In a stunning resignation, Varoufakis steps out of the ring to allow the prime minister of Greece to meet and negotiate a way forward.
In a statement on his blog, Mr Varoufakis said:
“Soon after the announcement of the referendum results, I was made aware of a certain preference by some Eurogroup participants, and assorted ‘partners’, for my… ‘absence’ from its meetings; an idea that the Prime Minister judged to be potentially helpful to him in reaching an agreement. For this reason I am leaving the Ministry of Finance today.” …”I consider it my duty to help Alexis Tsipras exploit, as he sees fit, the capital that the Greek people granted us through yesterday’s referendum,”
Mr Varoufakis infuriated Greece’s European partners last week when he accused creditors of using “terrorism” to intimidate the Greek people.
This is almost a bigger statement that the “no” vote. Varoufakis comes across as an “ordinary guy”, and it is obvious the “power brokers” do not want to negotiate with “ordinary people”. Martin Strong did say “they” would try rig the outcome.
An Australian- Greek friend, I spoke to in Melbourne, said that she had feared Varoufakis would be “knocked off”. So I wonder if he was “warned” to step back. Maybe he has sharpened instincts.
But, outspoken politicians like Varoufakis are rare.
Another minister who criticized the elite’s agenda was arrested in March 2014. Laurent Louis, the 32 year-old member of Belgium’s parliament, gave a rousing speech (see below). He was later arrested – The excuse was slander. Mary Maxwell’s report here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQ4aAlGiCto
UPDATE 7/7
Report in globalresearch: Greece — The One Biggest Lie You Are Being Told By The Media
Greece did not fail on its own. It was made to fail.Â
Sourced from klauskastner.blogspot (satire)
To: Alexis. From: Yanis. Subject: Thank you!
Dear Alexis,
I owe you thanks from the bottom of my heart! In the last couple of years, you have given me the opportunity to teach you how the Eurozone works (or does not work) and you have been an outstanding student! But more than anything else: I have to thank you for appointing me as your Finance Minister. This has been, and will continue to be even more so in the future, a catapult for my career (and, I should add, for my income!).
It’s hard to remember that only 5 years ago I was a fairly unknown university professor. Not even a trained economist, as I have had to point out on many occasions. As I introduced myself at the INET Conference in Berlin back in April 2012: “Until this crisis erupted, I used to be a fairly decent second rate economist. The implosion of my country bestowed upon me the dubious honor and title of being a first class Greek economist.”Frankly, I had expected a big laugh from the audience but it didn’t come. That was probably due to the fact that I was quite tense, if not so say nervous. After all, that had been my first truly international appearance and George Soros was sitting on the podium with me (or rather: I sat with him). So I didn’t come across at my best and instead of the expected standing ovation, I only got polite applause.
It’s not only you, though, Alexis, that I have to thank but also previous Greek governments for having pursued policies which would make the country implode. Had these governments not been so incompetent, I might still be considered a decent, second-rate economist, but no more.
I discovered quite a few things about myself in the last 5 years. I had always been very popular with my students but those were rather small groups. Through twitter, I noticed my remarkable ability to build up a following. Those were the days when I was proud to have crossed the level of 10.000 followers. As the crisis dragged out, my following increased to 70.000. But I owe it to you and your appointing me as your Finance Minister that my following now exceeds half a million. And you know something? Most of my followers are truly followers, almost in the biblical sense. I feel that I can move their minds and spirits.
And then I discovered my talent for handling the media. That was a total surprise to me because, as you know, the Greek media had more or less ignored me for quite a long time. I guess they considered me a smart alleck; someone who thought he was smarter than they (which, honestly, I thought I was and still am). But then I discovered my talent for dealing with international media. That was no easy feat because, in the beginning, I was not so sure of myself.
When I look at a replay of the “60 Minutes” program which Mike Wallace had done on Greece and in which I played a major role, I am almost embarrassed. I was still far too inexperienced then to come across as the type which the media love. In fact, I came across in a rather subservient and conformist manner. But I learned quickly. Soon I discovered that the media, particularly the Anglo-Saxon media, love nothing better than quotable quotes, particularly when they are pronounced with supreme self-confidence. And I was good with quotable quotes and with acting with supreme self-confidence. It really doesn’t matter whether one provokes or alienates; in fact, had I not always provoked and alienated, I might not be as well known as I am today. Part of the audience may crucify you but there is always the other part which will celebrate you.
I have had so many wonderful quotes that it’s hard for me to pick the best. But one of my favorites is the quote I gave the Huffington Post: “You have to be prepared to blow the whole thing up!” That certainly got me (and Greece!) the world’s attention. And when I then told the NYT that “We don’t want the 7 billion!”, people got the message that I meant business. From then on it was like a home run.
You know the thing which worried me the most? I worried that people would read everything I had written and said, particularly in my blog, since the outbreak of the crisis because then they would have understood the strategy which I have recommended most consistently. You yourself were originally doubtful about this strategy but, thankfully, you eventually came around to making it your own strategy. And that strategy was: default but insist on staying in the Eurozone in order to keep the financial lifeline and, above all, not do ANYTHING which could be interpreted as Greece’s having actually opted for default. We always said that we would have to draw the socalled negotiations out as long as possible in order to increase the cost of a default to our partners. As I had literally guaranteed you, the ECB did not cut the lifeline for our banks until the very, very last moment and our partners are now beginning to realize that they increased their Greek exposure phenomenally during the last months so that Greeks could rescue their savings. While they haggled about 7,2 BEUR, we took from them over 40 BEUR through the back door. In all modesty, that was no small feat!
Alexis, you and I have come a long way and we truly lived up to the the proud examples which our spiritual forefathers left for us. They have influenced world history before. TheDekemvriana brought down the East-West alliance and made Greece the place where the Cold War began. The Polytechneion brought down the dictatorship. And now we, little but proud Greece, stood up against the undemocratic EU elites. If that ends up bringing down the EU, so be it!
You know, Alexis, I have often wondered whether John Maynard Keynes would have become the economic giant that he was if he had not been appointed the financial representative for the UK Treasury to the Versailles Peace Conference back in 1919. The world’s best actor will not succeed if he is not given a stage. You, Alexis, have given me that stage and I will be grateful for that forever. In all modesty, I think I lived up to historical challenge very well. Just like Keynes, I discovered that the most powerful weapon is the written and spoken word when it is based on intellect. Just like Keynes, I discovered that charmismatic eloquence, combined with a high degree of provocation and non-conventionalism, will attract followers in great numbers. Just like Keynes, I discovered that non-convential conduct and private life are fertile ground for legend building.
I am now in a position to reward you for everything you have done for me, Alexis. I have hours’ worth of tape recordings which will allow me to write many books. In fact, I got this idea from Tim Geithner’s book except that Geithner was only quoting from memory and scribbled notes. I have full-blown recordings with all the facts. The only thing I have not yet decided is the timing of my future publications. I do not intend to put everything out there at once. Instead, I will time my publications in such a way that they keep the flame burning for a long time. Alexis, I promise you, I will make everything possible to make sure that the flame, your and my flame, keeps burning for a very, very long time. You have made me a famous person. I will make sure that you enter the history books like the hero that you have been and still are. In this round, I assure you that we will come out as the winners.
I was once asked privately whether today’s domestic conflict was perhaps something like the long-term consequence of our Civil War, and I responded: “The Civil War is in us, deeply embedded in our cultural and spiritual DNA.” You know better than anyone else what I meant, and that I was and am right in my assessment. It was you, Alexis, who made it possible that we could and can play out this conflict in a peaceful way, and when the other side is not supplied with the weapons of foreigners, be they military or financial, then they cannot persevere. We, on the other hand, can; yes we can!
Let me close with the words of a politician whose policies I detested but whose ability to communicate I admired. President Ronald Reagan. As I leave the position of Finance Minister, I will borrow words from Reagan’s farewell speech and tell you the following:“My friend, you and I – WE DID IT! We weren’t just marking time. WE MADE A DIFFERENCE!”
With the utmost of gratitude and admiration,
Yours,
Yanis
Yes Dee, that is quite a viscous satire.
GREECE IS JUST A PAWN IN A GLOBAL POWER CHESS GAME.
The common version of the Greece debt crisis is that the Greek people are largely responsible for their present condition and must take the pain.
If Australians get seduced into this myth they confirm their ignorant understanding of economic and political realities and pave the way for similar treatment to be dished up inside our economy in due course.
The world is not Governed by our elected representatives. Australians are almost completely in denial that we now live off a US Empire corporate kleptocracy that employs debt – created from thin air, war – justified by lies and deception, and a box of subversive tricks to advance the policy of Monopoly framed as “free trade” and “Globalization”.
Australia is playing in the the same Monopoly/Chess game as Greece so our fate will be decided by the very same forces as the great game proceeds.
Greece is in a dire position now because it’s Banking and Political class have corruptly sold their future with a string of decisions that trapped their lives and economy into the chains of debt slavery and economic interdependence that is an open recipe to have your Nation looted and controlled by Internationalist Banking and Corporate cabals.
Australia is presently being betrayed into the TPP dictatorship and has recently signed “Free Trade” agreements with China and South Korea that are all just steps toward surrendering ownership and control to the Money Printing Cabals.
The money we all use is created out of nothing at the apex of the Global Power
Matrix with such simplicity and vast effect most people are totally unable to grasp we are all living in a “Truman Show” bubble of make belief that is directed by the “money changer” faction who clearly have an ability to fool most people most of the time.
These racketeers can pour war and terror onto any part of the earth like acid flung in the face of a Mafia opponent. Australians appear to pay little attention to the murderous destruction conducted in our names in far flung places, preferring to spend their time focused on home renovations and cooking TV soap operas that Orwell and Huxley well predicted.
The pictures of human carnage caused by corrupt US allied missiles, destroyed cities and infrastructure, tens of millions roaming homeless as refugees and the evidence that all these catastrophic results have been planned, not by Muslims, but by the Western Intelligence complex that operates like an octopus wrapped about the globe. War is just a violent economic policy implemented by the Global Cabals when the bribery of “free markets and “privatization” fail.
Greece is in the midst of a very sever economic attack in the present time.
Australia is also under attack but because our intelligentsia, with few rare exceptions, have taken their rewards and dividends to participate and sell our Nation to the Monopolist agencies as the transfer proceeds with relative calm.
The end result for Greece and Australia is identical – submission of our life towards the plans and benefit of a self appointed few.
The Greeks have, to a limited degree, recognized their social lives and economic life have been sold into enslavement and have found some courage to resist by way of the Syriaz Government, which not so long ago was a “radical left” political minor like the “radical right” Katter Party here in Australia. Sometimes “radical” becomes populist.
Sadly, the Syriaz political and economic manifesto does not appear to posses the deeper understanding of the “money trick” that is at the root of all centralizing monopoly power in our world.
Consequently, it is unlikely that lasting policy adjustment will be genuinely achieved out of the present upheaval but developments are unpredictable and at least if Greece regained sovereignty with their own currency some possibility of real recovery would emerge.
Negotiating to have the chains of the Euro loosened a little will only destroy the political energy behind Syriaz and poison other efforts to tackle the Debt Dragon
that rules mankind.
This video sets out some of the political realities that are hidden and ignored by MSM and our Political class that are very relevant to what is unraveling in Greece.
Many years ago, in America, I received, unsolicited in the mail, a Mastercharge card. It was accompanied by a letter urging me to use it. They told me: “To get the card started, you must pay the yearly fee, $49. If you cannot afford this now, you can pay it at $4.90 for 10 months.
Hey wait a minute, if I can’t cough up 49 bucks for this sevice, why should I use the card to buy a $600 sofa?