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Yanis Varoufakis Associated Press

Yanis Varoufakis has a swipe at Ireland in his latest interview

While not mentioning us by name, the former Greek finance minister hits out at the stance of other indebted countries in the bailout talks.

THE FORMER GREEK finance minister Yanis Varoufakis believes that other indebted eurozone countries were “energetic enemies” of his government’s efforts to negotiate a better deal for Greece.

In an interview with the New Statesman magazine, Varoufakis says that had Greece succeeded in getting a better deal it would “obliterate” the governments of other indebted nations.

While not making specific reference to Ireland, his comments will be interpreted as criticism of the hardline stance taken by eurozone leaders, including the Fine Gael-Labour government.

While consistently expressing his support for the Greece to stay in the euro and sympathy for its people, the Taoiseach bluntly opposed the idea of debt relief when asked about the matter during crisis talks on 25 June.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan also reportedly insisted that emergency ECB funding for Greece’s banks be reduced until it retracted demands for debt writedown. Noonan later told the Dáil his comments had been misrepresented.

The government has since insisted as recently as last week that it “fully and wholly supports radical debt re-profiling for Greece” as distinct from debt write off.

Varoufakis told the New Statesman that he never tried to work with the governments of other indebted countries.

“The reason is very simple: from the very beginning those particular countries made it abundantly clear that they were the most energetic enemies of our government, from the very beginning,” he claimed. 

He did not make specific reference to Ireland, but said that indebted countries’ “greatest nightmare was our success”.

Were we to succeed in negotiating a better deal for Greece, that would of course obliterate them politically, they would have to answer to their own people why they didn’t negotiate like we were doing.

The government has been repeatedly criticised by left-wing parties in Ireland, including Sinn Féin and the Anti-Austerity Alliance, for its stance on Greece.

“To its shame the Irish Government took the side of the strong against those in need of support and solidarity,” Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said today.

“It is obscene for Fine Gael, Labour and Fianna Fáil to lecture the Greek people while generations of Irish people will be paying off debts that are not of their making.”

Meanwhile, in a statement today the People Before Profit Alliance was also highly critical of the Irish government, saying:

The Irish government played the role of a cheerleader to the EU bullies – but it did so at the cost of throwing away an opportunity to a write down of Irish debt. That debt will now hang around the necks of Irish people until 2053 – thanks to Kenny’s involvement in punishing the Greeks.

Read: ‘This deal is misery, humiliation and slavery for Greece’

Read: Enda glad there’s a deal after a ‘bruising’ all-night session

Read: ‘We fought a righteous battle’ Tsipras insists as Greece takes third bailout

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209 Comments
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    Mute Graham Dunne
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    Apr 14th 2014, 6:52 PM

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_current_account_balance

    If you look at the list on that Wiki page (a few years old, but still) you can see that few countries have surpluses without having major amounts of natural resources. In fact, there are only three countries in the top 15 that don’t have huge amounts of oil and gas: China, Germany and Ireland.

    We have always boxed above our weight.

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    Mute Owl Mick
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    Apr 14th 2014, 6:37 PM

    Excellent! let’s build on this achievement

    52
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    Mute Ignoreland
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    Apr 14th 2014, 6:44 PM

    Just waiting for somebody to comment on this story now and say that’s it’s all spin and lies and that we shouldn’t believe it ….

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    Mute richardmccarthy
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    Apr 15th 2014, 12:16 AM

    I stopped even replying to those posting everything is negative comments,it just gets so boring.

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    Mute Aaron Gregory
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    Apr 14th 2014, 6:48 PM

    This is all spin and lies….not to be believed

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    Mute Ignoreland
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    Apr 14th 2014, 6:49 PM

    Yay! I wasn’t waiting too long.

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    Mute Tony Skillington
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    Apr 14th 2014, 6:34 PM

    Who knew pot pourri could be worth so much ?

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    Mute Pickart Solny
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    Apr 14th 2014, 6:56 PM

    Does this take into consideration the amount of our people that have fled the country; the long term effects of the famine or the aftermath of the flight of the earls in 1607. This government is trying to brush these events under the carpet with more spin.

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    Mute ipsum oleum
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    Apr 14th 2014, 7:49 PM

    Trying to brush stuff under the carpet with more spin has only one solution…a Dyson

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    Mute Pickart Solny
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    Apr 14th 2014, 8:13 PM

    Excellent.

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    Mute Trevor W
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    Apr 14th 2014, 10:38 PM

    Nice to see some good news among all the corruption and crime for a change.

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    Mute Prince of Burren
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    Apr 14th 2014, 7:56 PM

    Don’t forget theEamonn O Loghlin Immigration Centre in Toronto where they help 50 or so youngsters who have to leave this country for work every day.There is a lot of spin going on, however it is good to hear good news.

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    Mute Pickart Solny
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    Apr 14th 2014, 8:28 PM

    Toronto is a long way to go to work each day, although the traffic on the way home is not as bad as in the morning.

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    Mute Fergal Reid
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    Apr 14th 2014, 9:08 PM

    The jet stream really helps with the commute.

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