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Varoufakis Tells All: Tsipras Was "Dispirited" With "No" Vote, Referendum Was Meant As "Exit Strategy"
In the wake of Greek PM Alexis Tsipras' seemingly inexplicable decision to disregard a referendum outcome he had aggressively campaigned for on the way to accepting a deal with Athens' creditors that looked far worse than the proposal that 62% of Greek voters indicated was unacceptable just a week prior, some began to question whether Tsipras intended to win the referendum at all.
That is, some wondered if, seeing no way out, Tsipras had secretly hoped that a "yes" vote would have given him an excuse to either accept creditors' proposals and say he was simply doing the bidding of the Greek populace, or else simply resign in feigned disgust at his people's willingness to accept a bad deal.
Indeed, the Telegraph's Ambrose Evans-Pritchard reported early last month that the Greek prime minister who decisively and unexpectedly pushed for a plebiscite on the last weekend of June, "never expected to win the referendum on EMU bail-out terms, let alone to preside over a blazing national revolt against foreign control."
Now, in an interview with Christos Tsiolkas for the Australian magazine Monthly, ex-FinMin Yanis Varoufakis tells the story of what took place in the minutes and hours after the referendum "no" vote and details what he calls "The Schaueble Plan". Most notably, Varoufakis says Tsipras was "dispirited" by the "no" vote and that many in the Greek government were indeed depending on a "yes" vote to give them a way out of what seemed like an intractable situation.
Here are the notable excerpts from the piece:
* * *
From Greek Tragedy, by Christos Tsiolkas
Let me just describe the moment after the announcement of the result. I made a statement in the Ministry of Finance and then I proceeded to the prime minister’s offices, the Maximos [also the official residency of the Greek prime minister], to meet with Aleksis Tsipras and the rest of the ministry. I was elated. That resounding no, unexpected, it was like a ray of light that pierced a very deep, thick darkness. I was walking to the offices, buoyed and lighthearted, carrying with me that incredible energy of the people outside. They had overcome fear, and with their overcoming of fear it was like I was floating on air. But the moment I entered the Maximos this whole sensation simply vanished. It was also an electric atmosphere in there, but a negatively charged one. It was like the leadership had been left behind by the people. And the sensation I got was one of terror: What do we do now?
I could tell [Tsipras] was dispirited. It was a major victory, one that I believe he actually savoured, deep down, but one he couldn’t handle. He knew that the cabinet couldn’t handle it. It was clear that there were elements in the government putting pressure on him. Already, within hours, he had been pressured by major figures in the government, effectively to turn the no into a yes, to capitulate.
[There were people in the government] who were counting on the referendum as an exit strategy, not as a fighting strategy.
When I realised that, I put to him that he had a very clear choice: to use the 61.5% no vote as an energising force, or [to] capitulate. And I said to him, before he had a chance to answer, 'If you do the latter, I will clear out. I will resign if you choose the strategy of giving in. I will not undermine you, but I will steal into the night.'
Tsipras looked at me and said, 'You realise that they will never give an agreement to you and me. They want to be rid of us.'
And then he told me the truth, that there were other members of the government pushing him into the direction of capitulation. He was clearly depressed.
I answered him, 'You do the best with the choice that you’ve made, one that I disagree with wholeheartedly, but I am not here to undermine you.'
So then I went home. It was 4.30 in the morning. I was distraught – not personally, I don’t give a damn about moving out of the ministry; it was actually a great relief. I had to sit down between 4.30 and 9 in the morning and script the precise wording of my resignation because I wanted on one hand that it was supportive of Aleksis and not undermining him but on the other hand [to] make clear why I was leaving, that I was not abandoning ship. The ship itself had abandoned the course.”
The German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble [had a plan]. I called it the Schäuble plan. He has been planning a Greek exit as part of his plan for reconstructing the eurozone. This is no theory. The reason why I am saying it is because he told me so.
This is Schäuble’s way of exacting concessions from France and Italy, that was what the game always was. The game was between Germany, France and Italy, and Greece was – not so much a scapegoat – we have an expression in Greece.
It is a clear strategy for influencing from Paris and from Rome,particularly from Paris, the kind of concessions towards creating a disciplinarian, Teutonic model of the eurozone.
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Loose lips sink former finance ministers.
"Game strategy" my ass, he's just an attention whore!
Agree. A sore loser.
Fat lady hasn't sung yet.
no but she's getting skinnier and skinnier living in Greece
Nailguns being shipped from alll over to Greece right now.
Bokkenrijder and mailrouter, you are both unable to recognize integrity - a shame.
Hehe, you ZeroHedgies are dumber than a pile of bricks when you still believe in the fairy tale that any politician (!) will be honest and integer.
Varoufakis, Trump, the Chinese Polit Bureau, all people with "integrity," because they say populist bullshit about gold and the economy that you want to believe, right?
Jesus, how dumb can anyone be? I'm starting to understand better and better how totalitarian dictators come to power: economic collapse => populist bullshit => the dumb and disenfranchised masses vote for them.
Funny how everybody here is against a minimum wage, yet suddenly a self-confessed Marxist like Varoufakis is their hero!
spam
I don't agree.
I believe Steve Keen is a person of integrity.
In an interview with Chris Martenson (http://www.peakprosperity.com/podcast/92208/steve-keen-deliberate-blindn...), he described the V as a personal friend, who was a competent economist and a person of integrity who called a 'spade a spade'.
Show me a politician who is not a traitor to his people.
Hanging the traitor Tsipras though may raise spirits in Greece. So he has his uses.
Many Greeks now think Tsipras is a traitor.http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jul/14/greeks-alexis-tsipr...
German puppet masters exposed.
And yet the beat(ings) goes on. Lovely.
Shows his potential as a politician huh?
What a scumbag.
Lots of downvotes.
I don't get the support for an elected official that just pissed a lot of people off, insulted the same , then quit and can't keep his mouth shut.
The Greeks deserve him.
sorry I can dv you once only. what a lowlife you are.
How many times has that happened here and elsewhere? Obamacare, Bailouts etc...
...scapeboy?
...rapegoat?
Is that a nail gun in the background I hear?
Yeah, I forget if they are equipped with heat or shit seeking nails
They are going to arrest this guy shortly, or he will suddenly disappear.
The Greeks are owned,,, lock, stock and barrel.
If they don't break away,,, in a few years their nation won't exist!
Heil, Merkel! Heil, Merkel! Heil, Merkel! The Euro zone is the Fourth Reich.
Germany is not the enemy. BANKS are the enemy!!!
Smart to get the truth out there Loud and clear. May save him from accidentally suicide.
My understanding of the EU rules is that nobody can leave and nobody can default. It wasn't just Tsipras saying "what do we do now?" EU finance ministers are making things up as they go, and slowly making a process for members to leave the union when necessary. Greece can default once it is out of the EU and start over with the Eurasian Economic Union. Many of Greek exports go to Russia anyway . . . or did, before the sanctions. Greece will be better off and Schauble may ultimately be seen as doing good for Greece by finding a way for her to leave the stranglehold of the EU.
he will be silenced when he continues to chat like that
he rides motorcycle, slippery coast road ahead
Tsipras is the traitor who should be hanged.
Edward Snowden duex.
pistóli karfómatos .... this means Nail Gun in greek.
It's never dull when the insider truth comes to light.
Quite invigorating to see the truth being birthed like a new born baby.
The great paradox in all this is that on the hand Germany wants to reign ver a whole group of sovereign European nations like a dictator but at the same time cannot get its gold back from the USA or do anything about US spying.
And given that it is using Greece as a whipping post to discipline France and others, does Germany really think that a united Europe can be created and held together by such tactics?
As for Varoufakis my view has always been that they hate him because he is honest enough and sharp enough to expose the various fallacies that Europe clings to and the ill inspired policies it attempts to impose despite the untold damage they cause.
YV is smart, outspoken, strongminded, and unafraid. So naturally the Fourth Reich detests him. Hence all the obvious spamming here from the GCHQ troll brigade.
The fact that Steve Keen (another maverick) is a friend of his only raises my estimation of him.
Tsipras, on the other hand, has proved himself to be a bungler, a coward, a traitor, and more: a puppet, with visible strings.
The first law of Game Theory, do not advertise you dabble in it as two can play that game.
Dbl post
What a vile self-serving narcissist.
Really? How so?
After the no vote, "within hours he had been pressured from major figures in the government..."
Err.. who is/was more major in the Greek government than Tsipras and Varoufafakis?
Asking the right questions.
The ones with connections with nail gun manufacturers...
He didn't say the Greek government he said the government.
Can't tell you, but the initials are GS
Leaders don't get pressured, and they don't take orders.
A somewhat naive statement.
Agreed. Alexander the Great, amongst a few others, has been dead for quite a while.
I KNEW he was secretly hoping for a yes vote on the Referendum
The buck doesnt stop with him. Neither does the Euro Nor the drachma
He is a traitor and coward
Schauble has a cunning plan for Europe. It will backfire. You see, because of historical reasons Europeans don't like to be dominated by Germany, however much they say they have changed and do not want to dominate Europe. That is just BS. The reunifaction of Germany was the best thing that happened to that country (it supplied them with reunifcation tax funded cheap Euro they used as a financial weapon) but the worst thing that happened to the continent.
Will this never end.... ok..need some "out of the box" thinking... big problems sometimes can have simple solutions... so here goes... the US has the finest money printing equipment in the world... not hard to just print up $200 billion in euros..deliver them to Greece... tell them to pay their bills.... let's get on with life....