The European Union Court today delivered its verdict: European citizens cannot be allowed to find out whether the ECB acted legally in closing down Greece’s banks in June 2015. Why? In the wording of the three judges, because such disclosure would affect the ECB’s “space to think in 2015 and also after 2015”. If this sounds […]
Greece
Mrs Merkel’s Athens visit, her fall from grace and Greece’s demand for war reparations – on BBC Radio 4
Over the past two days, Mrs Merkel was in Athens on a victory lap to celebrate her successful subjugation of the Syriza government and the subsequent extension of the Greeks’ debt bondage. Nevertheless, even this subservient Greek government managed to upset her victory lap by mentioning the… war and the reparations the Greeks will continue to demand for the […]
Behind the closed doors of negotiations with the EU? – The Guardian podcast, November 2018
As the Brexit negotiations near crunch point, Theresa May is still battling to keep her party on side as she edges closer to a deal with Brussels. But is it possible to take on the EU in negotiations and win? One man who staked his political career on trying just that was the former Greek finance minister Yanis […]
On Europe’s austerity drive and DiEM25 – an OECD podcast
One country that symbolised the crisis of the last 10 years was Greece. Its insolvency embarked the country on a long regime of bail-outs and austerity. This August, Greece officially emerged from the crisis, with the OECD forecasting GDP growth again. So, did the austerity work? The former Greek finance minister and co-founder of the […]
Greece was never bailed out; it remains a debtor’s prison and the EU won’t let go of the keys – op-ed in The Observer
Over the past week, the world’s media have been proclaiming the successful completion of the Greek financial rescue programmemounted in 2010 by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Headlines celebrated the end of Greece’s bailout, even the termination of austerity. Buoyant reports from ground zero of the eurozone crisis portrayed Europe’s eight-year long Greek […]
Greed, ineptitude and austerity fanned the flames of the Greek wildfire – The Sunday Times
ATHENS: A biblical calamity befell the Attica region last Monday. I saw its first sign in the late morning at Athens airport, where I was seeing off my daughter to Australia. A strong whiff of burning wood caused me to look up to the sky, where a whitish-yellow sun beckoned, surrounded by the tell-tale eclipse-like […]
Behind Greece’s forest fires: a tragic reminder of our collective responsibility as Europeans
ATHENS – A biblical calamity befell Attica last Monday. I saw its first sign in the late morning at Athens airport, where I was seeing off my daughter to Australia. A strong whiff of burning wood caused me to look up to the sky, where a whitish-yellow sun beckoned, surrounded by the telltale eclipse-like daytime […]
An anniversary to savour: the three days that shook Europe – 3rd to 6th July 2015 (Extracts from my ADULTS IN THE ROOM)
Three years ago, today, the people of Greece staged a rebellion against their debt bondage. Though this rebellion was overthrown from within almost immediately, it remains a remarkable testimony to the power of a people to say No to the oligarchy, to wrestle control of the narrative of their circumstances from the inanely authoritarian elites, […]
Profiles in Euro-Denial: The thwarted euro reforms & Greece’s permanent debt bondage – Project Syndicate op-ed
ATHENS – Europe’s establishment is luxuriating in two recent announcements that would have been momentous even if they were only partly accurate: The end of Greece’s debt crisis, and a Franco-German accord to redesign the eurozone. Unfortunately, both reports offer fresh proof of the European Union establishment’s remarkable talent for never missing an opportunity to […]
Complete text of my interview with Corriere Della Sera’s Aldo Cazzullo (in English)
Corriere Della Sera, the Italian daily, published today an interview that I gave to Aldo Cazzullo. For the published version (in Italian of course), you can visit the paper’s site here. However, the published text is a heavily reduced version of the exchange between Mr Cazzullo and myself. For those interested in the full exchange, see […]
The Open Letter sent to me in 2015 by Paolo Savona & Giulio Tremonti, two former Italian ministers, on reforms to the EU that they considered necessary
Rome, July 24, 2015 To Yanis Varoufakis and Dominique Strauss-Khan Dear Yanis, dear Dominique, There is a place on earth that represents Europe’s very roots: Greece. Let us begin there. Athens, April 28, 1955. Albert Camus’ conference on “The future of Europe”.[1] On this occasion, participants agreed that the structural characteristics of European civilization are essentially […]
Want to know why the recent ECB stress tests of the Greek banks had to be fraudulent? – Video interview on TheStreet
To watch the video click on the photo above or click here.
Why we founded new political party MeRA25 to challenge austerity in Greece – The New Statesman, 5 APR 2018
After successfully quashing Greece’s 2015 debtor’s prison break, Europe’s deep establishment has embarked on a mission to declare the country’s economic and social crisis over. To recall Tacitus, “they make a desert and they call it peace”. Since 2015, the Greek state has paid its creditors a sum equal to the aggregate pre-tax revenues of […]