Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis
The referendum of 5th July will stay in history as a unique moment when a small European nation rose up against debt-bondage.
Like all struggles for democratic rights, so too this historic rejection of the Eurogroup’s 25th June ultimatum comes with a large price tag attached. It is, therefore, essential that the great capital bestowed upon our government by the splendid NO vote be invested immediately into a YES to a proper resolution – to an agreement that involves debt restructuring, less austerity, redistribution in favour of the needy, and real reforms.
Soon after the announcement of the referendum results, I was made aware of a certain preference by some Eurogroup participants, and assorted ‘partners’, for my… ‘absence’ from its meetings; an idea that the Prime Minister judged to be potentially helpful to him in reaching an agreement. For this reason I am leaving the Ministry of Finance today.
I consider it my duty to help Alexis Tsipras exploit, as he sees fit, the capital that the Greek people granted us through yesterday’s referendum.
And I shall wear the creditors’ loathing with pride.
We of the Left know how to act collectively with no care for the privileges of office. I shall support fully Prime Minister Tsipras, the new Minister of Finance, and our government.
The superhuman effort to honour the brave people of Greece, and the famous OXI (NO) that they granted to democrats the world over, is just beginning.
Minister No More! Yanis Varoufakis
Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis resigns despite referendum no vote (The Guardian)
Previously: ‘We Are A Proud People…Like The Irish’
You’d never know what that lad’s going to wear next….
Toupé !
Courage, cunning, credibility. Would that we had even one Vaoufakis in our parliament … is he looking for a gig?
Maybe we can get him when Martin O’Neill takes over the Leicester job.
As Dinny will be picking up the tab anyway we might as well now invoke the Shared Services governance model
He’s still got a gig, he’s a member of the Greek Parliament, just no longer a minister.
Noonan will be delighted not to see him anymore though. The comparison does him no favours.
He’s classic Ottoman – all tactics and no strategy. He’s prepared to load-up on a potential humanitarian crisis in order to posture to the world. Rhetoric is no substitute for reality and the bottom line is: 1. they need cash; 2. Europe is the only potential source of that (IMF are out due to default); 3. they won’t get it if there’s no plan for further reform (probably very similar to the one they have refused to sign). Debt relief WILL come, but only once they stop repudiating the need for reforms. By delaying inevitable reforms and overplaying their negotiating hand, Syriza have made it nigh impossible to renew their loans and may well have driven their economy over a cliff. Hard to see how this adds up to a victory for “democracy” or whatever for the Greek people.
serf, do you understand the meaning of democracy?
hang on a second – SYRIZA may well have driven the greek economy over a cliff?
are you actually serious, serf?
he doesn’t call himself serf for nothing
Could you explain why serf is wrong in his/her outlook?
Genuine question. I’m slow when it comes to this stuff.
Because they will now win further concessions compared to the deal that was previously on the table
Great to see that the ECB/German attempts to overthrow a leftist government has failed.
We should nab him and offer him a gig here
#Hero
Well if he had any ‘paramilitary’ experience,
I know where he’d fit right in….
Yes. There’s a definite need for even more Cowboys over here.
So he can jump ship once people do what he says?
You don’t really grasp the subtleties of what’s happening here, do you?
#quitter
Read Janis’ book THE GLOBAL MINOTAUR
So, this total cretin has resigned. He promised all would be ok 48 hours after a NO vote, yet he resigns himself less than 12 hours later. Reckon he sees the writing on the wall, but he’s obviously washing his hands of responsibility. God help Greece with fools like him.
Total Athenian, actually.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Is that you Noonan?
Obviously not Noonan, not condescending enough and didn’t use a simile or metaphor.
nor baldy
So sorry. I didn’t realize that everyone had to have the same opinion on this forum. Guess I should adjust my thinking to that of the great collective.
You fear change, you are a conservative. You see nothing wrong with the status quo. Whereas we see the situation in an entirely different light. But we accept you need, as much as we accept that we need, to colour your reading of the situation in a way that fits with your pre-constructed worldview.
Change being you no longer need to pay your bills? Someone has to pay somewhere along the line. Fact is, you fear responsibility. You’re part of the “I want” generation. Someone else will always pay, right?
“Someone else will always pay …” Are you talking about the international finance industry?
100%. He helped drive Greece up a one way street and is now jumping ship, leaving the actual work for someone else. Coward.
Absolutely right Owen. This guy is pure Hollywood. At least he can still wear his badge of loathing with pride. What a creep.
Your ignorance of the situation is really, really disappointing.
Ok.. lets say he is leaving to help Greece…. So the PM is getting someone with less experience to take over, but someone from the same government so has the same views. There is something not right there Brian. Are we to believe that after his entire political career, being at the forefront of negotiations and being involved in the referendum he wanted he is now going to agree to leave just cause some other politicians don’t like HIM and not everything he stands for, and that’s why he left?
He is either running from the sinking ship, or the PM wants him to stop pulling it down…. Either way in ten years’ time the PM and him are going to be blaming each other for this mess.
Total CRETAN
he is resigning because the other eu foreign ministers don’t want to deal with him any more.
so he’s doing it in order to make things slightly easier for greece.
“cretin/athenian” – love it.
When hardline ideology collides with real world practicality, there can only be one winner.
“real world practicality”….
Presuming you are speaking about the Germans & Co and the “real world” where they’ve fixed the game… it’s not real world, it’s not free market capitalism, there’s no such thing. It’s all about protecting the big markets and fupp everyone else at everyone else’s expense.
It has nothing to do with practicalities.
realpolitik
Brilliant man- the pressure he was under and the outright hostility from the worlds press from the very moment that Syriza started becoming popular was galling to watch. He always seemed to see what was going on and kept his cool- I remember a great interview with Newsnight when he was being totally harangued and he basically stated the facts while laughing in her face.
I can see why he is leaving the stage now but he should be the next president of the IMF!
Run the IMF? So, who’s going to bail out the IMF once he’s bankrupted that too?
I have to conclude that you are being willfully obtuse now. Muddying, obfuscating. You, and your ilk, are the real cowards.
I nominate you Wallander
please, please tell me this post is a wind-up.
no one with two brains cells to rub together could actually genuinely believe that syriza (time in power: 22 weeks) were the people who bankrupted greece.
no one could be that thick.
We are the creditors, the citizens of the EU who committed to buy bonds on Greece so that the Greeks could run their hospitals, schools and Government for a bit longer. They owe the money to US, their allies.
Great,
I forgive them a massive proportion of their debt to me and encourage them in their efforts to create a more equitable (in the actual sense of the word) and progressive financial system than the one they have.
+330bn
they owe us roughly €500m, i.e. less than fine gael gave to [REDACTED] in writedowns.
i think we’ll live somehow.
I would applaud the spirit of what he has to say but if he ever thought for a moment that Greece or any other country of its size could possibly urinate (avoiding the filter here) against the wind like this and have it all work out fine and dandy, he’s either deluded or insane.
Of course we’d all love to give two fingers to the system. What voter wouldn’t vote No in a non-binding referendum to establish or reject new taxes required by a much-hated system? But when you’re depending on that system to fill your ATMs, it’s not going to work out. Irish people are great for the lefty rhetoric and armchair socialism but we all know what side our bread is buttered, hence the disparity between what you hear people saying in the pub and marching about and what we vote for in the privacy of the polling station.
It’s comfortable to throw your toys out of the pram, liberating even. But in the real world, when you’re in a global financial system that benefits the country immensely in tiny and enormous ways (if you can read this, for example, you’re doing better than most Cubans), you can either accept that you have responsibilities too or you can turn into Venezuela – who, even with their oil, are struggling to keep jacks roll on the shelves.
Greece will have to now leave the euro and who knows, maybe they’ll be better off without it. But they’ll have a tumultuous few years ahead of them first, regardless of where they end up, and who knows what might happen in all of that. The people have voted to pretend they don’t owe money, so whatever happens next is with their tacit approval.
Ireland, bad and all as the most pessimistic amongst us might think we have it, will continue to see employment increasing and unemployment dropping, despite having pretty much the worst debt-to-GDP ratio in the EU at the start of all this.
We could have managed it better – but if you think we couldn’t have done worse, take a look at Greece today.
Just to say, Venezuela were fupped by the IMF/US, otherwise excellent points.
A country with $85 billion of annual oil exports got fupped by the US/IMF? Interesting take on reality.
hear hear
It is not a foregone conclusion that the Greeks will leave the Euro. That is the convenient option for the finance ministers but that would not suit Deutsche bank at all.
I don’t see how they can stay in the euro whilst being out of the Eurogroup, not signed-up to a new bailout and needing cash of some description in their ATMs within the next month (they could be bartering by the end of the week).
Incidentally, they might still use euros on the ground but then so does Montenegro and Kosovo and they’re not even in the EU.
well, the terms of the bailout on offer could change…
Where were all the smart people running the EU, when they allowed Greece to be part of the Eurozone?
Well that’s the real €240bn question, isn’t it?
the smart ballsy guys were all in property back then
unemployment is falling because hundreds of thousands of people have left the country to find work elsewhere.