Greece’s New Cabinet Sends Defiant Message To EU
Latest update : 2015-01-28
Greece’s new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has picked a staunch critic of austerity as his finance minister, signalling his resolve to take a tough line with Greece’s creditors in an effort to write off a large chunk of the country’s debt.
The new cabinet, which holds its first meeting on Wednesday, is a mixed bag of economists, lawyers, professors and journalists, spanning Syriza’s more radical and pragmatic wings.
It includes officials from its coalition ally, the right-wing Independent Greeks, who share Syriza’s aversion to the bailout terms but disagree with the left-wing radicals on almost everything else.
The key finance portfolio went to economist Yanis Varoufakis, 53, who has described the savage budget cuts imposed on Greece in return for a €240 billion bailout as “fiscal waterboarding”.
A self-styled “accidental economist” and “erratic Marxist”, Varoufakis studied in Britain and has also taught in Australia, Greece and the US. His unorthodox CV includes a stint as in-house advisor for video game maker Valve.
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http://www.france24.com/en/20150128-greece-new-cabinet-sends-defiant-message-eu-tsipras-varoufakis-syriza-austerity/
