[D66] Greek bailout deal 'a new Versailles Treaty', says Yanis Varoufakis

[J.N.]

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/latenightlive/greek-bailout-deal-a-new-versailles-treaty-yanis-varoufakis/6616532

Greek bailout deal 'a new Versailles Treaty', says Yanis Varoufakis in
first post-resignation interview

    Monday 13 July 2015 10:39PM
    Exclusive—Alex McClintock

Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis speaks to the press

In his first interview since resigning as Greek finance minister, Yanis
Varoufakis took aim at Greece’s creditors, revealed the extent of the
country’s preparations to leave the euro and warned of the rise of the
far right. Late Night Live reports.

In his first interview since resigning earlier this month, former Greek
finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has described the 86 billion euro
bailout deal agreed to by prime minister Alexis Tsipras as ‘a new
Versailles Treaty’.

    In the coup d’état the choice of weapon used in order to bring down
democracy then was the tanks. Well, this time it was the banks.
    Yanis Varoufakis

‘This is the politics of humiliation,’ he told Late Night Live. ‘The
troika have made sure that they will make him eat every single word that
he uttered in criticism of the troika over the last five years. Not just
these six months we’ve been in government, but in the years prior to that.

‘This has nothing to do with economics. It has nothing to do with
putting Greece on the way to recovery. This is a new Versailles Treaty
that is haunting Europe again, and the prime minister knows it. He knows
that he’s damned if he does and he’s damned if he doesn’t.’

The deal, agreed to on Monday after 17 hours of talks with eurozone
leaders, contains tough conditions including pension cuts, tax increases
and the movement of public assets into a trust fund to pay for the
recapitalisation of Greek banks.

Mr Varoufakis rejected the deal in the strongest possible terms,
comparing it to the 1967 coup d’état that installed a military
dictatorship in the Mediterranean nation.

‘In the coup d’état the choice of weapon used in order to bring down
democracy then was the tanks. Well, this time it was the banks. The
banks were used by foreign powers to take over the government. The
difference is that this time they’re taking over all public property.’

Mr Varoufakis suggested that Mr Tsipras may call a snap election rather
than bring the deal before the Greek parliament, saying he would be
‘very surprised’ if Mr Tsipras wanted to stay on as prime minister.

He insisted, however, that he and Mr Tsipras remain on good terms, and
that he has kept a low profile over the last week in order to support Mr
Tsipras and his successor in the finance ministry, Euclid Tsakolotos.

‘I jumped more than I was pushed,’ said Mr Varoufakis, describing his
resignation in the immediate aftermath of the ‘no’ vote in the July 6
referendum on bailout terms similar to those accepted on Monday.

‘I entered the prime minister’s office elated. I was travelling on a
beautiful cloud pushed by beautiful winds of the public’s enthusiasm for
the victory of Greek democracy in the referendum. The moment I entered
the prime ministerial office, I sensed immediately a certain sense of
resignation—a negatively charged atmosphere. I was confronted with an
air of defeat, which was completely at odds with what was happening outside.

‘At that point I had to put it to the prime minister: “If you want to
use the buzz of democracy outside the gates of this building, you can
count on me. But if on the other hand you feel like you cannot manage
this majestic ‘no’ to an irrational proposition from our European
partners, I am going to simply steal into the night.”’

Read more: Yanis Varoufakis on austerity and Australia

The former finance minister also described the Greek government’s secret
preparations to print drachmas in the event of the country being forced
to leave the euro.

‘As a responsible government, knowing full well that there was a very
significant alliance within the eurogroup whose purpose was to throw us
out of the euro, we had to make contingencies,’ he said. ‘We had to have
a small team of people in secret who would create the plan in case we
were forced to exit the monetary union known as the eurozone.’

‘Of course, there is a conundrum here. Once this plan begins to be
implemented, once you go from five people working on it to 500—which is
the minimum you need to implement it—it becomes public knowledge. The
moment it becomes public knowledge, the power of prophecy creates a
dynamic of its own ... We never made that transition from five to 500.
We never felt we had a mandate to do it. We never planned to do it. We
had the design on paper but it was never activated.’

Mr Varoufakis said that he will remain as a backbencher in the Greek
parliament, where he has ‘a lot more room to manoeuvre and speak the
truth’. He warned however, that austerity will further embolden the
country’s far right.

‘In parliament I have to sit looking at the right hand side of the
auditorium, where 10 Nazis sit, representing Golden Dawn. If our party,
Syriza, that has cultivated so much hope in Greece ... if we betray this
hope and bow our heads to this new form of postmodern occupation, then I
cannot see any other possible outcome than the further strengthening of
Golden Dawn. They will inherit the mantle of the anti-austerity drive,
tragically.

‘The project of a European democracy, of a united European democratic
union, has just suffered a major catastrophe.’