Yanis Varoufakis on Privatization, Human Rights & Capitalism
In this interview with the former finance minister of Greece and founder of DiEM25 (Democracy in Europe Movement 2025), Yanis Varoufakis.
a host of issues are discussed which include privatization, human
rights, media, his experience with the EU and capitalism’s ability to
reform. Notable quotes from the interview:
Yanis Varoufakis on the establishment:
"If you have an agenda in favour of redistributing from profits to wages, if you have an agenda for taxing the top 0.1%
,in order to bolster low pensions – you have an uphill battle, because
there is a “triangle of sin” ,as I call it, that is going to oppose you
to the end, which is perfectly normal and perfectly natural. The
triangle comprises: The media owners, the banking establishment
financial sector and those who have a very cosy relationship with the
state in terms of procurement and development and so on and so forth."
Yanis Varoufakis on the negotiations that he held with the Troika in 2016 as the Greek finance minister:
"I even proposed a debt break, which is a very German thing and it
was ignored. Look let’s be clear about this – there was never any
intention by the other side to reach a normal agreement with us. The
only objective was to humiliate a government that dared say to their
face that the program that the troika had been implementing for the last
5 years in Greece had failed. It’s that simple. It was naked power
politics of the 19th century type."
