PRESS RELEASE
Economist Has a Fit, Threatens Tsipras
March 20 2015, 20 201515 (EIRNS)—The City of London is not at all pleased with Greece. In an editorial titled "Dangerous Liaison, Greece vs Germany," the Economist attacks the Greek government for allegedly using geopolitical blackmail against Europe, and includes a not-so-subtle threat.
"The Greek crisis is not just an economic mess,"
they write.
"Increasingly, it is becoming a geopolitical mess too. Alexis Tsipras, the country’s prime minister, whose radical-left Syriza party swept into government after January’s general election, has taken to tugging at crude political levers—from cozying up to Vladimir Putin to demanding war reparations from Germany—in the belief that this will somehow prompt concessions from the rest of the Eurozone."
After carrying on like this for another few paragraphs, they make their absurd demands of Tsipras:
"He could make a good start by replacing his loquacious finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, with somebody more pragmatic. He would be well advised also to dump his nationalist coalition partner, the right-wing Independent Greeks, for the more moderate to Potami. At home, rather than allowing his ministers to rail about reparations, he needs to get behind reform, and explain to his voters why Syriza’s extravagant election promises cannot be kept. Under Mr. Tsipras, Greece has been squandering opportunities to make a deal with the rest of the Eurozone. IF HE DOES NOT YIELD SOON, HE MAY DISCOVER THAT HIS CHANCES HAVE RUN OUT."
(Emphasis added.)
There is no way the Greek government would dump Varoufakis and the Independent Greeks to please anyone. As for making an alliance with the impotent To Potami, Syriza would become a laughingstock. The Economist knows this, so it should be taken as a real threat, especially when they conclude, "If he does not yield soon, he may discover that his chances have run out."
No sooner did this appear, than the Austrian Kurier’s Brussels correspondent wrote of rumors in Brussels that Varoufakis is on his way out, to be replaced by Deputy Prime Minister Yiannis Dragasakis or Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias. This is another crazy fabrication, since replacing Varoufakis with Dragasakis or Kotzias, would be to replace him with one of the two toughest nuts in the government.
