ATHENS: Maverick Greek economist and former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis on Saturday accused French police of “violent” behavior over a passport check at Paris’ main airport.
Varoufakis said he had just landed at Charles de Gaulle airport on a flight from Athens when a police officer standing near the plane ramp asked to see his passport.
Varoufakis said he complied, but claims the officer then stuck his elbows out as he tried to pass.
“The moment our elbows touched, he reacted violently,” the economist said.
“(He) manhandled me, using physical violence,” Varoufakis said, adding that the officer pushed him, grabbed his passport and told him to stand against the wall.
In a video of the scene, apparently taken by a passenger, Varoufakis tells the officer: “You are a disgrace to the French nation... you blocked my way and then pushed me.”
“I am not following you... I do not trust you. You are violent, and you are rude. I want to speak to a superior officer,” he says, irately pacing up and down the corridor.
“You are a problematic member of the police force. A disgrace to your nation. So, bring somebody else here,” he says.
Two additional superior officers had to be summoned before Varoufakis’ passport was eventually returned.
“I am formally requesting a formal apology from the French police,” he said.
One of the officers said he also plans to lodge a complaint against Varoufakis.
Airport officials could not immediately be reached for comment Sunday.
A former finance minister under leftist prime minister Alexis Tsipras in 2015, Varoufakis last week became a member of Greece’s parliament, one of nine lawmakers elected by his anti-austerity MeRA25 party in general elections.
Maverick Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis in Paris airport row
Maverick Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis in Paris airport row
- ‘I am formally requesting a formal apology from the French police’
- Yanis Varoufakis last week became a member of Greece’s parliament
Near record number of small boat migrants reach UK in 2025
- The second-highest annual number of migrants arrived on UK shores in small boats since records were started in 2018, the government was to confirm Thursday
LONDON: The second-highest annual number of migrants arrived on UK shores in small boats since records were started in 2018, the government was to confirm Thursday.
The tally comes as Brexit firebrand Nigel Farage’s anti-immigration party Reform UK surges in popularity ahead of bellwether local elections in May.
With Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer increasingly under pressure over the thorny issue, his interior minister Shabana Mahmood has proposed a drastic reduction in protections for refugees and the ending of automatic benefits for asylum seekers.
Home Office data as of midday on Wednesday showed a total of 41,472 migrants landed on England’s southern coast in 2025 after making the perilous Channel crossing from northern France.
The record of 45,774 arrivals was recorded in 2022 under the last Conservative government.
The Home Office is due to confirm the final figure for 2025 later Thursday.
Former Tory prime minister Rishi Sunak vowed to “stop the boats” when he was in power.
Ousted by Starmer in July 2024, he later said he regretted the slogan because it was too “stark” and “binary” and lacked sufficient context “for exactly how challenging” the goal was.
Adopting his own “smash the gangs” slogan, Starmer pledged to tackle the problem by dismantling the people smuggling networks running the crossings but has so far had no more success than his predecessor.
Reform has led Starmer’s Labour Party by double-digit margins in opinion polls for most of 2025.
In a New Year message, Farage predicted that if Reform got things “right” at the forthcoming local elections “we will go on and win the general election” due in 2029 at the latest.
Without addressing the migrant issue directly, he added: “We will then absolutely have a chance of fundamentally changing the whole system of government in Britain.”
In his own New Year message, Starmer insisted his government would “defeat the decline and division offered by others.”
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, meanwhile, urged people not to let “politics of grievance tell you that we’re destined to stay the same.”
- Protests -
The small boat figures come after Home Secretary Mahmood in November said irregular migration was “tearing our country apart.”
In early December, an interior ministry spokesperson called the number of small boat crossings “shameful” and said Mahmood’s “sweeping reforms” would remove the incentives driving the arrivals.
A returns deal with France had so far resulted in 153 people being removed from the UK to France and 134 being brought to the UK from France, border security and asylum minister Alex Norris said.
“Our landmark one-in one-out scheme means we can now send those who arrive on small boats back to France,” he said.
The past year has seen multiple protests in UK towns over the housing of migrants in hotels.
Amid growing anti-immigrant sentiment, in September up to 150,000 massed in central London for one of the largest-ever far-right protests in Britain, organized by activist Tommy Robinson.
Asylum claims in Britain are at a record high, with around 111,000 applications made in the year to June 2025, according to official figures as of mid-November.
Labour is currently taking inspiration from Denmark’s coalition government — led by the center-left Social Democrats — which has implemented some of the strictest migration policies in Europe.
Senior British officials recently visited the Scandinavian country, where successful asylum claims are at a 40-year low.
But the government’s plans will likely face opposition from Labour’s more left-wing lawmakers, fearing that the party is losing voters to progressive alternatives such as the Greens.
