Outspoken former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis went on the offensive on Saturday, calling for the removal of Bank of Greece (BoG) Yannis Stournaras, days after the latter charged that the mercurial leftist economist exacerbated the country’s position last spring by saying he represents a “bankrupt country”.
Varoufakis’ reply came in the form of an article printed by the Athens daily “Efimerida ton Syntakton”, where he charged that Stournaras’ statement of “don’t listen to him (Varoufakis)”, in conversations with European Central Bank (ECB) president Mario Draghi was in contrivance with the then government’s policy.
Stournaras directly blamed Varoufakis statements and tactics as causing the ECB to “pull the plug” on liquidity for Greek banks in 2015.
In order to justify his quip of representing a “bankrupt country”, Varoufakis said it was part of the first Tsipras government’s strategy for pressuring for debt relief, “which necessitates the admission that the state is in default.”
“This is a blatant violation of the obligations of the (BoG) governor to act within the framework of government policy,” Varoufakis opined.
