Yanis Varoufakis, the firebrand economist who rose to fame at the height of Greece’s debt drama, was not only egotistical but ultimately more interested in testing out his game theories on the nation than winning its battle to keep afloat.
So writes the former prime minister Alexis Tsipras in his newly released memoir, Ithaki, as the once radical leftwing leader, sparing no punches, seeks, 10 years later, to put the record straight.
“He was, in reality, more of a celebrity and less of an economist,” recalled the 51-year-old, who described handpicking the maverick as his finance minister because of his international reputation and “extremely attractive” skills as a public orator.
“I wanted to send the message of hard negotiation, but I underestimated the human factor. Very quickly, Varoufakis turned from being an asset into a negative protagonist. Not only could our potential allies not stand him, neither could his own colleagues.”
TBH I’ver never seen much in Varoufakis’ economic policies or ideas other than “to be against”. Everyone’s doing it all wrong but with that absence of any concrete ideas for doing it otherise.
Reminds us of someone else I think
He’s on the new Unherd Econoclasts podcast with Wolfgang Munchau. I can see why he got that reputation, he’s OK at diagnosing problems but his solutions are of the hard left.
It’s easy to see why he got that reputation, his sense of self importance is second only to Spud.
Not that I’ve read it, but I’ve heard his “The EU are a bunch of cunts” book is both good and on the money.
In July 2015, to the shock of Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel, the excoriating bailout terms were put to popular referendum, a move that threw the EU into further existential crisis.
Although the vote was won resoundingly by those who opposed austerity, Tsipras had little option but to reject its outcome and negotiate a bailout package with foreign lenders that proved to be even harsher, even if he argued the vote also served the purpose of staving off national humiliation. His intention, he insisted, had never been for Greece to leave the eurozone.
What a stupid cunt. A wet fart would have been more useful to Greece.