MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Eurozone finance ministers never genuinely engaged in negotiations to find a solution to the Greek crisis, former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told New Statesman Monday, in his first interview since resigning.
"The negotiations took ages, because the other side was refusing to negotiate. They insisted on a 'comprehensive agreement,' which meant they wanted to talk about everything. My interpretation is that when you want to talk about everything, you don’t want to talk about anything. But we went along with that. And look there were absolutely no positions put forward on anything by them," Varoufakis said.
"They delayed and then came up with the kind of proposal you present to another side when you don’t want an agreement," Varoufakis asserted.
According to Varoufakis, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble would, if possible, go as far as to prevent democratic processes in indebted states.
Greece’s ex-Finance Minister announced a surprise resignation on July 6, a day after a referendum, in which the Greeks said a resolute "No" to austerity measures proposed by the country's main creditors. He explained his resignation by saying that he had become aware that certain Eurogroup participants preferred his "absence" from its meetings.
He was replaced by Euclid Tsakalotos who had until then headed Greece's negotiating team in talks with the creditors.
