The former Minister of Finances Yanis Varoufakis gave an exclusive interview to the British New Statesman magazine, regarding his short, five-month appointment and the negotiations in Europe.
According to Mr. Varoufakis, the Eurogroup is completely dominated by Germany and argued that the Greek government was “set up”. Mr. Varoufakis noted that there was a “complete lack of any democratic scruples, on behalf of the supposed defenders of Europe’s democracy” and maintained that there was a “point blank refusal to engage in economic arguments” at the Eurogroup.
In his interview, the former Minister blamed “the other side [for] refusing to negotiate” and stressed that the insistence on a ‘comprehensive agreement’ was an indication of this unwillingness. Mr. Varoufakis claimed that Greece’s creditors delayed the negotiations and ultimately forced the government into a accepting “absolutely impossible, totally non-viable and toxic” proposals.
Later on Mr. Varoufakis revealed a three-pronged plan for the negotiations, which included issuing IOUs, carrying out a haircut of the Greek bonds of 2012 held by the ECB (or announce the intention to do so) and take control of the Bank of Greece. Mr. Varoufakis stated that the IOUs would act as a transition to a new currency. The talk for the IOU was restricted to a small number of government officials and was shot down.
The former Finance Minister concluded his interview by stressing that the solution to Greece’s financial problems cannot be solved with new loans, underlining that the increased austerity will only exacerbate the situation and aggravate the humanitarian crisis.
