The Minister of Finances Yanis Varoufakis, who is traveling to Brussels for the Monday’s critical Eurogroup, told journalists that the return of dismissed cleaning staff to their posts at his Ministry was «an act of restoring legal and moral order«. Mr. Varoufakis added that the dismissed cleaning staff’s struggle was a symbol of resistance against the bailout.
According to Mr. Varoufakis, for the past five years the Ministry of Finances has been at the forefront of planning a catastrophic, for Greek society, policy. He noted that millions of euros were being spent on consultants, whose advice contributed towards the deconstruction of the country’s social economy, while hard-working cleaners on minimum wage were ridiculed and thrown out on the streets.
Mr. Varoufakis underlined that his goal at the critical Eurogroup on Monday is to achieve a redeeming agreement for Greece and argued that the reinstatement of the cleaning staff was a reversal of the “scandalous brutality”. He also commented that the government’s initiative has a different understanding of “reforms”, which “bear no relation to those practices that for decades contributed towards the underdevelopment and injustices that for decades kept the country back”.
Earlier, Mr. Varoufakis gave an interview to the Kokkino radio station, where he stated that the government has done “everything humanly possible” and that a solution is within reach, provided the creditors have the political will. He also clarified that the government will not sign a deal that will not allow any prospect of exiting the crisis, or addressing the soaring debt, unemployment and recession issues.
The Finance Minister explained that what is needed is a redistribution of income and argued that burden must be shifted from the shoulders of the many to the shoulders of those who can bear to lift the weight. He was skeptical about the immediate relaxing of the credit crunch on the Greek economy, adding that the goal is for a solution in the next few days.
