Yanis Varoufakis, who served as Greece’s finance minister at the height of the country’s debt crisis in 2015, has come under scrutiny for candid remarks about his past drug use.
During an appearance on a popular podcast hosted by Athens-based Gaia Merkouri, Varoufakis, now the leader of the left-wing MeRA25 party, was asked about “rave parties” and drug experiences.
He responded openly, saying he had tried substances and specifically admitted to using ecstasy (MDMA) once, in 1989 while living in Sydney, Australia.
Varoufakis described the experience in positive terms at first, calling it an “amazing” and “incredible” moment where he danced for hours but he quickly added the downside: A severe migraine lasting into the following days.
He joked that he was not like Bill Clinton – who once famously said he “didn’t inhale” marijuana – emphasising his honesty and noted he never tried it again. He also mentioned preferring cannabis as more pleasant but stressed his opposition to addiction.
The remarks triggered immediate backlash, particularly from conservative figures.
Health minister Adonis Georgiadis was among the first to criticise Varoufakis, calling his comments “irresponsible” and potentially influential on young people, even suggesting his words could be criminally problematic.
He urged Varoufakis to apologise.
The Greek Police’s Drugs Division soon forwarded the podcast video to the Athens Prosecutor’s Office.
Yesterday, prosecutors ordered a preliminary investigation into whether Varoufakis’ statements amount to the criminal offence of incitement to or promotion of drug use.
Under Greek law, public figures’ words can be scrutinised for influencing others.
The probe may expand to other related potential offences.
Varoufakis and his party have pushed back hard, framing the investigation as politically motivated hypocrisy.
The former finance minister accused critics of ignoring real drug mafias and addiction issues while targeting him for honesty.
He argued that his comments highlighted the true problem – addiction – and criticised government policies that he said benefited drug traffickers by keeping users dependent.
“In a country where drug mafias operate freely … the prosecution decided to take us back to the 1950s,” MeRA25 said in a response, calling the criticisms “comical” if not “dangerous”.
The Greek Police has referred me to the State Prosecutor with a request that I be prosecuted as a drug traffic enabler. There seems to be no end to the European authorities' efforts to emulate Trump's project of returning us to a bleak, fascist pasthttps://t.co/0BzoWbDGKr
— Yanis Varoufakis (@yanisvaroufakis) January 7, 2026
