Controversial former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis said that “Alexis Tsipras keeps pushing the rock of austerity like Sisyphus” and the upcoming “election campaign will be sad and fruitless.”
Varoufakis spoke at Australia’s ABC radio about Greece’s upcoming elections, his stint at the finance ministry, departing prime minister Alexis Tsipras, and his future plans in politics.
Varoufakis said that Tsipras cannot support the austerity memorandum he signed and likened him to the myth of Sisyphus: “Sisyphus was very silly. He should stop pushing the rock. Alexis Tsipras keeps pushing the rock of austerity,” he said.
Regarding SYRIZA, Varoufakis said that “the party has completely split up” and he can no longer be part of it. “The party that I served and the leader that I served has decided to change course completely and to espouse an economic policy that makes absolutely no sense, which was imposed upon us,” he said.
The former minister expressed his sympathy towards Popular Unity, the new party SYRIZA’s “rebels” have formed, but he said he cannot be with theme because of their “isolationist stance.” Despite the fact that he will not join any party, he will stay politically active because he owes it to the Greek people who trusted him.
However, Varoufakis said, his goal is to establish a European network, a Pan-European party: “National parties forming flimsy alliances within a Europe that operates like a bloc, like a macroeconomy, in its own interests—that model doesn’t work anymore. I think we should try to aim for a European network that at some point evolves into a pan-European party” he said.
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