|
 After two years of waiting in the wings, Prime Minister Alexis
Tsipras and his Syriza party stormed to power in Sunday's snap
election on a wave of anger against German-backed austerity that has
driven up poverty and pushed unemployment over 25 percent.
Appointing Varoufakis to the key finance portfolio signals Tsipras's
intent to adopt a hardline against EU/IMF negotiators financing the
country and roll back four years of tough economic policies.
Varoufakis is expected to be formally appointed when Tsipras unveils
his cabinet later on Tuesday. His administration is expected to be
smaller and more centralized than in the past, with several
ministries merged.
"The time to put up or shut up has, I have been told, arrived. My
plan is to defy such advice," Varoufakis wrote on his blog. "To
continue blogging here even though it is normally considered
irresponsible for a Finance Minister to indulge in such crass forms
of communication."
 A longtime critic of Europe's handling of the euro zone crisis,
Varoufakis has railed against the bailouts of struggling euro zone
states as "fiscal waterboarding" that risked converting Europe into
a "Victorian workhouse". [ID:nL6N0V53P1]
In interviews last week, Varoufakis said the new cabinet would
quickly get to work implementing campaign pledges to end what Syriza
calls a "humanitarian crisis" unfolding in Greece, fight corruption
and bureaucracy.
A Syriza-led government would immediately submit a series of bills
to fight a "triangle of corruption" between media, banks, builders,
state suppliers, he told the Ta Nea newspaper.
But speaking to Irish radio on Tuesday, Varoufakis also said he
planned to negotiate a solution with lenders, saying he had already
had an "encouraging and inspiring" chat with the head of the euro
zone finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem.
"Make no mistake: what is beginning today is a process of
deliberation with our European partners," he said.
"As the next finance minister, I can assure you that I shall not go
into the Eurogroup seeking a solution that is good for the Greek
taxpayer and bad for the Irish, Slovak, German, French and Italian
taxpayer."
[to top of second column] |
In a sign of the challenges ahead for Tsipras's fledgling
government, Moody's ratings agency warned that the uncertainty
created by Syriza's victory was negative for the country's credit
rating.
Critics say it will be difficult for Tsipras to satisfy campaign
pledges without depleting the state's cash coffers. Greece is due to
receive over 7 billion euros in aid but that looks uncertain after
Tsipras's victory.
The new prime minister is also under pressure to quickly raise the
minimum wage back to 751 euros as promised during the campaign, as
well as give free electricity and food stamps to the poor and
restore a Christmas bonus for poor pensioners.
Tsipras, a former student Communist, has also pledged to freeze
public sector layoffs as demanded under the country's
240-billion-euro bailout, and stop an unpopular evaluation process
for civil servants.
The cabinet is also expected to include the leader of his junior
coalition partner, the right-wing Independent Greeks party. Panos
Kammenos is expected to take the defence portfolio.
Longtime Syriza veteran and economist Yannis Dragasakis - who in the
run-up to the vote demanded an investigation into how the country
was forced into a bailout - is expected to become deputy prime
minister overseeing ministries related to the economy.
(Additional reporting by Padraic Halpin in Dublin and Renee Maltezou
in Athens, writing by Deepa Babington; editing by Anna Willard)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
