Greece’s new finance minister has taken up the negotiating baton only hours after it was announced that flamboyant and often bombastic Yanis
ADVERTISEMENTGreece’s new finance minister has taken up the negotiating baton only hours after it was announced that flamboyant and often bombastic Yanis Varoufakis was resigning.
Euclid Tsakalotos is stepping in a crucial time and looked nervous at the prospect .
However commentators say while he may be less confrontational he’s likely to be even more hardline than his predecessor.
As the brain of the Syriza party’s economic thinking, Tsakalotos is likely to redouble efforts to put one of the most contentious issues in the five months of financial aid negotiations between Greece and its creditors – debt relief – back on the table.
“As far as our philosophical approach to political issues, I believe we have one more thing in common,” said out going Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis. “ We both despise the lack of arguments that usually looks like this “it will happen this way, because that is the way it has been done till now.”
Greece’s new Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos admitted to some trepidation in accepting the job:
“I do not hide the fact that I feel “stage fright” and anxious. I take over this position at a time that is not the easiest in Greek history. I do feel “stage fright”, I hope I have the talent to bring this very hard job to completion.”
Varoufakis is said to have been disliked by Greece’s creditors whom he criticised for not wanting to compromise but Tsakalotos said Greece would not have come this far without him.
Our reporter Symela Touchtidou said that just after 9pm in the evening Yanis Varoufakis left the building and thus ended the era of the most popular and most controversial Greek Minister of Finance.