Yanis Varoufakis, Greek economist and politician, Greek Minister of Finance
Ioannis "Yanis" Varoufakis (Greek: Ιωάννης Γεωργίου "Γιάνης" Βαρουφάκης, romanized: Ioánnis Georgíou "Giánis" Varoufákis, pronounced [ˈʝaniz varuˈfacis]; born 24 March 1961) is a Greek economist and politician. A former academic, he served as the Greek Minister of Finance from January to July 2015 under Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. He has been Secretary-General of MeRA25, a left-wing political party, since he founded it in 2018. A former member of Syriza, Varoufakis was a member of the Hellenic Parliament for Athens B from January to September 2015; he regained a parliamentary seat in July 2019.
Varoufakis was born in Athens in 1961. He studied mathematics and economics at the University of Birmingham and the University of Essex, where he obtained a PhD in economics. He then taught economics in the United Kingdom and then at the University of Sydney, before returning to Greece in 2000 to teach at the University of Athens.
In January 2015, Varoufakis was appointed Greek Minister of Finance. He led negotiations with Greece's creditors during the government-debt crisis. However, he failed to reach an agreement with the European troika (European Commission, European Central Bank, and International Monetary Fund) leading to the 2015 bailout referendum. The referendum rejected the troika bailout terms, and the day afterwards Varoufakis resigned as Minister of Finance, being replaced by Euclid Tsakalotos. On 24 August, Varoufakis voted against the third bailout package; in the ensuing September snap election, he did not stand for reelection. Varoufakis has since appeared in numerous debates, lectures and interviews. In February 2016, he launched the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) and subsequently backed a Remain vote in the 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum. In March 2018, he founded MeRA25, the "electoral wing" of DiEM25 in Greece. In the 2019 legislative election, MeRA25 was the sixth most voted-for party, amassing nine parliamentary seats, with Varoufakis himself returning to the Hellenic Parliament.