An interview on BBC Radio

According to former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis in an interview on BBC Radio, the Greek side received no help from the Americans during the Syriza administration’s negotiations, either with the IMF, Brussels, Berlin or Frankfurt when support was needed most.

Describing Barak Obama’s trip to Athens as irrelevant, Yanis Varoufakis also referred to the meeting he had had with the U.S. president back in April 2015 at the White House, at the height of the crisis, when he had been Greece’s finance minister.

During the BBC interview conducted by Alex Ritson, Varoufakis said that Barack Obama couldn’t do anything at this time to help Greece.

“Obama used rather non-presidential language to describe the austerity measures imposed on Greece but, as I told him, his Department of Finance didn’t follow his line at the time and has continued not to do so,” Varoufakis said.

The former finance minister also said that in the end, the Greek side received no help from the American side in its negotiations, either with the IMF, Brussels, Berlin or Frankfurt.

“This was a period during which Obama could have supported his words with actions in order to uphold an agreement that would have been meaningful for Greece and Europe, and even for America itself.  But he didn’t do it.  I’m sure that the trip has been very pleasant for him, but utterly irrelevant,” concluded Mr. Varoufakis.

When meeting in Athens with prime minister Alexis Tsipras, Barack Obama said that world leaders needed to pay heed to people’s real fear of economic dislocation and inequality in the midst of globalization.   He described Greece being in what seemed like a never-ending financial crisis, relying on bailout loans from other EU countries and the IMF since 2010.