DiEM25

Germany's far-right AfD just won two state elections in two weeks, and the chancellor's own party came fifth in one of them. The pattern is European: the far-right vote grows by about a third after a financial crash.

Yanis Varoufakis and Grace Blakeley on how Europe's centrists built that base, and what the left does now. Hosted by Mehran Khalili.

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Grace Blakeley (site): https://graceblakeley.substack.com/ Yanis Varoufakis (site): https://yanisvaroufakis.eu Mehran Khalili (newsletter): https://mehrankhalili.com/subscribe

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On 6 September the AfD won 43.8% in Saxony-Anhalt — the best result the German far right has ever had. The CDU, which had run the state for 24 years, was cut in half. Turnout jumped from 60% to 78%.

This wasn't apathy. Around 170,000 people who hadn't been voting came out to vote AfD. Half the self-employed backed them. Nearly half of salaried employees.

Julijana Zita, host of Counter Stream and based in Germany, joins Mehran Khalili to work through what happened, why the firewall isn't holding, why Die Linke had its worst ever result in that state, and what the left across Europe should take from it.

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Julijana Zita: https://x.com/julijana_zita Mehran Khalili (newsletter on effective activism): https://mehrankhalili.com/subscribe

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Recorded at the 6th DiEM25 Academy in Prague, this fishbowl-style discussion takes on one of the most difficult questions facing our movement: how can DiEM25 speak credibly about peace, security and anti-militarism in Eastern Europe?

Since the escalation of Russia's war on Ukraine, DiEM25's anti-NATO position has faced deep suspicion across former Eastern Bloc and non-EU European countries, where NATO and EU membership are often understood not as abstract geopolitical choices, but as protection against Russian domination. Participants from Poland, Romania, Hungary, North Macedonia, Germany, Greece, Belgium and beyond bring their own histories into the room: memories of state socialism, the trauma of post-1989 neoliberal shock therapy, inequality, national humiliation, propaganda, and the lived experience of being caught between empires.

The conversation moves beyond the false binary of NATO versus Russia. It asks how the Left can reject both Putin's imperialism and NATO's militarised order without sounding naïve, indifferent or detached from the fears of people in the region. Speakers discuss "campism", polarisation, the failures of Western left messaging, and the need to connect anti-war politics to everyday struggles: falling living standards, social cuts, privatisation and the enrichment of elites on all sides.

What emerges is a call for a third option: not submission to NATO, not accommodation with Russian power, but a democratic European security architecture based on diplomacy, treaties, dialogue, class solidarity and the shared interests of people across borders.

A necessary, uncomfortable and deeply honest conversation about what anti-war politics must become if it is to mean anything in Europe today.

This week the UK banned Hasan Piker from entering the country, claiming his presence was "not conducive to the public good" — but it's clearly over his stance on Gaza. He was due to speak at SXSW London and the Oxford Union. Two years ago, Germany did the same to Yanis Varoufakis, banned around a pro-Palestine conference in Berlin.

Hasan and Yanis compare notes: liberal governments silencing people over Gaza, a free-speech right that goes quiet when the speech is pro-Palestinian, and what the left does about it. When opposing a genocide gets you barred at the border, what's left of "free speech"?

Hosted by Mehran Khalili

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Yanis Varoufakis (site): https://yanisvaroufakis.eu Hasan Piker (Twitch): https://www.twitch.tv/hasanabi Mehran Khalili (newsletter on effective activism): https://mehrankhalili.com/subscribe

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We're back with another live AMA with Yanis Varoufakis.

The floor is yours. From geopolitics and economics to technology, culture, and beyond — your questions drive the conversation, and nothing is off limits.

Hosted by Mehran Khalili.

FOLLOW THE SPEAKERS: Yanis Varoufakis (site): https://yanisvaroufakis.eu Mehran Khalili (newsletter on effective activism): https://mehrankhalili.com/subscribe SUPPORT US Join: https://diem25.org/join ​ Donate: https://diem25.org/donate Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/c/DiEM25official

Germany pioneered Europe's crackdown on Palestine solidarity, and Britain is catching up fast — proscribing solidarity groups as terrorist organisations, criminalising slogans, and threatening to ban the marches altogether.

What the official story leaves out: the anti-genocide Jewish voices being written out of "the Jewish community." They have been silenced, expelled from parties, and accused of antisemitism for opposing a genocide.

The same establishment that pushed Corbyn out now decides who's allowed to speak as a Jew. In this livestream, Yanis Varoufakis is joined by James Schneider — co-founder of Momentum and Jeremy Corbyn's former Communications Director, currently serving as Communications Director for Progressive International — to take on what's happening in Britain, Labour's collapse, what's coming across Europe, and what resistance looks like now.

FOLLOW THE SPEAKERS: Yanis Varoufakis (site): https://yanisvaroufakis.eu James Schneider: https://x.com/schneiderhome Mehran Khalili (newsletter on effective activism): https://mehrankhalili.com/subscribe SUPPORT US Join: https://diem25.org/join ​ Donate: https://diem25.org/donate Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/c/DiEM25official

The Iran war isn't just a Middle East story: it's landing on Europe right now, in energy bills, in supply chains, in political calculations from Berlin to Rome. And the questions most people are asking aren't being answered clearly anywhere.

How exposed are we in Europe really, and why? Who gets hit hardest? What will this crisis do to European politics as elections approach — and how will people express their anger?

In this livestream, Wolfgang Munchau joins Yanis Varoufakis and Mehran Khalili for a live conversation that goes beyond the headlines: what's actually happening, what it means for ordinary people across Europe, and what — if anything — can still be done.

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Yanis Varoufakis (site): https://yanisvaroufakis.eu Wolfgang Munchau: https://x.com/EuroBriefing Mehran Khalili (newsletter on effective activism): https://mehrankhalili.com/subscribe

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Your chance to put Yanis Varoufakis on the spot. Politics, economics, philosophy — or something completely unexpected. Nothing is off the table. Join us live as Yanis answers questions submitted by you. Hosted by Mehran Khalili.

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Yanis Varoufakis (site): https://yanisvaroufakis.eu Mehran Khalili (newsletter): https://mehrankhalili.com/subscribe

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Join: https://diem25.org/join Donate: https://diem25.org/donate Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/c/DiEM25official

As Europe rearms and conscription returns across the continent, what happens to those who refuse to fight?

In the first episode of a new Frontline series on conscientious objection, host Mehran Khalili speaks to Yurii Sheliazhenko — a Ukrainian legal scholar, pacifist, and winner of the Seán MacBride Peace Prize. He's been a declared conscientious objector since 1998.

Two weeks before this interview, Yurii was grabbed off the street in Kyiv, beaten, pepper-sprayed, and held for two days without a lawyer. He now faces trial for "justifying Russian aggression" — based on a document he wrote that condemns Russia's invasion.

His trial is on 13 May. With wars escalating and military spending exploding, Yurii's story is no longer just about Ukraine. It's about what happens to all of us when our governments tell us to fight.

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Yurii Sheliazhenko (his organisation): https://pacifism.org.ua/en/about Mehran Khalili (newsletter on effective activist tactics): https://mehrankhalili.com/subscribe

SHOW NOTES

Support Yurii:

- Sign the petition to drop charges against him: https://worldbeyondwar.org/yurii-sheliazhenko-abducted/

Get involved in the conscientious objection movement:

- War Resisters' International: https://wri-irg.org - European Bureau for Conscientious Objection: https://ebco-beoc.org - Connection e.V. (CO support across Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Europe): https://en.connection-ev.org Read more:

- Responsible Statecraft on Ukraine's forced conscription crisis: https://responsiblestatecraft.org/ukraine-recruitment-army/ - The Progressive on Ukraine's pacifists (interview with Yurii, February 2026): https://progressive.org/latest/ukraines-pacifists-in-a-country-at-war-toesland-20260225/ - Books recommended by Yurii:

- Erica Chenoweth & Maria J. Stephan, Why Civil Resistance Works - WRI's Handbook for Nonviolent Campaigns (free): https://wri-irg.org/en/story/handbook-nonviolent-campaigns SUPPORT DiEM25 Join → https://diem25.org/join Donate → https://diem25.org/donate

Opposition to the Iran war exists, in the polls, on the streets, across Europe. But it isn't translating into political pressure. Why not? And what would it take to change that? In this livestream, Yanis Varoufakis and Grace Blakeley examine the structural barriers keeping anti-war sentiment from becoming anti-war power, and what resistance could actually look like from here. Hosted by Mehran Khalili.

FOLLOW THE SPEAKERS

Grace Blakeley (site): https://graceblakeley.substack.com/ Yanis Varoufakis (site): https://yanisvaroufakis.eu Mehran Khalili (newsletter): https://mehrankhalili.com/subscribe

SUPPORT US

Join DiEM25: https://diem25.org/join ​ Donate to DiEM25: https://diem25.org/donate Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/c/DiEM25official