Former Greek Finance Minister Varoufakis sues Germany over entry ban

ATHENS

Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has sued the German state after it placed an entry ban on him, his party MeRA25 announced Thursday.

“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 said in a statement.

“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,” the party noted.

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!”

On April 12, Berlin police broke up the Palestine Congress less than two hours after the event began.

Police later cut the power and canceled the final two days of the conference, which was supposed to take a critical look at Germany’s military support for Israel’s brutal war on Gaza, according to the organizers.

Germany also banned former Greek Minister Varoufakis from entering Germany and barred him from engaging in any political activities in the country or from participating in similar exchanges on online platform, Zoom.

In Germany, a staunch ally of Israel, the war on Gaza has stirred growing opposition as the Palestinian death toll nears 35,000.