Strange and getting stranger … Controversial and increasingly embattled Greek FinMin Yanis Varoufakis took to his blog on Sunday to confirm that he taped portions of an April 24 Eurogroup meeting, an assertion that first emerged last week in an article in the NYTimes’ magazine.
In the wake of that article and the widespread criticism of Varoufakis that it generated, the minister initially took the media to task, while saying the report of his alleged taping was “fairy tales” – which he repeated three times.
The specific meeting in Riga, an informal Eurogroup session, was described as a “dressing down” of Varoufakis by his euro zone colleagues, a view he also disparaged.
“In the absence of minutes, I often record my interventions and answer on my mobile phone, especially when I ad lib them,” he wrote on his personal blog and in response to the BBC. His reason was to brief his fellow Cabinet members when returning to Greece
The notion that a participant would record the closed-door proceedings generated negative reactions through the euro area after the article appeared, with the radical leftist government again trying to exercise “damage control” after Varoufakis’ latest snafu. The reaction by Greek media and the opposition was even shriller, with critics saying the self-described “erratic Marxist” substantially harmed his leftist government’s credibility even more.
“I have stood firm against the flood of lies, which flowed for weeks like an uncontrollable sewer. I resisted all provocations and refused to divulge anything of what was said in that meeting,” he stated on Sunday, confirming the NYTimes article and drawing attention to the “fairy tales” quip.
In a bid to shift the scrutiny from the taping, he called for minutes to be taken at such meetings, with deal with “momentous” decisions for European peoples, as he opined.