"They are unanimous in their hate for me; and I welcome their hatred," Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis tweeted late on April 26, quoting former U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
And then, at long last, he was gone.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras realized that he had to withdraw his finance minister after a series of disastrous stunts by Varoufakis during negotiations with Greece's eurozone creditors. When the last meeting ended in a shouting match, Varoufakis was sidelined. Tsipras's deputy will now lead the negotiations.
For Greece, it's too little, too late.
After months of enduring his pedantic lectures on macroeconomics in the Council of Ministers and his tough-guy public brinkmanship, eurozone colleagues chastised Varoufakis behind closed doors. Varoufakis persisted in lecturing and preaching, not talking politics. Tellingly, while the rule normally is that "what happens behind closed doors in Brussels, stays in Brussels," this time some of the ministers present took to Twitter to confirm their anger with Varoufakis. Patience had finally run out, and the message to Tsipras was clear: Remove this guy. Tsipras promptly did. Varoufakis may have liked to compare himself to FDR, but the difference between them is that FDR was someone who spoke the language of politics; Varoufakis clearly does not.
Varoufakis has been "promoted" to a supervisory role, the office of Tsipras stated. The whole saga goes down as a resounding defeat for the Tsipras government.
Running out of time
While pushing out Varoufakis may help ease tensions, it does nothing to alleviate Greece's woes. Deadlines are drawing ever closer and the Tsipras government is getting increasingly desperate. Last week it tried to syphon remaining spare cash reserves from municipalities and pension funds in an attempt to gather just enough money to pay off an outstanding debt. The municipalities and funds in question refused to hand over their money. Now there is talk of Tsipras threatening to hold a referendum on the tough bailout plans laid out by the eurozone.
A referendum is exactly what former Prime Minister Georgos Papandreou proposed in a bid to pressure Greece's creditors. In the end, the referendum was cancelled, elections were held, and Papandreou's Pasok party was thrown out. It currently languishes in the polls with the support of less than five percent of voters.
Tsipras had better come up with new ideas, ones that please Greece's creditors and strengthen the Greek economy. That, or Mr. Tsipras may find himself to be the new Papandreou - and Greece will fall back to square one. But more likely something worse than that will occur: a default, an idea that is gaining support throughout the eurozone.
