This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.

Under Pressure From Europe, Tsipras Prepares To Show Varoufakis The Door

Tyler Durden's picture




 

On Friday, Greece’s embattled FinMin Yanis Varoufakis added to his highlight reel of “kerfuffles” when he put on a performance at the negotiating table in Riga that prompted his peers to describe him as an amateurish time-wasting, gambler. As talks with creditors drag on under the constant threat of a Greek default and a disorderly euro exit, it appears Varoufakis’ antics may have finally gone too far, for as Reuters reports, PM Tsipras looks to have effectively replaced the FinMin as lead negotiator. Here’s more:

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Monday reshuffled his team handling talks with European and IMF lenders, after his finance minister was sharply criticized for his performance at a euro zone meeting last week…

 

Tsipras and senior aides expressed support for Yanis Varoufakis and agreed the finance minister would supervise a new team negotiating a reforms deal with lenders, but appointed deputy Foreign Minister Euclid Tsakalotos as coordinator of the group, a government official said.

 

The appointment suggested Tsakalatos, an Oxford-educated economist and professor who is soft-spoken and well-liked by officials representing creditors, would have a more active role in face-to-face talks from now on.

And here are more details via Bloomberg:

Greek representative at Euro Working Group George Chouliarakis will be responsible for Greek delegation in Brussels Group meetings.

 

General secretary of Greek govt Spyros Sagias will assume coordination of technical work in Athens.

 

General secretary of finance ministry Nikos Theoharakis will focus on drafting a growth plan for Greek economy, which will be basis for June agreement with creditors.

The move comes on the heels of reports that eurozone negotiators had finally become so exhausted with Varoufakis that they had sought to bypass him altogether after the Greek FinMin apparently adopted a stance so contentious on Friday that talks never even progressed to the point where divisions over reforms could be discussed. Meanwhile, Varoufakis was busy playing the martyr, tweeting out FDR quotes and having dinner by himself. Here’s FT:

Greece’s dire financial position is forcing eurozone authorities to look beyond

Mr Varoufakis to Alexis Tsipras, prime minister, much like in February when Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who chairs the eurogroup, brokered an extension of the current bailout programme.

 

According to two eurozone officials, Mr Dijsselbloem phoned Mr Tsipras from Riga in an effort to mend fences after Friday’s feisty eurogroup meeting, where Mr Varoufakis was rounded on by his eurozone colleagues.

 

In a sign that Mr Varoufakis’s combative approach is prompting concern in Greece as well, a senior Athens official said the Riga meeting was likely to lead to him being sidelined as Mr Tsipras and his deputy Yannis Dragasakis take a more hands-on role…

 

Mr Varoufakis shrugged off criticism from his eurozone colleagues, comparing his situation to that of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt as he pushed through the New Deal. “They are unanimous in their hatred for me and I welcome their hatred,” he tweeted.

 

Some eurozone and Greek officials believe divisions between Mr Varoufakis and Mr Tsipras are deepening and that a concerted appeal to the prime minister could still produce a deal by late May, the time many feel an agreement has to be reached if any aid disbursement can be made before the current bailout expires at the end of June.

 

“There is an element of cognitive dissonance here,” said one official involved in the talks. “Varoufakis does not comprehend that at the political level one just does not negotiate every item. Other people do that.”

*  *  *

And when it comes to dinner plans, Varoufakis was not interested in joining his fellow European officials at the gala...

As the buses carrying European finance ministers left for a gala dinner in the Latvian capital on Friday night, one of the party hung back at the hotel and then wandered off alone into the dusk.

...because he does not like "boring dinners."

We suppose that's a good thing, because it now appears he'll be invited to a lot less of them.

 

- advertisements -

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Mon, 04/27/2015 - 07:55 | 6033406 Q-Q-Q
Q-Q-Q's picture

So in other words he's not saying what they want him to say!

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:04 | 6033421 VinceFostersGhost
VinceFostersGhost's picture

 

 

soft-spoken and well-liked by officials representing creditors

 

Should be worth about 30 days.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:13 | 6033432 SWRichmond
SWRichmond's picture

Here is what we think of your stinking "will of the people" and "democracy".

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:24 | 6033456 waterwitch
waterwitch's picture

WIll Mr. V get an i-Watch on his way out?

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:31 | 6033472 w a l k - a w a y
w a l k - a w a y's picture

 "Tsipras Prepares To Show Varoufakis The Door"

 

WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE !!!


Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:34 | 6033492 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

I foress a shiny new loan package in somebody's future!

 

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:39 | 6033511 Dead Canary
Dead Canary's picture

Looks like a good fashioned game of good cop, bad cop.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:05 | 6033586 PhilB
PhilB's picture

Yanis is often so impassioned about ancient Greek mythology, and his own sense of intellectual prowress, that while he tried to school us on the lesson of the Minotaur, he fogot all about the story of Icarus. 

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:22 | 6033650 pods
pods's picture

Guy proves old maxim that you cannot get blood from a stone.

Guy gets fired.

Yep, makes sense.  

pods

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 10:24 | 6033830 tdag
tdag's picture

Varoufakis wasn't playing ball. He was telling the Troika to go fuck itself. Tsipras replaced him. "Amateurish" or not, Varoufakis stood his ground and Tsipras fucked him. The only way you can win against these "institutional lenders" with infinite pockets and infinite greed is to stand your ground and take their mockery.

Why is Tsipras so afraid of a default? It's like everyone's running around like a chicken with their head cut off. "Oh, no, Greece can't default. That would would be the end of the world." Well, no, it wouldn't. That's been proven time and time again. So, instead, what we get is a new round of Keynesian hole digging, diplomatic galas, capital controls, tax crack downs and a whole lot of unhappy Greeks (whom, I'm sure, are much more disgusted with this than I am).

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 10:32 | 6033847 asteroids
asteroids's picture

If he get axed, then he deserved it. Default is inevitable. He should have stated it up from and forced the other side to negotiate terms. Instead, he stalled for time. He took a gamble and lost. Pity.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 10:37 | 6033866 tdag
tdag's picture

Good point. Though I'm not clear that default is inevitable within the next, say, five years. That's a long time for this bullshit to go on.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 12:59 | 6034382 Stained Class
Stained Class's picture

Show Varoufakis the door! Show him the door to the Prime Minister's office after they sack Tsipras, that is...

Tue, 04/28/2015 - 09:22 | 6037600 Leopold B. Scotch
Leopold B. Scotch's picture

Not playing ball = Not dropping pants and bending over to the global banking cartel.

 

 

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 18:31 | 6035743 nicxios
nicxios's picture

Its not that Tsipras is afraid of default, its the Greek people. They fought for them and the people cowered. They have made it known they want to stay in the euro even more now. He was hoping all that's been going on would open their eyes, get their blood flowing, grow a sac and remember how their forefathers acted when given ultimatums.  Instead they want to remain victims. 

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:36 | 6033676 MonetaryApostate
MonetaryApostate's picture

Crypto-slavery © / eSlavery © / ePrison ©   FTW (For the world)

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 10:53 | 6033906 Mountainview
Mountainview's picture

Syriza considers these negociations a joke. Varoufakis no.1 joker. EU willcan not understand... Avoiding Grexit is their (EU's) priority and this under all circumstances.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:13 | 6033435 mvsjcl
mvsjcl's picture

Oxford. Another fucking Keynesian globalist.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:52 | 6033712 ThirdWorldDude
ThirdWorldDude's picture

'soft-spoken and well-liked by officials representing creditors'

Translation: The guy's spine has been surgically removed (if he ever had one) and he doesn't require lubing...

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:14 | 6033436 negative rates
negative rates's picture

I sifted over some of those FDR quotes, and wondered what hell he was even saying making sense, never mind his interpretation of it.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 10:01 | 6033736 Banananomics
Banananomics's picture

That's the best one, innit?

30 days in the hole: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyKN8OzzO8s

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 10:46 | 6033887 twh99
twh99's picture

They may have changed the messenger, but the message is the same.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:19 | 6033445 Smegley Wanxalot
Smegley Wanxalot's picture

Tsipras needs someone who will cave to Brussels more readily.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:13 | 6033619 Colonel Klink
Colonel Klink's picture

Precisely!  The politicians who said they'd stand up to the Troika and the banks, duly elected by the people to do that very thing, is going to fold like a cheap suit under the pressure from the Troika and banks.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:43 | 6033521 BaghdadBob
BaghdadBob's picture

Everything else considered, you can always rely on a Greek to fuck you in the Ass!

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:50 | 6033547 williambanzai7
williambanzai7's picture

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 07:58 | 6033408 Haus-Targaryen
Haus-Targaryen's picture

Now that Syriza is about to completely sell out Greece to the banksters again, I wonder who will be rioting if Syriza maintains its Left leaning base. 

Syriza is there for good as they are the new PASOK, and ND will coalition with Syriza even if the IG's don't.  

I don't think GD are the rioting type.  I think they are the "overnight coup de etat attempt" group of people. Although that would throw a wrench in with the Russians.  

Interesting times.  If Tsipras throws out Varoufakis then the Greeks are goign to get butt-fucked and hard.  

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:08 | 6033425 Headbanger
Headbanger's picture

I think Greece explodes in another civil war along side Ukraine

Complete with Russian "humanitarian" aid to the leftists

And secret aid by EU to GD.

Here we go again!

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:18 | 6033442 Haus-Targaryen
Haus-Targaryen's picture

I think the support would be backwards, with the EU supporting the Leftists and the Russians supporting the Nazis.  

What a seriously fucked up world we live in.  

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:21 | 6033449 Smegley Wanxalot
Smegley Wanxalot's picture

You only think it's fucked up because you are not one of the chosen elites who knows better than you or I how every life needs to be regulated.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:31 | 6033476 Haus-Targaryen
Haus-Targaryen's picture

"Chosen Elites."  

Why must we have "Elites" who are all about World Socialism and Eugenics?  Why can't we have Elites that want whats best for the First World at the expense of the Third like it was back before the Second World War?  

I found that much more pleasant than today, which both groups of people are getting exploited.  If given the choice of exploit others or be exploited myself, I'd exploit others all day long.  

Maybe I'm just jaded.   

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:38 | 6033502 Smegley Wanxalot
Smegley Wanxalot's picture

I prefer we had elites who were killed off in pain, with no mercy shown.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:44 | 6033527 Headbanger
Headbanger's picture

Nahhh. HT, I can't see that happening.

Just look at the current leftist Greek "government" wanting reparations for Nazi war crimes?

In fact, I bet Russia has already been covertly involved with the Greek clusterfuck to foment another civil war for NATO and the EU to deal with.

Just start moar brush fires for Obongoloid & Friends to piss out while Vlad and China build up military strengths.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:08 | 6033605 fockewulf190
fockewulf190's picture

I still believe that the Greek military may end up wrenching control of the country if the government folds yet again. It CAN happen because it has happened before in Greece's past, although the circumstances were much different back in the 70's compared to now. Brussels will be "repulsed" by such an action, but faced with the derivatives problem which triggered will blow the entire european banking system to smithereens...and the EU with it...they will grasp for any and all straws to avoid the day of reckoning.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 10:11 | 6033764 HowdyDoody
HowdyDoody's picture

They are supporting a military-enforced dictatorship in Ukraine, so why not Greece too.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 11:13 | 6033954 NeoRandian
NeoRandian's picture

Nah, Brussels just buys a few Greek generals and pays them to whip the remaining principle from the population.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:01 | 6033584 Niall Of The Ni...
Niall Of The Nine Hostages's picture

Eugenics? What the hell about flooding Europe with the contents of Africa's cesspits is "eugenic?" Or making abortion a moral duty in America while nigger bitches whelp litters of six to eight pups each in the Congo, all headed for Europe?

Our elites want to eliminate any threat to their power. That means exterminating any nation whose people are intelligent enough to have any chance of successfully revolting. That's the Jews, that's the Greeks, and that's you.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 07:58 | 6033409 medium giraffe
medium giraffe's picture

If Euclid can't fix it, no one can.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 07:59 | 6033411 Budnacho
Budnacho's picture

So this means they're closer to walking away?.....fuck it, time to break out the 0% card and go crazy at APMEX.....eventually these fuckers will walk and I can get back to my plans for the End of Civilization™....

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:16 | 6033440 negative rates
negative rates's picture

Your end will be easily trumped.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:01 | 6033414 yogibear
yogibear's picture

LOL, and watch it's bullish. 

Teflon stocks.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:18 | 6033443 NaiLib
NaiLib's picture

:) Yep, but its only bullish to Draghis workers, who are ordered to send it higher.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:01 | 6033415 wmbz
wmbz's picture

"The appointment suggested Tsakalatos, an Oxford-educated economist and professor who is soft-spoken and well-liked by officials representing creditors, would have a more active role in face-to-face talks from now on".

 

Just another Keynesian douchebag that most likely loves to hear himself speak, because he believes he is smart.

Hang on serfs another new round of ass rapings are heading your way!

 

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:14 | 6033437 g'kar
g'kar's picture

"But some ministers say they resent being lectured by an academic who has studied in Britain, taught in Australia and the United States and challenged the theoretical basis of European policymaking."

 

So I guess if you are foreign educated but don't lecture the ministers you are okay.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 11:00 | 6033693 Fata Morgana
Fata Morgana's picture

that quote says it all about the times we live in / and the ungratefull lot of European nations who would still be living in Medieval times had it not been for the cultural nadir reached by the Greeks in classical times (and saved for posterity by the Arabs). At the highest levels of policy making are cowardly, narcissistic people who consider themselves 'experts' at everything they do, simultaneously have puffed up titles + guaranteed pensions and who, owing to the narrow focus of their 'experience', cannot see the big picture. Varoufakis is cut from a different cloth and he knows there is ultimately a tall glass of hemlock waiting for him. No matter who they put in front of the camera, Varoufakis will not be shown the door (ie excluded from the cabinet) so long as Syriza is in office. I would put money on that. 

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:58 | 6033728 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

It is not real experience unless it has been at GS.  That is a given....

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:02 | 6033418 CuttingEdge
CuttingEdge's picture

I know Greeks have a reputation for bending over and taking it up the arse, but this is getting a bit ridiculous.

Grow a spine, default, and get the fuck out of Dodge.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:45 | 6033529 Pseudolus
Pseudolus's picture

Italian joke: "Yes, the Greeks invented sex. But we introduced it to women."

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:51 | 6033710 Fata Morgana
Fata Morgana's picture

LOL. but who had sex with the mothers of the Italians? only DNA can tell us for sure

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 11:14 | 6033958 NeoRandian
NeoRandian's picture

Literally wolves wasn't it? Romulas and Remus?

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:03 | 6033420 Q-Q-Q
Q-Q-Q's picture

Greece - Bend over and lube up for constructive negotiations.

The Greek negotiators are just following the rest of the Western world in a policy of prey and delay.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:06 | 6033422 SpanishGoop
SpanishGoop's picture

Brussels, "One down, only just a couple more to go".

 

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:09 | 6033428 Q-Q-Q
Q-Q-Q's picture

EU policy dictates that the Greek negotiating team shall be personally be welcomed into the EU collective with significant financial packages for friends and perhaps family. It's amazing how quickly nationalists roll over when they are assimilated into the Borg collective!

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:11 | 6033429 anachronism
anachronism's picture

It would be a great mistake for Tsipras to replace Varoufakis with anyone but himself.

Very early in this debt-to-death spiral which began several years ago, the Greek prime minister negotiated a deal with Merkel and other political leaders of Europe. He agreed to sell out Greece, to the satisfaction of the rest of Europe. But, then something shocking happened: the Prime Minister of Greece proposed to put the terms of the deal up to a vote by the people of Greece.

Europe was furious. Democracy? What was he thinking?

Evidently, so much pressure was put on him, that he eventually withdrew that referendum, and left it to the paid-for politicians in the Greek parliament to vote their approval.

Evidently, Varoufakis could not be broken. But the Europeans believe that Tsipras can.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:13 | 6033433 disabledvet
disabledvet's picture

Tsiparis is just a lapdog for European elites.

The foreign minister? That guy is a pathetic joke...of course Europe loves him.

He can't get a deal with anyone to actually help Greece.

Does anyone besides Putin have any fucking balls anymore?

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:13 | 6033434 DragonWings
DragonWings's picture

“Varoufakis does not comprehend that at the political level one just does not negotiate every item. Other people do that.”

Perheps whoever made that comment does’t comprehend that Greece is broke? Details are the only matters left to discuss… it is broke, you idiot???

“when it comes to dinner plans, Varoufakis was not interested in joining his fellow European officials at the gala…”

What’s for? Why should he joined them in a Gala… they are a bunch of bafoons, totally disconnected from reality…?

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:19 | 6033446 ANestIOS
ANestIOS's picture

good for him, thus he maintains his (relative) integrity (relatively) intact

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:20 | 6033447 DragonWings
DragonWings's picture

OK, wait that was wrong... he should go to dinner galas, and full his pockets with food, silverware... anything he can put his hands on... really. It is a lost opportunity... such a waste...

 

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:16 | 6033439 Scooby Doo
Scooby Doo's picture

Greeks elected him to be defiant, perhaps even unconventional, & find a better path for Greece. In the game of chicken between Varoufakis & the Troika, neither has yet blinked. Now that there is a lot of tension, Tsipras blinks, undercuts his FinMin, and Greece loses any negotiating power it had. Next up to bat is .......

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:20 | 6033448 Hongcha
Hongcha's picture

It does not matter to me how often nor how rigorous are Greece's further rounds of passive pederasty - my NBG shares are looking better by the day!

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:23 | 6033455 I am a Man I am...
I am a Man I am Forty's picture

pretty soon there will be a finmin that sits in meetings and tells everyone exactly what they want to hear but the checks will still always bounce

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:26 | 6033458 JPMorgan
JPMorgan's picture

I can only imagine the kind of bribes Tsipras and Varoufakis have unofficially received to sell their country out.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:28 | 6033461 chomu
chomu's picture

How about someone somewhere growing some balls and showing the whole country the door..

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:28 | 6033462 Q-Q-Q
Q-Q-Q's picture

If the EU rolls over on this then all of Southern Europe will want to enter into negotiations.

The EU, Japan and the US - It's fu@ked, it's just that nobody wants to admit it officially.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:29 | 6033465 Joe Mama 3
Joe Mama 3's picture

Next up to bat ...... oughta be the Hangman !!!!!!!!!

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:29 | 6033469 Fukushima Fricassee
Fukushima Fricassee's picture

What is the next jack off going to do pull magic "liquidity" out of his, hers or Yellens dirty ass?

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:30 | 6033474 Racer
Racer's picture

A rare politician who calls a spade a spade is going to be kicked out, now why is that not a surprise.

The banksters are a load of evil psychopathic crooks

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:33 | 6033477 Joe A
Joe A's picture

Tsipras blinked. Varoufikas' role was to confront the 'Institutions' in order for them to give in. But they are not so now Greece has to give in and Varoufikas will be the sacrificial lamb in order for Greece not to lose face.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:35 | 6033494 Die Weiße Rose
Die Weiße Rose's picture
The Rumble in Riga: How the EU Lost Patience With Varoufakis

When Yanis Varoufakis warned his fellow euro-area finance chiefs of the dangers of pushing his government in Athens too far, Peter Kazimir snapped.

Kazimir, Slovakia’s finance minister, launched a volley of criticism at his Greek counterpart, releasing months of pent-up frustrations among the group at the political novice. They’d had enough of what they called the economics professor’s lecturing style and his failure to make good on his pledges.

The others at the April 24 gathering in Riga, Latvia, took their cue from Kazimir -- they called Varoufakis a time waster and said he would never get a deal if he persisted with such tactics. The criticism continued after the meeting: eight participants broke decorum to describe what happened behind closed doors. A spokesman for Varoufakis declined to respond to their descriptions.

“All the ministers told him: this can’t go on,” Spain’s Luis de Guindos said the following day. “The feeling among the 18 was exactly the same. There was no kind of divergence.” The others who provided an account of the meeting in interviews asked not to be named, citing the privacy of the talks.

Varoufakis’s isolation raises the stakes, which include a potential default and keeping the euro indivisible. After more than five years as a ward of the European Union, Greece is virtually out of cash. The aid pipeline is shut until Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, elected Jan. 25 promising to push back against budget cuts, bends to EU policy demands.

Alluding to the political conflict, Varoufakis borrowed a line from a 1936 speech by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. “They are unanimous in their hate for me; and I welcome their hatred,” Varoufakis said on his Twitter account on Sunday. The quotation is “close to my heart (& reality) these days,” he wrote.

Looming Payments

The breakdown came as Greece heads into a week of heightening fiscal tension. The first of two International Monetary Fund payments is due on May 6 and the government still doesn’t know if it has enough money to pay pensioners and state employees this week.

Varoufakis sought to squeeze aid from the rest of the euro area accepting the full slate of EU demands, a gambit rejected by the group’s leader, Jeroen Dijsselbloem.

Varoufakis described the talks as “intense” and said his country is ready to make “big compromises” for a deal.

“The cost of no solution would be enormous not only for us but also for all,” he said.

Varoufakis cut a lonely figure on Friday morning as he prepared for the meeting. The 53-year-old academic walked with no entourage through the lobby of the Radisson Blu Daugava Hotel clutching a mobile phone and a newspaper.

Pension Stalemate

In remarks to the assembled ministers, he defended protecting public pensions, a key sticking point in the negotiations. He threatened to walk away from talks if creditors pushed too hard.

When Dijsselbloem invited the group to respond, he was greeted by silence. He asked again, and Kazimir spoke up.

Varoufakis’s refusal to accept the conditions of its creditors particularly riled the Slovakian because his government has slashed the budget deficit and cracked down on tax evasion. His position also may have fallen on deaf ears among his hosts in Riga.

Latvia’s economy shrank by more than a fifth in 2008 and 2009 when the country was led by Valdis Dombrovskis, now vice president of the European Commission and a participant in the Friday meeting. Dombrovskis pushed through some of the world’s harshest austerity measures -- equivalent to 16 percent of gross domestic product. The Greek economy has shrunk by about a quarter since 2008.

Photo Shoot

Political gaffes have afflicted Varoufakis from the outset. He offended the Italian government, a potential ally, when he said Feb. 8 their country was close to bankruptcy. Most famously, he posed for a photo spread in Paris Match magazine, showing the minister and his wife on their roof terrace overlooking the Acropolis in Athens.

For any European governments sympathetic to the plight of Greeks, the picture made it harder to justify additional aid to their voters. The episode also hurt Varoufakis’s credibility and gave other ministers an easy way to needle him.

After his comments to the meeting in Riga, Varoufakis was approached by France’s Michel Sapin, a Socialist.

“I told him I had read Philosophie Magazine,” Sapin said, alluding to Varoufakis’s academic style. “It’s better than Paris Match.”

Varoufakis has the backing of a majority of Greeks, according to an Alco survey published in Proto Thema newspaper. Some 55 percent of respondents said they had a positive view of him, compared with 36 percent who said they viewed him negatively.

Still, the schadenfreude in ministers’ reactions was leavened with concern about the consequences of the policy deadlock.

Calls for Plan B

Greece needs to begin paying monthly salaries to civil servants and retirees on Monday, and faces a string of obligations leading up to a $770 million IMF payment on May 12.

Tsipras tried to bypass the finance ministers last week, who have to sign off on any aid disbursement, to make his case directly to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande at a summit in Brussels.

With the prospect of a default hanging over the session, Slovenia’s Dusan Mramor urged the group to consider a “plan B” to mitigate the fallout if negotiations fail. Others echoed his calls. In their public comments, EU Economic Commissioner Pierre Moscovici and De Guindos both said there was no plan B, while Dijsselbloem refused to comment on the prospect, saying it would only fuel speculation in the media.

“Any mention of a plan B is profoundly anti-European,” Varoufakis said in an interview with Euronews.

Before the session broke up and Dijsselbloem briefed the media, Varoufakis implored him to say that progress had been made toward a deal on releasing aid.

“There are still wide differences to bridge,” Dijsselbloem said, standing alongside European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, Moscovici, and head of the European Stability Mechanism Klaus Regling. “Responsibility mainly lies with Greek authorities.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-26/the-rumble-in-riga-how...

Greeks Add Pressure on Tsipras to Compromise as Talks Resume

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-27/greeks-add-pressure-on...

WR;)

 

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:36 | 6033495 Chuck Knoblauch
Chuck Knoblauch's picture

greece again?

yawn

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:36 | 6033496 firstdivision
firstdivision's picture

I see him running for Prime Minister in the next election cycle, and more than likely he will win.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:46 | 6033532 schadenfreude
schadenfreude's picture

Greeks want to keep the Euro, so the bargaining power of Tsipras is limited. 

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 12:43 | 6034307 Mountainview
Mountainview's picture

They don't qualify but the game is to pretend and extend and they need players on both sides of the table to play this farce. Varoufakis didn't play well enough.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 17:40 | 6035556 Anunnaki
Anunnaki's picture

Peter Tosh - Everybody wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:50 | 6033545 Niall Of The Ni...
Niall Of The Nine Hostages's picture

I won't be surprised if Tsipras shitcans Varoufakis in the very near future. At this rate Greece will default in a month, Syriza will be overthrown in three and in six Tsipras will be at the bottom of the Aegean. Better Yanis than Alexis.

Yanis has had his fifteen minutes. Sooner he leaves the stage the better. His act isn't funny any more. And it was never going to convince the banksters to give Greece a stay of execution. Only a Samson Option might have done that.

 

 

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 08:56 | 6033568 Gohigher
Gohigher's picture

Alexis Tsipras: "You have served your purpose, we are staying in the EZ".

Yanis Varoufakis: " I thought we had a voters mandate ? "

Alexis Tsipras: " Not worried, I hired an image consulting team that includes Jon Gruber AND Kristina Schake " .....

Yanis Varoufakis: " I thought you looked different ..... nice makeover !"

Alexis Tsipras: "Yep, gold just makes a man. BTW, your twitter account is blocked, take a vacation."


Long=  AssTroGlide Futures

Short= Grexit

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:21 | 6033571 all-priced-in
all-priced-in's picture

Varoufakis is a college professor - he likes the sound of his own voice - he had a few sound bites that played well - would have also made the students stuck in his class chuckle.

 

But like almost every other college professor - the FED is full of them - they don't know how to close the deal.

 

But realistically - you ride in on a populist Tsipras wave of giving away more fee shit - something that no one can actually do in this situation and he should have understood this was just about impossible.  

 

My guess he will write a book and go back to academia where he belongs - those that can't do teach.

 

 

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 10:09 | 6033759 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

He did not understand his job when he took it.  He thought it was to negotiate the best deal possible with the least pain for Greece.  He did not realize that the banksters already have their deal and he was just for show.

The fact that there have been no more Icelands, is the real piece of data

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:00 | 6033579 ableman28
ableman28's picture

There is no solution to the Greek crisis other than pretend and extend.  The only question is how rancorous the camoflauge of public negotiation has to be in order to conceal that reality.

Greece can not now and will never, ever, ever be able to pay back all the debt they have incurred.  No Greek government except a military dictatorship, not out of the question, can hope to impose the cut backs necessary and sustain them to make debt payback even theoretically possible.

In good times the average citizen does not perceive the direct benefits of government debt build up in near the same terms as the impact ofgovernment deleveraging and the loss of benefits.  Democracies simply do not easily sustain self sacrifice at the level required to address this kind of debt situation.

So either the ECB pretends and extends or winds up talking to the Generals.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:50 | 6033707 lakecity55
lakecity55's picture

I do not think the Anglo-American empire will allow a Russian Federation military installation in the Aegean.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:02 | 6033591 Sir SpeaksALot
Sir SpeaksALot's picture

I dont think an "Oxford educated" label is a plus these days...

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 10:17 | 6033794 HowdyDoody
HowdyDoody's picture

It is better than 'Harvard educated', but only in the sense of being less negative.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:13 | 6033618 rwe2late
rwe2late's picture

Syriza (Tsipras) continues to diddle with the TROIKA while Greece burns.

Why?

There is now little doubt that Tsipras seeks a way to renege on his election promises by means of a deceptive sell-out package to the TROIKA.

Meanwhile, the US-EU-NATO have surely been maneuvering behind the scenes for another 'solution'.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/04/23/are-eu-officials-plotting-regime-...

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:49 | 6033701 lakecity55
lakecity55's picture

Gladio: installation of a military junta.

Too much of a temptation by the Greek commuinst party to allow for Russian aid and then a Russian naval base.
Not that I would blame them although I am nowhere near a sympathy with Reds.

But, a large part of the Greek body politic has sympathy for Russia.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:16 | 6033626 geekz_rule
geekz_rule's picture

disappointing. for a second, I thought something might change..

fat chance.

just another scripted, can kicking, theatrical time buying exercise.

nothing changes. gexit, japan, etc etc etc etc etc... ad nauseum

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:16 | 6033627 RealityCheque
RealityCheque's picture

Shame. Kinda liked Yanis. Though I'm sure his habit of showing the EU that it is a pile of shit, constructed on a pile of shit, probably rubbed them up the wrong way.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:19 | 6033642 geekz_rule
geekz_rule's picture

the saddest part of all this.. is debt is a mirage. its nothing.

the banks didnt loan anything. they actually have NO SKIN IN THIS GAME

just a bag full of dicks, as C.K. would say.. and demands

banksters are the TERRORISTS

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:25 | 6033652 MSorciere
MSorciere's picture

Obviously, he is inconvenient.

 

Bye-bye...

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:38 | 6033678 Jonesy
Jonesy's picture

Thee-ater for the goyim. Round and round she goes, where she lands nobody knows.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 14:02 | 6034686 tarabel
tarabel's picture

 

 

The one-note nazi strikes again.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:51 | 6033711 falak pema
falak pema's picture

More on the new Pax Americana cum Euro bank bonanza merry go round : 

The key question as the world moves to Oligarchy land going virally "unequal", with every day that passes, as the US special operations worldwide now have more and more on their plates and sell their hardware to all and sundry, is the following: 

HOW CAN THE JEFFERSONIAN CONSTRUCT OF GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE NOW STAY COMPATIBLE WITH AN OLIGARCHY WHO ONLY BELIEVES IN "POLICED, CENTRALLY PLANNED AND ABSOLUTIST CONTROLLED" WORLD ECONOMY BY THE LORDS OF DAVOS (AND THEIR APPOINTED CRONy HEADS OF NATION STATES AND SUPRA-NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS) ?

Is the West going to LOSE its democratic mantra under the dystopia of current events all coagulating towards tighter central controls?

As they say : the Imperial moves of change always occur on the periphery.

So lets get a taste of what is happening there at the periphery of the Empire :

1° Hong Kong : http://uk.businessinsider.com/afp-hong-kong-leader-says-poor-would-dominate-free-vote-2014-10?r=US

A voice from last year is calling towards China's political hold on the colony increasing at the expense of "the unwashed"; all the while the global Oligarchy integrates; aka HK's bourse and China's stock market integrate. Hong Kong will become more politcally aligned to Peking but Peking will become financially integrated to Global money Oligarchy! 

2° Pakistan : As the Pak army tie-in to China increases around the new Asian highway project we here this now :

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/27/us-pakistan-karachi-insight-idUSKBN0NH0WK20150427

3° Sudan : Military dictator wins 95% + plebiscite.

4° Kazakhstan : Old Political leader wins n'th time round with 95% approval.

What does this all tell us?

That democracy dies where the battle is hardest; aka in the emerging nations, and the West cannot say this is good for us, as its inevitable payback to home of democracy will be ominous : When you blind the world for "vital reasons of geo-politics" you also dumb down and blind your own inevitably. It cannot be a global world for financial shenanigans without becoming a political world of similar bent.

The Oligarchy led West has chosen Neo-feudalism at its core and the people don't know it yet! 

Thats what this crisis will bring up as THE PRINCIPLE DEAD BODY when the tide flows out from financial reset. We will have lost our people's power.

When the Oligarchs of democratic world  blind their own (via political hype and MSM), and then mock them for not being able to see, they become the despots of the world. Cruel and without compassion they then will meet the chord of their own making. 

Despotism is cruel but dies by its own cuts, unless sustained from outside.

Today alas, that is the role the West now takes globally to protect its dying, financialized, inequality breeding, convoluted World order; through metamorphosis of its own bleeding heart into something very sinister.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-worlds-democracies-are-fracturing-2015-4

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 09:58 | 6033729 Brazen Heist
Brazen Heist's picture

Fuckers are pushing for cozy sycophants to be installed everywhere....even the Syriza govt is yielding to them.

Putin said it best.....the West does not need allies, it just needs vassals.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 10:13 | 6033773 TabakLover
TabakLover's picture

I do not understand comments here that dump on Varoufakis.  He's trying to screw the banksters.  How can one not root for that?

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 10:46 | 6033885 shovelhead
shovelhead's picture

Every soap opera has to have a theme song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crWSG6liT5Y

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 10:58 | 6033920 Fix-ItSilly
Fix-ItSilly's picture

At this late stage, how can Varoufakis negotiate with strength and honourably when Tsiparis keeps undercutting by not implementing economic reforms? 

Of course Greeks still want the euro.  It symbolizes all things free - Tsipiras still embraces the fairy tale. As do Euro finance ministers.

I wonder if Greek sportscasters still get early retirement due to their hazardous exposure to bacteria prone microphone wind shields.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 12:03 | 6034118 adonisdemilo
adonisdemilo's picture

What's all this about "chosen elites" I didn't choose the bastards, they chose themselves.

That's the way democracy works in Europe.

Fuck you Jack, we're the EU Commission and we are all right, just keep doing as you're told.

Mon, 04/27/2015 - 17:42 | 6035562 Anunnaki
Anunnaki's picture

If Tsirpussy drops a dime on Whatthefuckus you know it's over.

Syriza talked the talk but couldn't get Europe to walk the walk.

I think the only drama to this is: will Whatthefuckus go quietly?

 

Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!