Yanis: I’ll be at Eurogroup session; cites need for ‘viable’ deal

FinMin Yanis Varoufakis on Sunday again dismissed reports that he’ll miss a closely watched Eurogroup meeting, saying that he’ll be in his seat, as usual.

The brash Yanis, who in fact has been relieved of some of the responsibility for negotiating with Greece’s creditors, said the speculation was part of an effort to “undermine” the government’s negotiating effort. He didn’t say who was behind the effort.

Explained in own ideological terms, he said “negotiations are not an issue of one man, the left operations collectively”.

Referring specifically to a trio of top ministers that headed to Brussels over the weekend to try and jumpstart talks between Greece and its creditors, represented by the EU Commission, the ECB and the IMF (once known as the ‘troika’), Varoufakis said that “if I had gone, (German FinMin Wolfgang Schauble would have to have been there”.

Of course, the powerful Schauble formally represents Germany, not the EU, the ECB or the IMF, the trio of institutions dolling out the bailout loans, whereas Varoufakis represents the sole borrower, his government.

In echoing the Greek side in recent comments, Varoufakis again cited the concept of “viability” in any pending deal, i.e. debt reduction or relief. “Convergence between the two sides is technically easy, but political volition is necessary to make it viable.”

His reference to a difference in views between Athens and creditors over a primary budget surplus target is also telling.

“In March (a target) of 1.2 to 1.5% (of GDP) was possible, now it’s not,” he said. A nice following up question here would have been “What was the difference in March and now?”

Earlier, the media-savvy Yanis spoke to BBC Radio and expressed a view that European partners will not let Greece exit the Eurozone.

When asked if a Grexit was possible, the FinMin opined that no European officials would want such an event. When asked if the EU and the IMF are bluffing, the game theorist expressed his “hope” that they are, i.e. bluffing.