“Europe risks to become worse than the former Soviet union, the USSR,” Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told Italian State Television Rai 3. In an interview to TV magazine Presa Diretta, the Greek FinMin said that “in recent years Europe is covered by a cloud of fear that threatens to do it worse than the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
“Officials of an important Italian institution approached me and told me that they are in solidarity with our country, but they cannot tell the truth as Italy is threatened by bankruptcy and they fear from the German consequences. In recent years, a cloud of fear has covered throughout Europe. We risk to become worse the the former Soviet Union.
Varoufakis said further:
“I want to tell you that we, Greeks, do not have the monopoly on truth. What we can do for the rest of Europe and especially for Italy, is to open a small door to the truth. We can not find the truth on our own, but we can open a door and move so you can support us. In this way, we all can move from the darkness of today’s austerity to the light of European rational, logical discussion. “
To the question, whether he “believes that Greece can do it,” Varoufakis replied that “the Greek government will propose a New Deal for Europe, as American President Roosevelt* did. A New Deal for Europe which is to be financed by the European Investment Bank in order to increase by ten times the funds that have been allocated so far. “
The full interview will be broadcasted this Sunday evening, (Feb 8/15), the excerpt was published in a Presa Diretta trailer by RAI 3. In Greek via here and all Greek media.
*The New Deal instroduced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt was a series of domestic programs enacted in the United States between 1933 and 1938. The programs were in response to the Great Depression of 1929, and focused on what historians call the “3 Rs”: Relief, Recovery, and Reform. That is Relief for the unemployed and poor; Recovery of the economy to normal levels; and Reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression.
PS USSR? No wonder, if one considers that German Chancellor Anegla Merkel grew up in the totalitarian communist regime of former East Germany (DDR)… But hey! I mentioned that in my previous post.
This guy is a real master. Firstly he “won” a number of new “allies” to the Greek cause touring Europe (we later recorded the enthusiastic support expressed by Hollande and Renzo to the Greek proposed haircut). Then he had a ‘fruitful’ meeting with Draghi (and the BCE severed the credit line to Greece). Now he is trying hard to make new friends by claiming that Italy is actually broken. Are we sure this guy is actually Greek, and not a disguised German, working on chancellor Merkel’s payroll?