Varoufakis: Britain Should Stay in the EU to Stem Germany’s Advance

Britain should stay in the European Union because a Brexit would destroy the continent’s unity and Germany will be the new ruler of Europe, said Greece’s former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, the outspoken economist also criticized the euro zone saying that the single currency suffers from a “design fault.”

Varoufakis said that if he were British he would vote against a Brexit in the upcoming referendum. He told the Daily Mail reporter that if Britain leaves, the EU will disintegrate.

“If, by leaving, Britain accelerates that, my fear is for a great depression in the heart of Europe that will suck Britain in,” he said. Even if Britain is outside the EU, he elaborated, “There will be a new Germanic league. Germany, Austria, the Netherlands will become a deutschmark zone. Maybe they will call the currency the Bismark or something. There will be a north-eastern, Calvinist Europe all the way to Finland and its currency will go through the roof.”

And he continued: “There will be a massive reduction in exports from that zone. So millions of people will become unemployed, unleashing unpleasant political consequences. In the rest of Europe it will lead to high inflation as the new currencies depreciate and there will be very high unemployment too. In this kind of Europe, how do you think Britain is going to fare?”

Speaking of his political group, the Democracy In Europe Movement, Varoufakis said that his first goal is transparency in EU politics.

“The British people do not know what goes on in Brussels, and that creates a phobia,” he said.

The second aim is that central banks should “help us shift idle cash into productive investments” instead of undertaking more quantitative easing money-printing.

“We should have funding into infrastructure and into start-ups. We have a serious lack of venture capital funding compared with the United States for start-ups. There is a dearth of investment for them,” he said.