🔗 Share this article

In a freshly published personal account, titled Ithaki, the former prime minister Tsipras does not hold back while he revisits that chaotic period of Greece's debt drama.

A Controversial Choice

As per Tsipras's version, Tsipras selected that unorthodox academic Yanis Varoufakis to be the treasury head mainly because of his worldwide fame and his very persuasive abilities when it came to communicator.

“He was, truthfully, more like a star and less of an economist,” stated the 51-year-old.

Conflicting Agendas

The former leader alleges how his finance chief possessed his own agenda that involved advancing his publications and testing out his theories using the nation instead of truly advocating the country's economic stability.

Tsipras wrote that the negotiations to avoid insolvency became “not only a method of achieving a better deal for the country. They became a test, an historic chance to prove the truth of his economic theories.”

High-Stakes Talks

During tense negotiations, Greece came dangerously on the brink of leaving the single currency area.

At stake was both the country's destiny and the punishing austerity policies required in return for rescue loans by foreign lenders.

Failed Alternatives

Efforts to secure financing elsewhere, such as an urgent plea to Russia to purchase Greek bonds, fell on stony ground.

Assisting Greece was equivalent to tossing cash in the trash-can, the Russian leader reportedly informed Tsipras during their meeting.

Referendum and U-Turn

That summer, those punitive bailout terms were put to a popular referendum, a move which threw the EU into deeper existential crisis.

Although the referendum was won resoundingly by voters against the cuts, Tsipras had little option but to ignore the result and agree to a rescue deal with creditors that turned out to be more severe.

Breaking Point

Tsipras claimed how he started questioning Varoufakis quite early on.

“He was the public image of the talks, the figure who drew media attention, who appeared on the covers of magazines globally … he gave the impression he relished the spotlight.”

When the minister outlined a contingency plan involving creating a parallel currency as well as issuing vouchers to pensioners, the leader knew it was the end and asked him: “Can you be serious?”

Enduring Criticism

In the memoir, Tsipras concludes how his former ally had proved himself to be “unsuitable for a deal that required complex and sensitive handling.”

Tsipras further claimed that his confrontational style made him more and more alone among peers, put Greece at risk, while assisted hardliners that were pushing for a Greek exit from the euro.

The account of history has provoked fury along with shock among certain groups, while the former minister has kept a conspicuous quiet on the matter.