“You just killed the troika” were Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem’s departing words to Greek FinMin Yanis Varoufakis after the latter said Athens will cease negotiations with the team of IMF-EC-ECB inspectors known collectively by that name.
That’s one version.
But a latter version, coming from Eurogroup officials indicates that the exact phrase uttered by Jeroen Dijsselbloem was: “This was a huge mistake”, which is obviously contrary to what “spin-doctoring” SYRIZA sources tried to convey later.
“Wow” was the one-word response by the flamboyant new Greek minister, or so his aides told reporters hours afterwards. Television newscasts made the disclosure after a mini media frenzy to learn exactly what was said by the two men after they stood up to leave, in the process of exchanging an awkward handshake.
Earlier, in terms of the “hard news” from the meeting, Dijsselbloem ruled out an international conference to deal with Greece’s ballooning external debt, telling his radical left government interlocutors in person that such a venue already exists: “it’s called the Eurogroup, as you know.”
Dijessbloeam made the statement during a televised press briefing and after meeting with new Greek PM Alexis Tsipras and FinMin Yanis Varoufakis, who has emerged front and center as the SYRIZA government’s “point man” in looming deliberations with international creditors.
“With Greece nearing the end of the (bailout) program I had an important reach to come (to Athens),” the Dutch official said, while emphasizing that he arrived to hear the Greek side’s positions but at the same time to “explain” the conditions of signed agreements between Athens and its creditors.
Varoufakis repeated that the “state has continuity, but we will not accept a continuity of a self-fed crisis of deflation and a non-viable debt.”
The point where heads turned, however, came when the globe-trotting Greek-Australian economist said his government would not cooperate with a “structurally rotten committee (the troika) …”
A dispatch, sent by the Guardian’s long-time correspondent in Athens, Helena Smith, described the very moment.
She writes:
“…Send off for Jeroen Dijsselbloem ended with incredible stand-off as Varoufakis socked him one over the troika. The Dutchman looked enraged, bending forward to whisper something in Varoufakis’ ear to which the Greek finance minister did not respond. Greek finance ministry staff standing behind me said ‘Oh my God.’ One said ‘I wonder if this is the time to pack my bags.’ Throughout the press conference you could almost feel the electric tension in the air.”
Dijssembloem was accompanied by the chief of the Euro Working Group, Thomas Wieser.
