Former Greek finance minister and economist Yanis Varoufakis has warned that fascism is re-surging in global politics, with extremist ideas gaining influence even in countries where the far-right is not in power.
Speaking in Sydney as a guest of the Australia Institute, he told the crowd he feels “that surge of fascism darkening in my soul … darkening our doorsteps”.
“We are in the clasps of fascism, in the United States, in Germany, in France, even when they have not won government.”
“They don’t need to win government anymore, when the social democrats are carrying out their own policies.”
Varoufakis argues global elites are following a “blueprint for the revival of fascism”, one he imagines dictators Mussolini, Hitler and Franco might have written “had [they] gotten together in 1945”.
He told the audience the modern “manual” starts by attacking crony capitalism, big business and financial elite — views traditionally associated with the political left – before turning against democratic institutions such as public broadcasters and universities.
Citing US President Donald Trump as an example, he said a defining tactic is to exploit economic frustration.
“They try to unite, with a lot of success, the victims of neoliberalism … with people who are nostalgic for the neoliberal system.”
He said the strategy works by tapping into the anger of those who feel left behind by economic change – people who have lost jobs or fallen into poverty.
Populist leaders then promise to “make you proud again” and return the country to a mythical “golden past” while also “purifying the body of the nation”.
“The moment they win power, the fascists go into bed with big business and big finance. Donald Trump promised to drain the swamp, to shut down the Wall Street bankers. And what does he do? He picks up the CEO of Goldman Sachs … and [in his first term] makes him treasury secretary.”
The former finance minister – who rose to global prominence during Greece’s debt crisis – told an audience in Adelaide that when people start feeling betrayed and discontent, the fictitious manual would recommend fascists “start a war and … start bombing other people”.
Conflict has spread across the Middle East since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on 28 February 2026.
Al Jazeera journalist Maram Humaid has reported concerns that the war is shifting global attention from Gaza, leaving Israel under less scrutiny as it continues to attack “a population already suffering from a genocidal war that has lasted for more than two years”.
Mr Varoufakis told his audience in Sydney, “We live at a time when the moral clarifier of this generation is the stance we take on Palestine.”
“If this was 1938, the moral clarifier would be, are we defending Jewish life from the Nazis?”
He said his understanding of fascism was shaped as a child growing up under Greece’s military dictatorship, recalling a visit to his uncle “who had just been tortured and incarcerated by the secret police”.
The economist turned politician listed “community organising” as the most important step in combating the rise of fascism.
“Never before has the old cliché, ‘act local, think global’, never has it been more pertinent. And now it is important not to leave it there. It is important to find ways of bringing together your community organising with electoral politics with creating a political party.”
Having lived in Australia for more than a decade from the late 1980s, he also urged Australians to “abandon the ALP”.
“The ALP has lost its soul. It will never find it again. Support the Greens. Create a new party. This is what we did in Greece.
“In doing this, you raise your soul.”
