Tsipras destroys Varoufakis: he was more celebrity than economist, everyone hated him

Former Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras released his memoir this Monday, revisiting the period in which Athens lived on the brink of the abyss in the euro zone and harshly criticizing his former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis.

In a 762-page work entitled “Ithaki” (“Ithaca”), released this Monday, the former Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras goes through his political trajectory, defends the options he took and rehearses some exercise of self-reflection.

Tsipras is particularly critical of several former alliesespecially the “arsonist”, with whom he broke up at the height of the euro zone crisis in 2015.

The former Greek Prime Minister admits that “underestimated the human factor” in choosing him and maintains that Varoufakis was “more celebrity than economist”.

Tsipras was 34 years old when he assumed leadership of Syriza and led the party on its electoral rise, from 4.6% in 2009 to 36.3% in 2015, recalls .

O radical left party gained notoriety across Europe at the height of the 2015 financial crisis, when it appeared that Tsipras and Varoufakis were about to lead Athens out of the eurozonein high-stakes negotiations with the German-led budgetary discipline hawks in the EU.

In July 2015, after winning a referendum in which Greeks rejected the bailout conditions proposed by the EU, a symbolic victory which, in essence, changed little, Tsipras ended up reversing the position, accepting a new rescue to keep Greece in the euro and was re-elected in September of that year.

The former prime minister, who left office in 2019, repeats several times in the book that never truly considered a possible exit of Greece from the eurozone (the so-called Grexit), but confirms that the risk was real and was part of the plan of the then German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, at a time when Athens’ budgetary difficulties shook the single currency.

Tsipras writes that Varoufakis facilitated this scenario with your stance of permanent confrontation and tactical play on the edge of the precipiceuntil he was “removed” from the Ministry of Finance.

“Varoufakis went from an asset to a negative protagonist“, says Tsipras. “Not only our potential allies no longer supported himlike colleagues themselves stopped being able to put up with it”, he states.

Tsipras ended up definitively disillusioned with his Finance Minister when Varoufakis presented him with his “Plan B”which included the introduction of a Voucher-based parallel currency.

“’Instead of giving money to pensioners and workers, we would print vouchers that could use to buy goods and services‘ said Varoufakis. When I heard this, I didn’t know whether to cry or laugh. I replied: ‘Are you serious?’”, Tsipras recalls.

The former prime minister also describes attempts to obtain financial help from the Kremlin. On June 19, 2015, during a meeting in Saint Petersburg, Tsipras suggested to the Russian President, Vladimir Putinwhich made a symbolic investment of 200 to 300 million euros in Greek State bonds.

“His answer was honest and brutal“, writes Tsipras. “Vladimir Putin said that I would rather give the money to an orphanage because, as he said, handing it over to Greece it would be the same as throwing it in the trash.” The Russian leader advised Greece to reach an agreement with the Europeans, in particular with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

In October, Tsipras resigned as deputy and left Syrizaat a time when speculation is growing that it will form a new party.