Valve's former economist, now a member of parliament in Greece, is being put on trial for promoting drug use because he admitted to taking ecstasy 36 years ago
Yanis Varoufakis is probably the only Greek parliamentarian with a background in the videogame industry, having been the economist-in-residence at Valve before he was elected in 2015 and then made finance minister. Nowadays he's general secretary of MeRA25, the European Realistic Disobedience Front, a political party he founded as part of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025.
And now, per Reuters, he'll have to stand trial on a charge of promoting drug use for mentioning on a podcast that he took ecstasy once, at a Kylie Minogue concert in Australia, in 1989.
In his own video response, Varoufakis explained the comment was made in response to a direct question about whether he ever took drugs, and in a context that made it clear he does not promote them. "Determined not to do a Bill Clinton," he said, "remember that laughable 'I didn't inhale' quip? I said I had. Apart from pot, I told them I had one experience 36 years ago in Sydney of taking ecstasy. It was pleasant. I danced for 16 hours non-stop effortlessly. But then, I added, it gave me such a migraine for a week that I never used again. That was my introduction to making the point that no matter how pleasant drug-taking may seem there is a price to pay."
The original conversation may be almost entirely in Greek, but it's worth checking out for the framing. Called 3026: Human Algorithm, it's set up as an interview 1,000 years in the future, with the hosts dressed as characters from B-grade sci-fi, asking questions about the past on behalf of a supercomputer. It's clearly aimed at a younger audience, and Varoufakis telling a story about a wild night he had while he was in Sydney for Mardi Gras is presented as a tale of misspent youth. It's followed by the hosts asking why people in the 21st century didn't talk about their drug use, which Varoufakis answers by explaining the dated concept of "hypocrisy".
While the whole brouhaha may seem ridiculous, the MeRA25 party is taking it seriously, saying in a statement, "Although the Greek justice system's stance on this case has provided a lot of laughter in Greek society, even to those who are not supporters of MeRA25 and its secretary, this story is still dangerous. The idea of putting the head of a political party on trial for mentioning his experience with drugs many decades ago is not a random and innocent blunder. It is a message of a justice system that turns a blind eye to power and hunts down anyone who does not kneel before it."
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