The left-wing Syriza party says Yanis Varoufakis and others who voted against Greece’s latest bailout package will not be allowed to run for parliament under the Syriza banner in the upcoming snap election. For his part, Varoufakis said he would stand in the “sad” elections anyway.
The former Greek Prime Minister and head of the left-wing Syriza Party, Alexis Tsipras, resigned as Prime Minister earlier this month. As Breitbart London previously reported, having effectively lost his parliamentary majority after an anti-bailout rebellion by 44 rebel hardliners in his party, he resigned in order to trigger new elections expected on 20 September.
The Syriza government only won power in January this year, having taken the election on an anti-austerity mandate. Since then it has not lived up to its promises, reports The Independent.
In July the government agreed to accept the €86bn bailout package offered by the Troika (the EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund). The terms of the deal demanded reforms of the Greek state and finances, including tax increases and the privatisation of much of Greece’s public sector.
Although such terms were rejected by Greek voters in a referendum, an outcome for which Tsipras himself campaigned, they were later accepted. Prior to that Varoufakis resigned as Greek Finance Minister as it appeared Tsipras thought it better if he stood down, feeling pressure from other European leaders.
Tspiras has since explained that at the height of the negotiations over the bailout he thought “Varoufakis was talking but nobody paid any attention to him.” He added:
“They had switched off, they didn’t listen to what he was saying. He didn’t say anything bad but he had lost his credibility among his interlocutors.”
Since resigning Varoufakis has been threatened with possible treason charges, seen by many as a means of silencing his criticisms of his former colleagues in the Greek government, the proposed bailout and the European Union.
Varoufakis told the French news weekly, Nouvel Observateur, that he believes Syriza “betrayed the great majority (62 per cent) of the Greek people.” However, he has said he will not follow other Syriza members into the anti-bailout, far-left group Popular Unity which, led by Tsipras’ former Minister of Energy Panagiotis Lafazanis, is now Greece’s third-largest party.
Although clearly sympathetic to some of Popular Unity’s aims, Varoufakis believes them too isolationist. Rather than join them, he has pledged to found a new European network aimed at restoring democracy.
Having previously stated his belief that Europe must reform of face destruction, Varoufakis explained :”Instead of having national parties that run on a national level it will be a European network which is active on a national level.”
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