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 an honourable agreement within the eurozone,” Tsipras wrote, “but we also didn’t hide the fact that we wanted radical change in Europe, that we wanted to stop the imposition of the economic absurdity of neoliberalism not only in Greece but from one end of the continent to the other.”
“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.”
In a chronicle of events that has been quick to send ripples through Greece, Tsipras, who appears bent on staging a political comeback two years after renouncing the leadership of the Syriza party, said it was clear the Greek Australian academic had a personal agenda that included promoting his books.
Negotiations to stave off bankruptcy were “not just a way of achieving a better deal for the country. They were an experiment, an historic opportunity to prove the truth of his economic theories,” Tsipras wrote.
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