Greek bailout 'a new Versailles Treaty', says former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis

[GliderGuider]

Greek bailout 'a new Versailles Treaty', says former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis

‘This is the politics of humiliation,’ he told Late Night Live. ‘The troika have made sure that they will make him eat every single word that he uttered in criticism of the troika over the last five years. Not just these six months we’ve been in government, but in the years prior to that.

‘This has nothing to do with economics. It has nothing to do with putting Greece on the way to recovery. This is a new Versailles Treaty that is haunting Europe again, and the prime minister knows it. He knows that he’s damned if he does and he’s damned if he doesn’t.’

Mr Varoufakis rejected the deal in the strongest possible terms, comparing it to the 1967 coup d’état that installed a military dictatorship in the Mediterranean nation.

‘In the coup d’état the choice of weapon used in order to bring down democracy then was the tanks. Well, this time it was the banks. The banks were used by foreign powers to take over the government. The difference is that this time they’re taking over all public property.’

Varoufakis seems to be the only person willing to tell the truth in this catastrophe.

[Katashi_itto]

1. K&R!

[DetlefK]

2. Democracy? Fine, let's talk about the democracy in Greece.

Those democratically-elected greek politicians who cooked the books, violated EU-treaties (and no doubt finance-laws) and amassed the massive debt in the first place, were they elected with the populace knowing or without the populace knowing of their crimes?

[GliderGuider]

7. Still playing that tune? Whose side are you on?

Do you think Greek workers deserve to die for the crimes of bankers and previous politicians?

[DetlefK]

9. And who exactly has Greece put on trial for these crimes so far?

I don't see bankers on trial in Greece...
I don't see former politicians on trial in Greece...

Greece doesn't want to change what got them into trouble in the first place. They don't want to put anybody on trial, they don't want to hold anybody responsible, they don't want to force anybody to change their tax-free way-of-life.

They want to get rid of the consequences of their deeds and then go right back to doing it some more.

[GliderGuider]

10. They've had other things on their minds recently, haven't they?

I expect there will be a strong backlash against the Greek oligarchs when the shock sinks in and the people realize the true reality of what has been done to them.

[DetlefK]

11. Months and months of waiting for negotiations to end!

Were they too busy to speculate about neverending negotiations to think about what their country should do on its own?

And what shock are you talking about? The shock is already there! They know what is happening to their country! You just posted in the other thread that people are committing suicide out of desperation!
Where is their anger?
Where is their anger?
Where is their anger towards the mistakes that have been made in the past?
All they are angry about is the uncomfortable present with the EU's demands and the unemployment and poverty!
If Greeks think about the bad policies of the past, do they get angry, do they get the desire to change their country?

And are you really trying to tell me that they were so preoccupied with raging against the EU that they didn't have the time to talk about the origin of the crisis?

[GliderGuider]

12. You were asking about trials, not talk.

You know from the United States' experience how long it takes to put major political and banking criminals on trial, right?

There has been lots of talk about it in Greece, but the potential targets are very powerful men. Their equivalent of Blankfein, Dimon and Cheney...

[PoliticAverse]

3. "Mr Varoufakis rejected the deal in the strongest possible terms," except he said he'd vote for

its approval in parliament.

[GliderGuider]

4. He has little choice when peoples' lives are in the balance.

The Troika really stitched this one up. I hope it comes back to bite them in the ass, hard.

[PoliticAverse]

6. And if that doesn't happen and the troika doesn't change their tune...

I hope Greece faces the reality of their future and does what is necessary to escape.

[GliderGuider]

8. What escape?

Varoufakis is making it abundantly clear that the Troika has left no escape route.

[PoliticAverse]

13. You can't expect someone that wants to keep you in debt-slavery to provide you an escape route.

You have to come up with one on your own. They have to leave the Euro and get their
economy back under their own control.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

15. If someone doesn't want the debt and the terms that come with it they should not take the loan.

[GliderGuider]

17. That's so easy to say, isn't it?

It's never the loan shark's fault that the father got his legs broken. He should have considered the consequences before he asked for the loan to keep his kids from starving.

What a revolting piece of "blame the victim"!

[Nuclear Unicorn]

20. If you borrow from a loan shark and don't pay it back what do you think will happen?

Odds are he went to the loan shark because the more reputable places looked at his earning prospects and laughed him out of te door because he has no ability to repay the depositors. Okay, so we work to put loan sharks out of business. Then who lends the father the money?

[jwirr]

18. Do you and I have the power to stop our own country from borrowing money? I don't think so.

[Spatened]

5. What a tool...

[Nuclear Unicorn]

14. Kinda shoots the whole, "Germany never paid its war debts!" meme in the foot.

If the Treaty of a Versailles is cast, not as a tool of remediation but of humiliation then this guy is saying Germany was unjustly humiliated and that round-a-bout justifies the German rejection of Versailles that lead to WW2.

We already know Syriza prides itself on being socialist. Are they now claiming to be the more "nationally" focused sort of socialist?

However, the one factor where his analogy falls flat: Germany had an industrial economy and could actually produce things. Greece? Not so much.

[GliderGuider]

16. He is saying that humiliating a nation unjustly leads to unexpected consequences.

No matter who bears what degree of blame, Greece has now become a failed nation on the southern flank of the continent, with all that implies. We are seeing the beginning of the disintegration of Europe. I think that makes war more, rather than less, likely in the medium term.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

19. I see nothing in your post that contradicts anything I stated.

I think that makes war more, rather than less, likely in the medium term.

Not from Greece, they're too destitute, but maybe from Greece pimping itself to Russia. There's no way the EU would tolerate a Russian naval base in Greece any more than Russia would tolerate a US naval base on, say, the Black Sea.

The question then becomes, is Putin ambitious enough to make such a play?

[GliderGuider]

21. Greece probably wouldn't be directly implicated in such a war.

But as Europe begins to fragment, who can predict what pressures will align across the developing fault lines? The only thing we can say with certainty right now is that there will be fault lines, and there will be pressures. The lessons other nations take from the treatment of Greece will be instrumental in defining both.

Europa ist kaput.

[Igel]

22. He's good at the language of personal and national humiliation.

Never bodes well.

Resonates with a lot of people. Not so much with others.

[GliderGuider]

23. It would be so much more convenient if he just didn't speak.

Right?