🔗 Share this article

In a freshly published personal account, named Ithaki, the former prime minister Tsipras pulls no punches as he revisits the turbulent period during Greece's financial crisis.

An Unconventional Appointment

As per the ex-PM's version, Tsipras selected the unorthodox academic Varoufakis to be the treasury head largely due to the latter's worldwide fame and his “extremely attractive” skills when it came to communicator.

“He was, actually, more of a personality rather than an economist,” stated Tsipras.

Conflicting Priorities

The former leader claims how Varoufakis possessed his own motives which included promoting his publications as well as testing out his game theories using Greece rather than truly advocating its economic stability.

He wrote how the negotiations to avoid bankruptcy became “not just a way to secure a better deal for Greece. They became an experiment, an historic opportunity to prove the truth of Varoufakis's economic theories.”

Critical Negotiations

Amid tense discussions, the country came perilously close to leaving the single currency area.

At stake lay not only the country's destiny and those severe austerity measures demanded in return for rescue loans from foreign lenders.

Failed Options

Efforts to find funds elsewhere, such as a desperate appeal to Russia to buy Greek government bonds, fell on stony ground.

Helping Greece would be equivalent to throwing money into the garbage, Putin reportedly told Tsipras in Moscow.

Referendum Followed by U-Turn

In July 2015, the excoriating conditions were subjected to a public vote, an action that plunged the EU into further existential crisis.

Although the vote was carried decisively by those who opposed the cuts, the prime minister had little option but to ignore the result and negotiate a bailout package with creditors that proved to be more severe.

Breaking Point

Tsipras revealed how he began to doubt his finance minister quite early on.

“Varoufakis was the face of negotiation, the man who attracted publicity, who graced the front pages of magazines globally … it seemed he relished the spotlight.”

After Varoufakis outlined a contingency plan that included creating a parallel currency as well as issuing coupons to retirees, Tsipras said he realised that it was the end and asked Varoufakis: “Are you serious?”

Lasting Rebuke

In the book, the author asserts how his former ally had proved himself to be “unfit for an agreement demanding complex and delicate management.”

He also claimed that his confrontational style made him increasingly isolated with colleagues, endangered the country, and assisted hardliners that were pushing for a Greek exit from the euro.

This retelling of events has provoked anger and shock among certain groups, while Varoufakis has maintained a deafening silence regarding these claims.