Tuesday, 4 August 2015 - 11:17
Varoufakis slams Dijsselbloem as a "liar," "intellectual lightweight"
Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis called Dutch Finance Minister and Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem not only a liar, but also an "intellectual lightweight" in a recent interview with Spanish newspaper El Pais.
The Spanish newspaper asked Varoufakis about his relationship with Dijsselbloem. "No relationship could have existed with Dijsselbloem." Varoufakis answered. "This is not just because he is so intellectually lightweight, but primarily because he is untrustworthy. For example, he chose to lie to me in my first Eurogroup about procedure. It is one thing to disagree with the Eurogroup President. It is quite another thing to have him lie to you about gravely important procedures."
He had nicer things to say about German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble, whit who he also had disagreements in the past. "Our disagreements were serious but, at personal level, there was mutual respect and a useful exchange of ideas was had." According to Varoufakis, with more colleagues like Schauble, the "working relationship would have ended up producing tastier fruits".
Varoufakis believes that the agreement that "imposed on" the Greek government in July was made to fail, in order to implement Scauble's plan to reform the eurozone. "This is a program designed to fail. And so it will fail. It's not easy for an architect to build a solid building, but it's easy for him or her to construct a building that will collapse." he said to the newspaper. "It was planned to fail, because, let's face it: Wolfgang Schauble is not interested in an agreement that works. He categorically stated that he wanted to redesign the eurozone and part of that redesign is that Greece should be thrown out of the eurozone."
The full interview with Varoufakis can be read on his blog.