Remember Yanis Varoufakis, the wealthy, motorcycling Greek Marxist politician and expert in game theory? He was a hero to a variety of politicians and pundits in Ireland who believed we should follow his advice, default on our debt and refuse to co-operate with the EU/IMF bailout.
Well, Varoufakis made the news again in his home country this week for leading his political movement to oblivion in the Greek general election. His MeRA25 party lost all of its nine seats in the 300 member Greek parliament, while his former government colleagues in the left wing Syriza coalition were thrashed.
The main victor was the centre-right New Democracy party, whose leader, Kyriakos Mitsotakis won an overall majority. Others that had a good day were three far right fringe parties with decidedly extreme policies on a range of issues from immigration to women’s rights.
It is reckoned that the new Greek parliament is the most conservative one to be elected since the fall of the country’s last dictatorship in 1974. While Mitsotakis can justly claim credit for his party’s resounding victory, the role of Varoufakis and his former comrades in Syriza in discrediting a left-wing alternative should not be underestimated.
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His confrontation with the EU led to a run on the Greek banks and the near collapse of the entire economy. He resigned after a little more than six months in office
When he took office as minister for finance in the Syriza government in 2015, Varoufakis boasted that he would negotiate a massive write-down of Greece’s crippling debt and put an end to the long-running EU austerity programme.
Instead, his confrontation with the EU led to a run on the Greek banks and the near collapse of the entire economy. He resigned after a little more than six months in office when prime minister Alexis Tsipras accepted a new set of EU bailout terms rather than face economic Armageddon.
Mind you, the spectacular failure of Varoufakis and his policy of confrontation with the EU didn’t dent his appeal to allies in this country, where he turned up frequently to pontificate on how Ireland should renege on its debt and give the EU troika its marching papers.
His frequent appearances here prompted leading political scientist Professor Brigid Laffan to ponder why someone who was such an abject failure in office was lionised by the Irish media while his counterparts here who managed to save this country from a fate similar to Greece were treated with disdain.
‘Fawned over’
“I am constantly surprised at the media exposure that Varoufakis gets in Ireland; he appears as a star turn at this or that meeting and is fawned over on radio and television. He was a disaster as Greek finance minister; he left the economy in further decline, capital controls in place and the banks shut. He had managed to alienate each and every member of the Eurogroup and did his country no service,” said Laffan.
By contrast, successive Irish finance ministers defied loud criticism and opted for prudent policies that gradually restored the country’s reputation and fortunes. Yet the Irish media never gave Brian Lenihan, Michael Noonan, Paschal Donohoe or Michael McGrath anything like the fawning treatment reserved for Varoufakis.
The paradox is that if the opinion polls are to be believed, the range of political forces in Ireland who backed Varoufakis have a good chance of taking power at the next election here
The election of Donohoe to the prestigious position of chair of the Eurogroup of Finance Ministers was an acknowledgment of just how impressive the Irish economic recovery has been thanks to the right policy choices being adopted.
The paradox is that if the opinion polls are to be believed, the range of political forces in Ireland who backed Varoufakis have a good chance of taking power at the next election here – just as his party in Greece has been given another drubbing by the electorate for economic incompetence.
A cross section of Irish opposition forces from Sinn Féin to Shane Ross as well as the assorted followers of Leon Trotsky in the Dáil, were loud in their support for Varoufakis and Syriza when they came to power. Some of them even went to Greece to show their support in the 2015 election, and Syriza later turned up at the Sinn Féin ardfheis.
They haven’t been as effusive about the connection since Syriza was turfed out of office in 2019 and the fortunes of Greece were finally turned around by New Democracy, which is allied to Fine Gael as part of the EPP group in the European Parliament.
It might have been expected that Varoufakis would show a bit of humility following the obliteration of his party and the decline in Syriza’s vote in last Sunday’s election, but not a bit of it. He issued a statement full of bravado.
“MeRA25 not getting into the Greek Parliament is the least of the problem. What is more significant is the left’s disappointment for having failed to turn the austerity disaster into a progressive front and to prevent the channelling of anger to the far-right.”
[ The Irish Times view on the Greek elections: a clear victory for MitsotakisOpens in new window ]
Fantasy economic policies
Of course there is no acknowledgment of his own leading role in discrediting the left through the pursuit of fantasy economic policies which destroyed the living standards of working people, not to mention the arrogance with which he managed to antagonise every other finance minister in the EU by making impossible demands.
Maybe there is a lesson in all of this for Irish voters tempted to opt for radical and simplistic solutions to complex economic problems.