His offices are located in Athens right next to a park with the sculpture of the Greek goddess of wisdom, Athena Parthenos. Former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis was once a pugnacious economist who is now a politician. At the age of 62, the Greek heads the left-wing splinter party Mera 25, which narrowly made it into parliament in the last election. Its German offshoot achieved just 0.7 percent in the state elections in Bremen. He has long since fallen out with his former head of government, Alexis Tsipras.
Christian Schubert
Economic correspondent for Italy and Greece.
- Follow I follow
Varoufakis quickly makes his interlocutors feel on which side wisdom is anchored in his view. In an interview with the F.A.Z., he accuses the European Union, the EU Commission and the European Central Bank of "infinite stupidity" because they "celebrate Greece's alleged economic miracle", blind to the fact that it is only built on debt and the enrichment of a few; "a Ponzi plot", named after an Italian businessman who once faked profits.
Varoufakis calls economic policy arguments that he does not share "nonsense" or characterized by "economic illiteracy". He describes various mayors, such as that of the Cycladic island of Mykonos, as "mafiosi". The man has lost none of his old bite, in election campaign mode it may have strengthened, because on May 21 the Greeks will elect a new House of Representatives.
Red rag for Europe's finance ministers
Varoufakis was finance minister in 2015, when his country was on the brink of monetary and financial abyss. With his counterparts Wolfgang Schäuble and Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the motorcyclist, who likes to be dressed in a leather jacket, engaged in legendary battles of words that only his closest favorite enemies exchange. After a good five unsuccessful months in office, Varoufakis resigned because he did not want to support the austerity measures demanded by Europe, but also because he had become a red rag among his foreign counterparts who could no longer do anything for his country.
Varoufakis once said that he lacked the ability of politicians to be persuaded by good arguments and to admit mistakes. The emphasis with which he puts forward his positions is all the more striking. In his estimation, Greece's impressive growth rates over the past two years are based only on increased public debt, which is sucking in imports without generating productive growth.
Greece "more bankrupt than ever"
"Greece is more indebted and more bankrupt than ever, but the financial markets are happy because the ECB guarantees them the repayment of their bonds"; because of the high yields on Greek government bonds, this is a fantastic business. At the same time, the Greek banks had divested themselves on a large scale of bad loans, from which international fund buyers from tax havens enriched themselves. According to Varoufakis, if anyone benefits from the flow of money, it is only the Greek oligarchs, who earn money from cartels and are in cahoots with the liberal-conservative government.