Greece will neither seek an extension of its controversial bailout nor cooperate with the so-called “troika” of international creditors, the country’s new finance minister declared Friday, following up on a previous threat to “blow the whole thing up” in order to win concessions designed to boost the Greek economy.
The comments by Yanis Varoufakis, an economist and member of the leftist Syriza party, threaten to unravel carefully negotiated but deeply unpopular bailouts of Greece by the European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund and European Commission that led to harsh austerity and severe cuts in government spending. The Syriza party won Sunday’s national election.
Greece’s economy has shrunk by about 30 percent since 2008, according to data compiled by the World Bank. Its economy was smaller in 2013 than in 2005. About a quarter of its workers are unemployed, according to the Hellenic Statistical Service, or Elstat. Youth unemployment exceeds 50 percent.
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In a November 2014 interview, Varoufakis predicted that countries pushing Greeks to accept austerity — such as Germany — would be doomed to repeat the experience of the victors of World War I, who imposed such harsh conditions on Germany that many believe it led to the rise of Adolf Hitler.
“I think we’ll have a repeat performance of that,” Varoufakis said of Germany today.
