I’m not fan of Yanis Varoufakis. Actually I never been and I blame him for a lot but… it was Evelyn Beatrice Hall who using somebody called S.G. Tallentyre from her book ‘The Friends of Voltaire’ who wrote “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” And you probably have read this quote tens of hundreds of times and you have realized that it includes the fundamentals of freedom of speech.
Freedom of speech equals democracy. Period.
And all western states pride to be democracy with European Union members feeling the champions. And Germany is a founder member of the European Union. The democratic European Union. The champion of freedom of speech European Union.
Germany’s interior ministry issued a “betätigungsverbot” against Yanis Varoufakis, a ban on any political activity. Not just a ban from visiting Germany but also from participation in Zoom events hosted in the country.
Let’s say it again. Germany is a founder member of EU and the European Union is proud to champion freedom of speech.
Obviously the German government has misunderstood how democracy works, something George Orwell reminds us, “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”
German government by banning a citizen of an EU state ban of any political activity with all that means for democracy and freedom of speech proves that the evil past is not far in past and definitely not long forgotten.
The Ovi 