After Orban

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The electoral defeat of Victor Orban and the indescribable behavior of Trump lead to the conclusion that the political potential of populist right wingers is limited and a better theoretical basis is required for the “Freedom movement”.

Greece experimented with a bicameral parliamentary system but finally opted for a unicameral alternative. The demands of universal suffrage can be satisfied if only one of the two (or more?) parliamentary chambers is based on universal suffrage but the possibility of this is obviously dependent on the institution of at least two parliamentary chambers.

There are many disadvantages to universal suffrage and historically it has  not applied everywhere in the parliamentary system. Experience during the COVID “pandemic” suggests that most people want to follow the dictates of what they perceive as “authority” and in many cases also to target their fellow-citizens who are perceived (by “authority”) to be defying authority.  This applies as much to the Left as to the Right, because the Right want the Left to be “opposition” and the Left want to be seen as “relevant players” and not as conspiracy theorists or something unacceptable like that.

Ιt should not be taboo to see all these as simple matters of fact. The desideratum is to find ways of minimizing their negative consequences. Would providing an alternative to voting based on universal suffrage help towards achieving such an objective? Sortition (choosing politicians by means of a lottery) had a part to play in the ancient Athenian democracy and should be included among techniques to be given rational consideration. The most obvious relevant problem would be that it could result in the elevation of inappropriate people. This could be countered by having a court whose task would be to identify not who would be suitable to play a part in public life but who would NOT be suitable. Citizens who feel that they are called upon to be public figures (or to propose somebody else for such a role) should be encouraged to state this publicly and then the court (with assistance from input from the general public) should decide who is to be excluded.

Experience suggests that in any case the population is better at deciding what they DON’T want than they are at making useful constructive proposals. The selection of the politicians would be made by sortition from among the eligible candidates, who would then comprise a second parliamentary chamber.  The parliamentarians in this chamber would speak as individuals, would be off-limits to journalists and other would-be intermediaries and would communicate directly with the public and with their colleagues. There would continue to be the politics and the politicians we know now but they would be competing for a mandate with the second chamber. Which chamber would make decisions and which would be advisory would be determined by the outcome of a referendum to be held every five years or other agreed period and there would be no other referenda.

The political base of the second chamber would be people who have indicated that they do not wish to vote for the politicians and candidates in the first chamber and they would not be allowed to do so unless they had made a decision to join or rejoin the electorate for the first chamber. This idea was first discussed among people of our acquaintance during the COVID lockdowns by participants in the World Freedom  Alliance and is on record, with further elaboration, at https://www.halva.proboards.com/post/2531   

Varoufakis has said that the ideal would be for power to be in the hands of people who “don’t want power”.  But he has not elaborated on how such an idea might be achievable, so that it remains something like idle chat, however interesting as an insight.

https://www.halva.proboards.com/post/2531

https://www.halva.proboards.com/post/3245

https://www.halva.proboards.com/post/3253

Why everything feels broken

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUXiMi4bY68

Yanis Varoufakis and Grace Blakeley: “Why everything feels broken”

Minute 7.50: (Grace: “One of my favourite Greek Marxist theorists, other than you (Yanis Varoufakis) is Nikos Poulantzas.”

Question to AI: Why did Nikos Poulantzas commit suicide?

AI response:

Nicos Poulantzas, a prominent Marxist theorist, died by suicide on October 3, 1979, at age 43 by jumping from a window in Paris. While the exact reasons are private, reports suggest it was driven by personal despair, feelings of intellectual failure regarding his work, and the pressures of political disillusionment.

Feelings of Failure: Witness accounts suggest that shortly before his death, Poulantzas expressed that his theoretical work was worthless and that he had failed in his efforts.

Political Disillusionment: He was reportedly disappointed by the, at the time, perceived failure of Euro-Communism and the lack of understanding or support within activist groups.

Personal and Professional Stress: Accounts note he was under significant pressure and felt personal despair, possibly compounded by not being granted a professorship.

Context of Death: He committed suicide by jumping from the apartment of a friend in Paris.

His death is often cited as a profound loss to Marxist theory and a, as described in a Duke University Press article, “symbolic death of Marxism” to some, although the precise, intimate reasons remain part of an “inexplicable tragedy”.

Response to Varoufakis-Khalili-Blakeley video

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To: <editor@tribunemag.co.uk>

Attention Grace Blakeley .

(editor, please forward)

Dear Grace Blakeley,

Thank you for your contribution in this video: https://www.youtube.com/live/C4zreB1805o

I am writing to you from Aegina in Greece, the island on which Yanis Varoufakis has his second home. DiEM25 got off to a very early start here, but the performance was not sustained.

Yanis Varoufakis spoke to the group on a couple of occasions. Here is the first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyNfj52AVKw&t=48s\

I convened this meeting but I was not head of the DiEM25 group in Aegina. That was Erik Rooze, who was present in the audience. Now all these years later, yesterday (22nd February 2026) Erik and I met and discussed the present situation, including the Iran war but not only that. Erik and Yanis are still in communication. I made it clear to Erik yesterday (though he did not really need to be told) that I want absolutely nothing to do with Yanis or with DieM25 but I nevertheless believe that Yanis could make an important contribution to Greek, European and global politics.

After the summer 2016 beach meeting in Aegina where Yanis spoke, infighting broke out in the local DiEM25 group. I could not be bothered trying to wage the low-level fight that was required and I peacefully handed over the site and the organization to the new “leadership”, who did not take long to destroy DiEM25 in Aegina. I was not (and am not) at all interested in having anything more to do either with DiEM25 or with this kind of politics generally. I am also not interested in continued real-life personal involvement with the Cape Byron Lighthouse initiative but I will help with relevant translation into Greek in support of it.

Yanis is currently engaged in confrontation with Alexis Tsipras and has embarked on the same course as is to be seen everywhere that challenges to the status quo are being attempted (and in many cases where real challenges are probably not being attempted (is this true for the Tsipras case? Probably). Anyway, what happens is that there is a proliferation of rival small parties, some of them clearly being bankrolled for the purpose of sowing division.

This is not all that is to be said about Yanis. As I say, I think he could play an important role in Greek, European and global politics. My collaborator Nikos Vakolidis in Northern Greece (Ioannina) is of the same opinion, despite his own negative experience with DiEM25 and MERA25. He can tell the story about all that himself.

I think it would be best at this point to continue with an assortment of input compiled over a long period. Here goes:

To: Nikos Vakolidis

Would you support nominating Varoufakis as the “Lighthouse Keeper” for Aegina?

W.

https://lighthousedeclaration.org/

https://cafelockedout.com/what-if-you-could-see-silence/

From: <halva1@otenet.gr>

Subject: On the Cape Byron Lighthouse Project

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 at 21:01, Wayne Hall <enouranois@gmail.com> wrote:

Hello Mehran,

Thursday 19th. I received a phone call in the middle of the day today from Vangelis Venetis, who watched the discussion between Varoufakis and Jeffrey Sachs that you compered – “Stopping Europe’s War Project” and has also read the message about it I sent to you.

The war that Vangelis would be committed to averting would be the war against Iran, because that is where his expertise is focused. A month or two back he and I were discussing the Lighthouse Declaration and I suggested that he might like to become a “Lighthouse Keeper”. What that involves you can begin to see from this video which I am currently subtitling:

https://clubgrubbery.com.au/graham-and-john-speak-to-representatives-from-the-lighthouse-foundation/

In the “Stopping Europe’s War Project” video Jeffrey Sachs made the point that the War Project could be stopped from one day to the next with a change of Chancellor in Germany. What are Reiner Fuellmich’s prospects? At this moment he is prison. But Nelson Mandela was in prison before emerging as President of South Africa.

Last summer in Aegina at the annual film festivaI on the Kollatos estate I gave a presentation of the situation with Fuellmich. If you are short of time start at minute 1.05.20, where I announce the Lighthouse Declaration, which had just come to hand (for me) and which Reiner is now supporting. https://odysee.com/@World.Freedom.Alliance.Greece:4/ReinerFuellmichWhatIsToBeDone:3

Someone else who is committed to resisting Europe’s War Project is Dr.William Mallinson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ0ew7yJuBI&list=PLmkbtuHyNanzr6rdXgSB6Zu0OjSoLwBeY&index=27

Bill and Vangelis have agreed with the idea of our meeting together at the end of next week (say the 27th?) when I will be in Athens, to continue more or less the discussion we just saw you compering. My focus will be the Lighthouse Declaration. Do you have an alternative proposal?

I am ccing Nikos Vakolidis, just for his information because he is not in Athens

Hope we can manage it.

Wayne Hall

From: enouranois <enouranois2@gmail.com> Sent: Sunday, March 22, 2026 9:01 AM. To: Nikos Vako <nikosvako@hotmail.com> Subject: Fwd: On the Cape Byron Lighthouse Project

Niko that is an e-mail I sent to Mehran Khalili, inviting him to a meeting and subsequently asking him to send on related correspondence to Yanis Varoufakis. He refused.

W.

On Sun, Mar 22, 2026 at 10:46 AM Nikos Vako <nikosvako@hotmail.com> wrote: I would be surprised if he didn’t.

Nikos

Why? W.

Well, I think our past in DiEM25 maybe influences negatively his response to your requests. And the content of your email also might not be interesting to him, Reiner Fuellmich is labelled antivaxx and the lighthouse initiative also is from like-minded people. DiEM25 never questioned the science behind anti COVID measures. Of course they are allegedly pro free speech, against corruption, against oligarchs etc, but I don’t think they will support Reiner or the Lighthouse initiative. And a large part of DiEM25 didn’t support Julian Assange either, saying he is far right.

Nikos

Related Links

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6r-YEv3917c

https://main.cse-initiative.eu/?p=1473

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp860Pu1F0s

https://www.aeginaportal.gr/eidiseis/omilies/23835-omilia-gia-to-faro-tou-mpoyza-apo-ton-antinayarxo-irakli-kalogeraki.html

In this last link Vice-Admiral Heraklis Kalogerakis is speaking on the history of the Bouza lighthouse in Aegina. As a military man he is not willing himself to take on the activist political identity of the Lighthouse Keeper being demanded for the Cape Byron Lighthouse Declaration. My impression, though, is that he would not mind seeing Yanis Varoufakis as Aegina’s “Lighthouse Keeper”. After all, he came along to DiEM25 meetings when Erik was the head of DiEM25 in Aegina. This is English translation of an introduction he has written for a planned public meeting in Aegina: https://main.cse-initiative.eu/?p=1442

More links:

Response to Sir Niall Ferguson | CSE | Citizens’ Europe

Be true to your school | CSE | Citizens’ Europe

Electoral politics | CSE | Citizens’ Europe

Stratos Pantavos | CSE | Citizens’ Europe

Gabriel Shipton, Julian Assange and the Cape Byron Lighthouse project | CSE | Citizens’ Europe

Western Australian secession and Greece | CSE | Citizens’ Europe

Two eyes or one? | CSE | Citizens’ Europe

Virtue signaling | CSE | Citizens’ Europe

Bruce Pardy | CSE | Citizens’ Europe

THE IMPERIALIST SELF-JUSTIFICATIONS | CSE | Citizens’ Europe

Linguistic Politics | CSE | Citizens’ Europe

Dialogue with Australian writer Shelley Dark | CSE | Citizens’ Europe

Hugo Lennon | CSE | Citizens’ Europe

A message for Benjamin Franklin | CSE | Citizens’ Europe

Looking at democracy | CSE | Citizens’ Europe

Kanellos Patsios in Sydney | CSE | Citizens’ Europe

Capodistrias – Aegina | CSE | Citizens’ Europe

Dear Grace Blakeley,

I agree with Wayne Hall that Varoufakis could play an important role politically, at a national and international level.

We follow his activity and recently noticed also his presence as a speaker at a BRICS conference. I think it was something the Greek mainstream media didn’t focus on.

I am writing to you from Ioannina, capital of Epirus region, North-West Greece.I got involved in activism and politics after the 2015 Greek referendum and chose DiEM25 as the movement I would like to dedicate my forces to. Not because of Varoufakis, but for its orientation for a really democratic Europe. The internal procedures appeared really democratic to my eyes at that time and there were also specific proposals, specially when parties came out of the movement, on how corruption and lack of democracy could be fought.

I was the coordinator for several years of Ioannina1DSC of DiEM25 and of Ioannina MeRA25, the electoral branch of the movement. I participated at national and European elections with MeRA25 and been member of Health and Green Transition sectors of the party. In Ioannina the main issue we were fighting with other groups at that time was against fracking for oil and gas in the region. We gained recognition from the movement for our activity, which was remarkably intense compared to other cities.

Then we had the COVID period and I soon was on the part of those who rejected the narrative, the measures and, in the end the mRNA substance. The same period I campaigned also against 5G. In DiEM25 there were other like minded people on those issues, but not the majority and not campaigning intensively as I did. DiEM25 had made it clear that it supports the science in general and vaccines are science so they accepted this new product without questioning it from a medical-scientific point of view. There was never a vote in DiEM25 about that. Only the slogan “Universal but non mandatory!”. As for 5G, Yanis told me personally that “We have a problem with you!”, and even if I explained that there are a series of concerns on 5G, for example the energy it requires, he said “Some things we cannot avoid.”. I thought he was against the TINA concept… There wasn’t a vote in DiEM25 on 5G either.

I was brought several times in specific committees of the party, brought from my comrades in Ioannina, who demanded I should leave the party. They were unsuccessful until the movement decided at a paneuropean level that I should leave the party “for comparing the Holocaust and concentration camp ovens to mRNA injections and 5G antennas.”. Since then, the local group in Ioannina has not been particularly active.

After my first experience in politics, I think this idea of a party-movement combination is not something that can function properly and bring the changes DiEM25 envisioned for Europe.

Despite the bad experience for me in my first attempt as an active citizen, I repeat that I still believe YV could have an important role in global and national politics.

Nikos Vakolidis