Germany admitted austerity would obliterate Greece - says Greek ex-minister
GERMANY knew austerity would destroy Greece but pushed the measures through anyway, a former minister has claimed.
Eurogroup meeting takes place in Malta to discuss Greece crisis
Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister, claims a German finance minister privately admitted he would not have personally gone through with the crippling austerity policies.
In an explosive tell-all book, Mr Varoufakis reveals how Wolfgang Schaeuble admitted he would not have gone through with EU-ordered measures.
Austerity measures plunged Greece into crisis with huge job losses and billions of euros cut from budgets.
Yanis Varoufakis claims Wolfgang Schaeuble said he would not go through with austerity measures
Mr Varoufakis asked Mr Schaeuble if he would sign up to the austerity measures in a frank exchange in June 2015.
The former Greek finance minister said: “I was expecting him to give me the predictable answer- that, under the circumstances, there was no alternative- along with all the usual, senseless arguments.
“He didn’t. Instead he looks out of the window. By Berlin standards, it was a hot and sunny day.
Yanis Varoufakis claims the minister told him the measures were "bad" for Greece
He turned and stunned me with his answer. ‘As a patriot, no. It’s bad for your people’
“Then he turned and stunned me with his answer. ‘As a patriot, no. It’s bad for your people.’”
Mr Varoufakis reveals how Germany, the EU’s economic powerhouse, used its financial weight to impose austerity measures on Greece.
The former finance minister said his experiences with the German-dominated EU should act as a warning for Theresa May as she prepares for Brexit negotiations.
Wolfgang Schaeuble and Yanis Varoufakis pictured in 2015
Wolfgang Schaeuble reportedly admitted he would not have gone through with EU-ordered measures
He told The Telegraph: “My advice to Theresa May is to avoid negotiation at all costs.
“If she doesn’t do that she will fall into the trap of Alexis Tsipras, and it will end in capitulation.
“The parallel with Brexit is the tactic of stalling negotiations. They will get you on the sequencing.
“First there is the price of divorce to sort out before they will talk about free trade in the future.”
Earlier in the week, German chancellor Angela Merkel said it appeared the UK was under the "illusion" that it could retain EU benefits once it departed the bloc.
EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said he agrees with the German Chancellor as the EU27 rubber-stamped the bloc’s Brexit negotiating guidelines in Brussels.