Greece reshuffled its bailout-negotiation team in a political move aimed at easing negotiations with EU partners. Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis was reined in after three months of talks with Greece’s creditors failed to unlock aid and resulted in acrimony at Friday’s Eurogroup meeting. The new Greek face at negotiations with creditors was passed on to Deputy Foreign Minister Euclid Tsakalotos, while Varoufakis will continue to supervise the political negotiations with eurozone finance ministers.
The decision to rein in Varoufakis and reinforce the role of other government officials does not appear to be coincidental after Varoufakis was verbally abused by his counterparts who called him a time waster, amateur and gambler.
The government does not wish, internally at least, to appear as though it is surrendering by firing the academic-turned-politican. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras does not, in any case, want it to appear as though he has buckled under pressure. Government Spokesman Gavriil Sakellaridis expressed full government confidence in Varoufakis, adding that the negotiation is still based on the “Varoufakis list”. The only thing that has changed is that there is a Varoufakis-Tsakalotos duo.
The government wants a deal to be a team effort rather than rely on one person. Another duo is that of Tsipras and Deputy Prime Minister Giannis Dragasakis, while State Government Minister Nikos Pappas has also had direct contacts with European officials such as European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and knows everything about the development of negotiations.
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