“Rock Star” Yanis Varoufaki Resigns After Being Given a Clear “No to Austerity” Mandate
by Scott Creighton
He once stated that Syriza was never given a mandate to reject all austerity proposals and move Greece out of the Euro.
He also said if the referendum returned a ‘YES” decision by the people of Greece, he would facilitate the signing of the agreement and then resign.
Well, yesterday 60% of the voting population made their opinions known on the subject of austerity in Greece when only 40% was needed for the referendum to be valid. And 61% of them voted “NO” to austerity.
That is the mandate that Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufaki claimed he never had.
So what does he do now that he got his “NO” vote and his mandate? He resigned.
“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. And I shall wear the creditors’ loathing with pride.” Yanis Varoufaki
On his blog, the “rock star” tried to play the martyr roll and endow himself with as much credit for the outcome of the referendum as possible. He claims that the foreign creditors decided they wanted him out as a result of this defeat so Tsipras asked him to oblige the wishes of the masters of the universe and he resigned.
Aw… poor rock star.
For so long forces outside Greece have determined their economic policies to the crippling effects we see now.
And it would appear they also have a say in who serves in office in Greece as well. When TMOTU say you need to go, the Greek finance minister from that neo-liberal economics program in Austin, Texas packs his bags and complies.
Could you imagine someone from Germany or Brussels telling Obama or Bush who they could or could not have serving as Secretary of Treasury? You think that happens? Probably more than we know. You think we would ever admit it publicly?
In his exit blog, Yanis also gives us a clue as too how Syriza intends to use this new anti-austerity mandate from the people: to get more austerity.
“It is, therefore, essential that the great capital bestowed upon our government by the splendid NO vote be invested immediately into a YES to a proper resolution – to an agreement that involves debt restructuring, less austerity, redistribution in favour of the needy, and real reforms” Yanis Varoufaki
The people didn’t vote for “less” austerity. They didn’t stand up to the threat of a continued bank holiday (imposed BY Vanis Varoufaki, by the way) and even a possible military coup for the promise of “less” austerity. They came out in droves and voted for the END of austerity, the END of privatizations… the END of the Troika dictating neo-liberal “Miracle of Chile” bricks being dumped on their heads. That’s what they voted for. That’s the ‘capital’ he speaks of so often. That is the mandate of Syriza ONCE AGAIN.
And once again, Yanis’ own words don’t hold true. He said he would leave if the people said “YES” but instead, given this mandate, a fresh bunch of political capital to do the bidding of the people of Greece, he takes a powder and exits stage right.
For those who saw him and Syriza as nothing more than fake-left cover to pass still more austerity down to the people of Greece, this move of his does nothing but solidify their theories as it looks more like he’s being reprimanded for a failed project than crucified as a martyr.
It’s hard too say where Greece is headed at this point but Yanis’ future seems pretty obvious. He goes back to his tenured position in Austin teaching globalist economics to young impressionable minds with his leather jackets and his motorcycles and his “rock star” image barely intact.
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