Yanis Varoufakis and Euclid Tsakalotos on motorcycle. Demotix/Panayiotis Tzamaros. All rights reserved.Yanis Varoufakis will perhaps be remembered as the James Dean of the European left wing: a man who unwittingly became a politician and briefly lit up the dark skies of European politics. Accordingly, the full extent of this romantic character should be better understood; a pragmatist with many strings to his bow who did what no other professional politician (even one from the extreme left) will ever do: support ideas which benefit the common good rather than a personal career. This was the pivotal factor in his departure from the Greek government after the magnificent victory for the No camp at the referendum.
Contrary to the revanchist commentary from the dominant media, Varoufakis was not fired by Alexis Tsipras: he left voluntarily, conscious that a new phase of politics – one which he did not want to be associated with – was beginning. This economics teacher knows better than anyone that the Greek government will have to make important concessions in order to even attempt to secure the crucial restructuring of the debt, a condition sine qua non to pull Greece from debt and from austerity ad vitam aeternam.
Immediately after the referendum results were announced on Sunday evening, the members of the Eurogroup and their heads of state welcomed the Greek No vote with customary disdain. In essence they believe an agreement with Tsipras’ government will be impossible to reach as long as he refuses to plunge the country into a new austerity programme. This, we expected. The question we now face is in what measure will Tsipras accept the policies that were recommended in the most recent document, negotiated last week: privatisations, increased VAT, extension of the retirement age. What concessions is Tsipras willing to make and in exchange for what?
