The Minister of Finances Yanis Varoufakis stated that the recent Eurogroup agreement was a major success, in an exclusive interview he gave to Giorgos Padadakis on ANT1.

Mr. Varoufakis argued that the Greek people voted for “a government that would say no” and that they “gave us a mandate to abolish the bailout. In Europe hey told me that elections do not change anything. If we agreed with the Europeans it would be like abolishing the elections”. The Finance Minister declared that “we will never leave the euro, the people never told me ‘leave Europe’; the people want to regain their dignity” and added that “there is no negotiation without imagining a falling out. You consider a falling out to make an agreement”.

The minister explained that the new agreement contained “creative ambiguities”, at the request of Greece’s European partners so that the agreement could pass through national parliaments. He announced that the reduced VAT rate for islands, border areas, medicine, books and food would not increase and argued that “for the first time we are becoming the authors of our future”.

Amongst his achievements, Mr. Varoufakis lists the cancellation of the 3% primary surplus goal, the abolition of all recessive measures and avoiding new pension cuts. He insisted that the new agreement is not a bailout, stressing that “we were not elected to implement a new bailout; we were elected to stop the triple debt crisis”.

Later in the interview Mr. Varoufakis explained that the Greek government will not be taking any unilateral actions and that European finance ministers applaud him for what he has achieved and are prepared to carry out similar actions in their respective countries. According to Mr. Varoufakis “the troika and the institutions are not the same”.

The finance minister also explained that he has not joined SYRIZA and conceded that it was a mistake if SYRIZA party officials urged taxpayers to not pay the controversial ENFIA tax.

Mr. Varoufakis expressed his sorrow for the recent intervention and commentary by Manolis Glezos, asserting that if he had an hour with him he could explain to him the finer details of the agreement and would manage to convince him. He added that “the agreement we achieved was better than what I expected”.

The first bill to tackle the humanitarian crisis in Greece will soon be prepared. Mr. Varoufakis spoke of a citizen card that will be issued to those under the poverty line and will provide credit for super market shopping. He stressed that “we will be in a perpetual struggle” with Europe should any proposed measures be rejected.

Finally, regarding the media focus on his sartorial choices and celebrity status, Mr. Varoufakis commented that he “hates the star system” and that “if I change image, I will tell [my wife] Danai to pull the plug”. He added that his daughter told him, that he “ruined her life”.