It is not immediately obvious why anyone is still interested in the views of failed Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis, but as leader of the transnational “Democracy in Europe” movement (DiEM25), he still seems to influence some on the European left. In his latest article, he reiterates his increasingly contradictory views on why progressive politics is supposedly incompatible with leaving the European Union.

To his credit, Varoufakis at least recognizes that progressives “have no alternative” but a “head-on clash with the EU establishment,” since the European Union simply cannot be reformed to make it more democratic. But, he nonetheless insists, leftists must not support referenda to leave the European Union.

He offers two confused reasons for this. First, since exit referenda are “movements that have been devised and led primarily by the Right,” it is “unlikely” that joining them “will help the Left block their opponents’ political ascendancy.”