The “bad blood” between Yianis Varoufakis and his former comrades in ruling SYRIZA party continues to boil over amid a steady stream of passages being published by local media from the former’s latest book, references that are highly revealing of the period during which Varoufakis led the coalition government’s negotiations with creditors and during the run-up to the Greek leftists’ meteoric rise to power in January 2015.
“It’s certain that Yianis Varoufakis has found the best ad men for promoting his book: in (main opposition) New Democracy and the people that he (Varoufakis) calls the ‘internal troika’,” an announcement by the formerly anti-bailout, anti-austerity SYRIZA party read.
Excerpts of Varoufakis’ best-selling English-language “Adults in the Room” (May 2017), have renewed shrill criticism by the opposition over the leftist-rightist coalition government’s shambolic negotiations with creditors in the first half of 2015, as well as the contentious and ultimately inconsequential referendum held in July 2016 and related charges that actions and plans were being considered by Cabinet members for a full or partial “Grexit”.
Several top opposition lawmakers have demanded that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras address the claims published in Varoufakis’ book.
In fact, centre-right ND has requested a judicial inquiry covering the specific period, a demand also fueled by last week’s televised comments by another one-time minister and subsequent SYRIZA detractor, far-leftist political leader Panayiotis Lafazanis. The latter claimed that a “Plan B” was being processed over the summer of 2015 in case bailout-dependent and SYRIZA-led Greece found itself outside the Euro zone.
SYRIZA’s prickly reaction on Sunday noted that “politics is not gossip, and his (Varoufakis’) pseudo radical speech continues to demonstrate that it’s the flip side of the most reactionary views inside and outside the country (Greece),” while acerbically wishing the ex-minister success for his book.
