• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • TP について/About
  • Topics/トピクス
    • Gender/ジェンダー
    • Globalisation/グローバリゼーション
    • Japan and Asia/日本とアジア
    • Japanese/日本語
    • Media/メディア
    • News/ニュース
    • Social Justice/社会正義
    • War and Empire/戦争&支配権力
    • Environment/環境
    • Other Stories/他の記事
  • Links/リンク
  • Contact

TokyoProgressive

Linking Progressives East and West Since 1997

東西のプログレッシブをつなぐ − 1997年設立  |  Linking Progressives East and West Since 1997

Varoufakis: Troika Forced Syriza Into Choice Between ‘Suicide or Execution’

July 22, 2015 by tokyoprogressive Leave a Comment

Published on 
Tuesday, July 21, 2015
by
Common Dreams

Former finance minister blasts EU, saying: “No one government should ever be treated that way in the context of a club of democratic nations.”

Varoufakis admitted that during negotiations his government did make some mistakes, but mostly in assuming that they were holding "a rational bargaining session." (Screenshot: CNN)

Varoufakis admitted that during negotiations his government did make some mistakes, but mostly in assuming that they were holding “a rational bargaining session.” (Screenshot: CNN)

In his first international television interview since stepping down from his post as Greek Finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis told CNN‘s Christiane Amanpour on Monday that European lenders had forced his government to make a choice between “suicide or execution.”

After five months of rigorous negotiations, the outspoken Varoufakis stepped down from his post the night of the Greek referendum. And despite voting against the latest austerity package, Varoufakis said he understood why Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras decided to accept the punishing new terms.

“The truth of the matter is, the very powerful Troika of creditors were not interested in coming to a sensible, honorable mutually beneficial agreement,” Varoufakis said, referring to group that represents foreign creditors, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Commission (eurogroup), and the European Central Bank (ECB).

Varoufakis admitted that during negotiations his government did make some mistakes, but mostly in assuming that they were holding “a rational bargaining session.”

“If you look at the way they have behaved from the very first day [the Syriza government] assumed power,” he continued, “close inspection will reveal… [that] they were far more interested in humiliating this government and overthrowing it—or at least making sure it overthrows itself in terms of its policies—then coming to an agreement that would ensure they would get most of their money back.”

“The truth of the matter is, the very powerful Troika of creditors were not interested in coming to a sensible, honorable mutually beneficial agreement.” 
—Yanis Varoufakis

And echoing the recent criticisms leveled at the eurozone “bullies,” he added: “No one government should ever be treated that way in the context of a club of democratic nations.”

Varoufakis conceded that Tsipras “was faced with an incredibly hard choice when he went to the eurogroup summit: commit suicide or be executed, effectively.”

“Alexis Tsipras decided it would be best for the Greek people, for this government, to stay put and to implement a program that this very same government disagrees with,” he said. “People like me thought it would be more honorable, and in the long term more appropriate, for us to resign.”

“But,” he added, “I recognize his argument is equally powerful as mine.”

Ahead of the interview, Varoufakis published a column on Monday assailing what he called Europe’s “vindictive” privatization plan. He also laid out the “Plan B” he had devised for solving the Greek debt crisis, which essentially bundled the country’s public assets into a central holding company, which would be controlled exclusively by the Greek state and used to stimulate the economy.

Original is here:  http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/07/21/varoufakis-troika-forced-syriza-choice-between-suicide-or-execution

 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

Filed Under: Globalisation/グローバリゼーション

Join the Discussion

Comment on this article or respond to others' comments.

You can post below or send to the mailing list at discuss@list.tokyoprogressive.org.

a) Please sign you name at the bottom of your comment, so that we know who wrote it.

b) To prevent spam, comments need to be manually approved.

c) Comments which are insulting, racist, homophobic or submitted in bad faith will not be published.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Search the site

Archives

Main Categories (old and most recent)

Alternative News Contributors/投稿者 creative Democracy Now Environment/環境 Featured Gender/ジェンダー Globalisation/グローバリゼーション Jacobin Japan/日本 Japan and Asia/日本とアジア Japanese/日本語 Japan Focus Japan News Korea/韓国 latest latest-j links Media/メディア Mp3 National Security Archive neoliberalism new News/ニュース Other Stories/他の記事 Social Justice/社会正義 Topics Uncategorized Video War and Empire/戦争&支配権力

Search deeper

Abe Afghanistan alternative news Bush class issues and homelessness Environmental research fukushima gaza health care Henoko human rights Iraq Iraq, Afganistan and the War on Terror Iraq and Afghanistan, opposing the wars Israel Japan Japan news English Korea labor issues Latin America Middle East military North Korea nuclear nuclear waste Obama Okinawa Okinawa Palestine peace protest protest and resistance racism/human rights radiation state crimes Syria Takae Tepco Trump U.S. War world news English ニュース/社会問題 人権 平和、憲法9条

Design and Hosting for Progressives

Donate/寄付

Please support our work. This includes costs involved in producing this news site as well as our free hosting service for activists, teachers and students. Donations/寄付 can be sent to us via PayPal or Donately. You can also click on the buttons below to make a one-time donation.




Work with us

TokyoProgressive
supports and participates in projects of like-minded people and groups directly (technical, editing, design) and not-so directly (financial or moral support). Likewise, we also welcome contributions by readers that are consistent with promoting social justice. If you have a project you would like help with, or if you would like to submit an article, link, or report on a protest activity, please contact us here.

Footer

All opinions are those of the original authors and may not reflect the views of TokyoProgressive. This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for by copyright law in several countries. The material on this site is distributed without profit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyleft 1997-present: tokyoprogressive dot org

TokyoProgressive supports and participates in projects of like-minded people and groups directly (technical, editing, design) and not-so directly (financial or moral support). Likewise, we also welcome contributions by readers that are consistent with promoting social justice. If you have a project you would like help with, or if you would like to submit an article, link, or report on a protest activity, please contact us here.

Copyright © 2023 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in