MeRA25

This article is about a Greek political party. For the German political party, see MERA25.

The European Realistic Disobedience Front (Greek: Μέτωπο Ευρωπαϊκής Ρεαλιστικής Ανυπακοής), or MeRA25 (Greek: ΜέΡΑ25), is a left-wing Greek political party founded in 2018. Its founder and General Secretary is former Syriza MP and Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis. MeRa25 is part of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25),^[7] the European Spring, and the Progressive International.^[8] Τhe movement sets the horizon for the year 2025 to draft a democratic constitution that will replace all the European treaties that are in force today. Yet, it failed to elect representatives in both the 2019 and 2024 European elections. ^[9][10] A party of the same name, allied with the Greek party, was founded in Germany in 2021.^[11]

European Realistic Disobedience Front Μέτωπο Ευρωπαϊκής Ρεαλιστικής Ανυπακοής Μétopo Evropaikís Realistikís Anypakoís
Abbreviation	MeRA25
General Secretary	Yanis Varoufakis
Spokesperson	Kleon Grigoriadis
Founded	27 March 2018
Headquarters	Patision 122, Athens
Ideology	Anti-austerity[1] Syndicalism[2] Market socialism[3] Democratic socialism[4] Pro-Europeanism[5]
Political position	Left-wing[6]
European affiliation	DiEM25
International affiliation	Progressive International
Colours	Orange-red
Hellenic Parliament	0 / 300
European Parliament (Greece)	0 / 21
Website
mera25.gr
Politics of Greece Political parties Elections

History

MeRA25 was founded on 27 March 2018 by former Greek Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis. The party's formation was announced during a special event in Athens.^[12] In December 2018 former Syriza member and MEP Sofia Sakorafa joined the party.^[13]

The party contested the 2019 European Parliament election as part of DiEM25.^[14] It narrowly failed to win a European Parliament seat.^[15] In the 2019 Greek legislative elections, MeRA25 gained 9 seats and 3.44% of the vote.^[16]

MeRA25 stood in the May 2023 Greek legislative election as part of the "Alliance for Rupture", a coalition with fellow left-wing party Popular Unity, with "For the first time, rupture" as its primary slogan.^[17] The party received less than the 3% vote share required to receive seats in the Hellenic Parliament, with party leader Yanis Varoufakis releasing a statement blaming Syriza's leadership for the conservative victory, and stating that "Our own defeat tonight will be put under the microscope of our rigorous self-criticism".^[18] In the following June snap election MeRA25's voteshare declined further, ending with 2.5% of the vote, with Varoufakis releasing another statement blaming the result on the lack of a progressive front, claiming the result was "disproving the narrative that MeRA25 is falling apart" and stating that "Never have our people needed such a Left in Parliament more than they do now. And never will such a Left be missing more from Parliament".^[19]

Old logo of the Party

MeRA25 stood in the 2024 european parliament elections where it failed to elect an MEP or reach the 3% mark by an even larger margin than the 2019 elections but with a slightly smaller margin than the June 2023 elections.^[20]

Name

Without capitalisation, the letters of ΜέΡΑ25, μέρα (mera), spell the Greek word for "day", mirroring the Latin diem and thus showing the party's connection with DiEM25.

Positions

The party presents itself as an alliance of "Left, Green and Liberal Greeks", standing on the grounds European internationalism, economic rationality and social emancipation. It plans to introduce a "European Green New Deal", as a solution to the postmodern version of the Great Depression.^[21]

In Greece, its core 7 legislative policy proposals are:

• Restructuring the national debt
• Reducing primary surpluses
• Creating a public debt restructuring company
• The general reduction of tax rates
• Creating a public digital payment platform
• Converting HRADF into a development bank
• Respecting paid work and creative entrepreneurship^[22]

Election results

Hellenic Parliament

Election	Hellenic Parliament					Rank	Government	Leader
	Votes	%	±pp	Seats won	+/−
2019	194,232	3.44%	New	9 / 300	New	6th	Opposition	Yanis Varoufakis
May 2023	155,085	2.63%	−0.81	0 / 300	9	8th	Extra-parliamentary
Jun 2023	130,276	2.50%	−0.13	0 / 300	0	9th	Extra-parliamentary

European Parliament

European Parliament
Election	Votes	%	±pp	Seats won	+/−	Rank	Leader	EP Group
2019	162,328	<3.00%[lower-alpha 1]	New	0 / 21	New	7th	Yanis Varoufakis	−
2024	101,127	2.54%	-0.45	0 / 21	0	9th

1. 49 votes below 3%

See also

• Anti-austerity movement in Greece
• Civil disobedience
• Civil resistance
• Democracy in Europe Movement 2025
• European United Left–Nordic Green Left
• Syriza

References

1. "Greek conservatives win first post bailout general elections: first official results". Xinhua. 8 July 2019. Archived from the original on 7 July 2019. MeRA 25 (Day 25), an anti-austerity party founded by former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis is estimated to receive 3.4 percent of votes and the newly founded Right-wing nationalistic Greek Solution (Elliniki Lysi) 3.7 percent of votes.
2. "Ασφάλιση εργαζομένων, Συνδικαλισμός" [Worker Insurance, Syndicalism]. Οι Θέσεις του ΜέΡΑ25 [The Policies of MeRA25] (PDF). 2021. pp. 63–64.
3. Yanis Varoufakis: From an Economics without Capitalism to Markets without Capitalism | DiEM25, 26 January 2021, retrieved 16 October 2021
4. Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "Greece". Parties and Elections in Europe.
5. "Will MeRA25 bring the bright day that Greece has been waiting for?". Open Democracy. 29 March 2018. MeRA25 is, as of this Monday, the only pro-European party in Greece that is proposing the end of austerity.
6. "Greece". Europe Elects.
7. "Το όνομα του νέου κόμματος αποκάλυψε ο Γιάνης Βαρουφάκης | Kathimerini". Kathimerini. 14 February 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
8. "Βαρουφάκης-Σάντερς ιδρύουν την Προοδευτική Διεθνή". efsyn.gr. Archived from the original on 2 February 2019. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
9. "No MEP seat for DiEM25". 28 May 2019. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
10. "MERA25 falls short but our objectives remain the same". 10 June 2024. Retrieved 27 June 2024.
11. "DiEM25 gründet Bundespartei MERA25". 16 November 2021.
12. "Έδωσε το στίγμα του "ΜεΡΑ25"". efsyn.gr. Archived from the original on 4 February 2019. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
13. "Στο ΜέΡΑ25 η Σοφία Σακοράφα UPD". efsyn.gr. Archived from the original on 28 January 2019. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
14. "Το ΜέΡΑ25 μπροστά σε ευρωεκλογές και εθνικές εκλογές". Η Εφημερίδα των Συντακτών (in Greek). 24 November 2018. Archived from the original on 17 February 2019. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
15. "Χάνει την έδρα το ΜΕΡΑ25 του Γιάνη Βαρουφάκη". thepressroom.gr (in Greek). 28 May 2019. Retrieved 28 May 2019.
16. ^{[dead link]}
17. Kouvelakis, Stathis (19 May 2023). "Greece's Radical Left Is Fighting to Overcome Syriza's Legacy". Jacobin. Archived from the original on 21 May 2023. Retrieved 21 May 2023.
18. Comms, MeRA25 (21 May 2023). "Statement by MeRA25 Greece leader Yanis Varoufakis on Greek election result - MeRA25 Comms". DiEM25. Retrieved 22 May 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
19. Comms, MeRA25 (25 June 2023). "MeRA25: Statement from Yanis Varoufakis on the Greek election results". DiEM25. Retrieved 25 June 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
20. "ΜέΡΑ25: Και τώρα;" efsyn.gr (in Greek) 14-06-24
21. "MeRA25: a new Greek political party". openDemocracy. 13 March 2018. Retrieved 17 February 2019.
22. "Βαρουφάκης: Αυτά είναι τα επτά σημεία του πολιτικού προγράμματος του "ΜέΡΑ 25"". news247.gr (in Greek). 26 March 2018. Retrieved 27 January 2019.

External links

• Official English-language party program
• Candidate list for the EU elections 2024
• Official Greek website
• Official DiEM25 website