Greece’s Ex-Finance Minister: Bailout Reforms Will ‘Fail’

NEW economic reforms imposed on Greece by creditors are going to fail, according to the country’s outspoken former finance minister.

Mr Varoufakis said Greece was subject to a programme that will “go down in history as the greatest disaster of macroeconomic management ever”.

German Parliament had yesterday approved the opening of discussions.

“This program is going to fail whoever undertakes its implementation”, the state-run BBC quoted Varoufakis as saying on Saturday. When asked how long this would take he responded: “It has failed already.”

Speaking to Radio National’s Phillip Adams in his first post-resignation interview, Varoufakis also said he “jumped more than he was pushed” when he resigned from the ministry.

Former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis reacts during a parliamentary session in Athens, earlier this week.

Further elaborating on the Greek referendum and the majority vote against the austerity measures and proposals, Varoufakis blamed the situation on the European Union and on Germany in particular as proposing an “ultimatum”.

In addition, €50 billion in public assets are to be placed in a special privatisation fund to act as collateral for loans of up to 86 billion euros that must now be agreed with European partners.

The reshuffle saw nine changes overall including the ousting of energy minister and veteran Marxist, Panagiotis Lafazanis, head of Syriza’s militant Left Platform.

But he opted not to bring in technocrats or opposition politicians as replacements.

The terms of the deal are controversial and include numerous harsh austerity measures that Greece’s left-wing Syriza government campaigned against, such as cutting pensions and raising taxes.

The vote of approval paves the way for negotiations on a third Brussels bailout to save the country from bankruptcy and an exit from the eurozone.

Meanwhile, Greek banks
are set to reopen on Monday after a three-week closure and withdrawal limits have been relaxed, but capital controls remain in place, a government decree said yesterday.