Yanis Varoufakis on Tuesday aimed squarely at the same-day first foray by the Greek state into the markets since 2014, headlining – on the Greek-language side – an online post with “The Government’s duty ahead of the rollover of the Stournaras bond: Either apologize to Mr. Samaras and Mr. Stournaras or cease the insulting celebrations.”
The statement, posted on Varoufakis’ personal website, coincides with Tuesday’s issuance of new paper by the Greek state, in what’s essentially a rollover debt bond. The last time Greece ventured into the markets was months before populist-leftist SYRIZA won a snap election in a landslide in January 2015.
Samaras in this case is Antonis Samaras, Greece center-right prime minister until he lost to SYRIZA, while Stournaras is another Yannis, the influential current Bank of Greece (BoG) president and former finance minister in the coalition government that preceded SYRIZA.
The latest challenge by the controversial Varoufakis comes amid severely poisoned relations between him and his former comrades in the current leftist-rightist coalition government in Athens.
The continued publication of excerpts from Varoufakis’ best-selling book, “Adults in the Room”, by the local press has proved embarrassing and inflammatory for the government, as the book details the first six months in power of the Tsipras government and its gasping negotiations with creditors, from Varoufakis’ perspective.
Varoufakis’ post on Tuesday reads:
“Why do I refuse to be impressed by the news of Greece’s return to the markets?
“It is because the Greek state and the Greek banks remain deeply insolvent. And, their return to the money markets is a harbinger of the next terrible phase of Greece’s crisis, rather than a cause for celebration”.
The above was my answer in a BBC interview on 9th April… 2014! It is also the only answer that fits today’s announcement of Greece’s new bond issue.
Indeed, why script a new article, when that old post offers a most helpful response to the question: “What should the world think of Greece’s new bond issue?” (See also this article on the 2014 bond issue plus this tv interview from 16th April 2014.)
The only thing I need to add to these circa 2014 posts is this:
The Tsipras government today is simply rolling over precisely the same bond that the Samaras-Venizelos-Stournaras government issued in 2014 – the subject matter of my criticism above. This is a remarkable U-turn by Mr Tsipras and his ministers.”
In 2014 they had sided entirely with my criticism of the then government’s argument that Greece’s return to the markets, with the issue of that one bond, was a sign the country was achieving escape velocity from the gravitational pull of its debt-deflationary crisis. Now, they are not only parroting the same arguments as Samaras-Venizelos-Stournaras but they are, lo and behold, rolling over the same bond!
