000.
