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 Greece's Yanis Varoufakis had other dinner plans, he said, after a
bruising first day of meetings in Riga that underlined his isolation
as he tries to avert national bankruptcy.
While other ministers were feted by their entourages with food and
warm clothing during the meeting in Riga, Varoufakis was seen alone
at almost every turn, eschewing aides or any security detail.
"He is completely isolated," a senior euro zone official told
Reuters on condition of anonymity. "He didn't even come to the
dinner to represent his country," the official said of the event
where ministers, serenaded by a Latvian choir, ate salmon and sea
bass.
At breakfast before the meeting, Varoufakis and European Central
Bank President Mario Draghi avoided eye contact as they picked up
food at the buffet, Reuters reporters observed.
The hardening of the mood against Varoufakis risks deepening the
divide that Greece must bridge with its creditors if Athens is to
avert default.
After three months of largely fruitless negotiations, euro zone
ministers warned him on Friday that the radical leftist Greek
government will get no more aid until it agrees a complete economic
reform plan, before the end of June.
Some countries are so frustrated by what they see as Greece's
failure to compromise that one minister said it may be time to
prepare for a Greek default.
"NOT SURPRISED"
Varoufakis, the only male minister at the meeting without a tie,
said he was unfazed by the tone of Friday's meeting -- which Jeroen
Dijsselbloem, the chairman of the euro zone finance ministers,
described as "very critical" of Athens.
In a sign of the coolness creeping in, Dijsselbloem referred to
Varoufakis as "the Greek colleague" to reporters in Riga, although
he addresses him by his first name in meetings.
"I'm not surprised," Varoufakis told reporters. "When you are
approaching the end of negotiations, the stance hardens."He denied
reports that he had been insulted by ministers in Riga. "All these
are false."
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While his economic demands have fallen on deaf ears, Varoufakis has
become an improbable heartthrob in Germany. ZDF public television
lampooned its own news anchor for enthusiastically comparing the
minister with Hollywood tough guy Bruce Willis, while Stern magazine
published a gushing article on Varoufakis's "classical masculinity".
But some ministers say they resent being lectured by an academic who
has studied in Britain, taught in Australia and the United States
and challenged the theoretical basis of European policymaking.
While Varoufakis criticizes the spending cuts demanded by
international creditors, his euro zone peers insist only painful
changes can lift Greece out of one of the deepest economic
depressions in Europe since the 1950s.
According to people present in the room, several ministers rolled
their eyes, closed their eyes or put their hands over their ears
during Varoufakis' interventions at Friday's meeting.
"Eurogroup ministers don't like the fact that he is giving a small
lecture when he is speaking to them," one euro zone official said.
"And for that reason (chairman) Dijsselbloem stopped him yesterday,
saying: 'Yanis, you don't tell us what we want to hear.'"
(Reporting by Robin Emmott, Ingrid Melander, Jan Strupczewski,
Gederts Gelzis, Tom Korkemeier, Lefteris Papadimas; Editing by Ruth
Pitchford)
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