Yanis Varoufakis and Euclid Tsakalotos on motorcycle. Demotix/Panayiotis Tzamaros. All rights reserved.Yanis
Varoufakis will perhaps be remembered as the James Dean of the European left
wing: a man who unwittingly became a politician and briefly lit up the dark
skies of European politics. Accordingly, the full extent of this romantic
character should be better understood; a pragmatist with many strings to his
bow who did what no other professional politician (even one from the extreme
left) will ever do: support ideas which benefit the common good rather than a
personal career. This was the pivotal factor in his departure from the Greek
government after the magnificent victory for the No camp at the referendum.
Contrary
to the revanchist commentary from the dominant media, Varoufakis was not fired
by Alexis Tsipras: he left voluntarily, conscious that a new phase of politics
– one which he did not want to be associated with – was beginning. This
economics teacher knows better than anyone that the Greek government will have
to make important concessions in order to even attempt to secure the crucial
restructuring of the debt, a condition sine
qua non to pull Greece from debt and from austerity ad vitam aeternam.
Immediately
after the referendum results were announced on Sunday evening, the members of
the Eurogroup and their heads of state welcomed the Greek No vote with
customary disdain. In essence they believe an agreement with Tsipras’
government will be impossible to reach as long as he refuses to plunge the
country into a new austerity programme. This, we expected. The question we now
face is in what measure will Tsipras accept the policies that were recommended
in the most recent document, negotiated last week: privatisations, increased
VAT, extension of the retirement age. What concessions is Tsipras willing to
make and in exchange for what?
On
Monday morning, the Greek prime minister urgently gathered the leaders of the
largest political parties in Greece together, in the hope of presenting a
unified front against their creditors. He received their support from all but KKE, the Greek communist party. This was a skilful move because it decisively removes the threat of
force from the Eurogroup, which was trying to impose a “government of
technocrats”. Here, Alexis Tsipras seems to be arguing that national support is
more important than the popular mandate stemming from the polls. He also appears to be seeking a quantitative compromise around austerity
measures in exchange for an injection of funds and for a restructuring of the
debt. The rupture with the euro, sought so much by certain left wingers, is not
always on the agenda.
Curiously, the enormous No vote appears to have pushed aside Grexit in
the short-term at least, because a large majority of the 61% who voted No do
not want to leave the euro zone or quit the EU. Tsipras knows he is restrained
by this popular mandate: to save the country from total financial asphyxiation
without employing new austerity measures which will further impoverish the
working classes; all this without leaving the euro zone.
Yanis Varoufakis is an economics teacher, and a politician “by
accident”. Alexis Tsipras is a professional in politics. According to the
distinction made by Max Weber, the first answers to a principle of conviction
while the second holds the future of Greece in his hands for the Greek (and
European) left. The latter is therefore more marked by a principle of
responsibility; it is here where the paths of the two men diverge. However, Varoufakis will never be in opposition
to Tsipras. It is likely that he will continue to give serious advice to the
government that he will assuredly support. Simply, Varoufakis appears to have
refused to put into practise the policies of austerity that are being
announced.
There is evidently a paradox in the trajectory of this endearing and
brilliant economist. Once advisor to George Papandreou, arriving in government
with a “centrist” reputation in Syriza’s circles, Yanis Varoufakis turned out
to be a most tenacious opponent to the heavy blows from the Troïka. He became
the most hated of Syriza’s ministers in the other European capitals, and
rightly so. Pragmatic, sure of himself but never arrogant, competent, funny,
learned, an elegant speaker of English, Varoufakis is an atypical character in
the desolate landscape of the European radical left. For all these reasons, his
capitalist enemies of all creeds sniffed out the threat: Varoufakis had become
the man to topple.
This “unpredictable Marxist” is an Anglo-Saxon radical left-winger, at
once materialist, liberal, and libertarian: he ridiculed the mercantile
authoritarianism of the European governments and confounded the corruption of
the dominant medias. Yanis Varoufakis is
a ‘doer’; he dismissed the advice of the European radical left, trapped in a
rhetorical monologue that was hated by the people. He demonstrated that the
radicalism of the left wing is nothing to do with a shouting match, but is
measured instead against the accomplishment of concrete actions for the common
good.
Thanks go to Asher Korner for this translation from the French.
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