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DiEM25

DiEM25 (Democracy in Europe Movement 2025) was founded by economist and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis in 2016, with the stated goal of democratising the European Union before it disintegrated — the "2025" being an original deadline, since passed. The movement has since evolved into a sustained transnational political organisation with chapters across Europe and affiliated national parties (MERA25 in Greece, and others).

Why it's notable for democracy watchers

DiEM25 is one of the few serious attempts to build a transnational democratic movement that addresses the legitimacy problem of supranational institutions. Most democracy reform work operates within national borders; DiEM25 grapples directly with the harder question: how do you democratise institutions like the European Central Bank, the Eurogroup, or the IMF that are structurally insulated from electoral accountability?

Their proposals include radical transparency for EU institutions, a pan-European constituent assembly, and coordinated cross-border political action — acknowledging that national-level democratic reform is insufficient when key decisions are made at a level that no national electorate can reach.

Position and caveats

DiEM25 has explicit left-progressive political positions — anti-austerity, pro-redistribution, sceptical of establishment liberalism. It is a political movement with a platform, not a nonpartisan research organisation. We monitor it here because the structural questions it raises about transnational democratic legitimacy are genuinely important regardless of one's views on its specific policy positions.