Yanis Varoufakis's Self-Incriminating Account of the Greek Crisis - Parts 1 and 2

http://www.europe-solidaire.org/spip.php?article43070
Date Written:  2017-08-17
Publisher:  Europe Solidaire Sans Frontieres
Year Published:  2017
Resource Type:  Article
Cx Number:  CX22546

Part One: Proposals Doomed to Fail
In his latest book, Adults in the Room, Yanis Varoufakis gives us his version of the events that led to the Tsipras government's shameful capitulation in July 2015. It essentially analyses the period 2009-2015, though it makes incursions into earlier periods.
With this voluminous work (550 pages), Yanis Varoufakis shows that he is a gifted narrator. At times he succeeds in moving the reader. His direct and vivid style makes it easy to follow events.
This initial article will cover the first four chapters of a book that comprises 17 in all. It deals with the proposals Varoufakis made before he became a member of the government in January 2015.

Abstract: 
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Excerpt:

From the author's demonstration, we can clearly see that his behaviour and the politico-economic orientation he defended contributed to the disaster. Yanis Varoufakis clearly claims to have played a major role in working out the strategy adopted by a handful of Syriza leaders - Alexis Tsipras, Yanis Dragasakis, and Nikkos Pappas, essentially - before their victory in the January 2015 election.

Varoufakis does not plead guilty. He is convinced that had Tsipras actually taken the orientation he proposed and which Tsipras had agreed to late in 2014, the result would not have been defeat for the Greek people.

But, contrary to the conviction Varoufakis expresses, an attentive reading of his book leads to the conclusion that he contributed to that defeat.

"Contrary to the conviction Varoufakis expresses, an attentive reading of his book leads to the conclusion that he contributed to that defeat"

Varoufakis explains how he gradually convinced Tsipras, Pappas, and Dragasakis not to follow the orientation adopted by Syriza in 2012, then in 2014. He explains that along with them, he worked out a new orientation that was not discussed within Syriza and was different from the one Syriza ran on during the January 2015 campaign. And that orientation was to lead, at best, to failure, and at worst to capitulation.