European currency built on unstable ground, FinMin Varoufakis says in interview
No country should have entered such "an unstably built common currency," especially a country with high deficits like Greece, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told the "Efimerida ton Syntakton" newspaper in an interview published Saturday, adding that the path that brought Greece into the monetary union "no longer exists, and if we try to back up we will find ourselves in unpleasant circumstances."
"If the eurozone does not change, it will not be able to survive," the finance minister said, adding that he believed Greece could do away with the need for a new loan if the current debt is significantly restructured, an issue that has been raised already.
The government is looking for an agreement that "will make the Greek public debt and the Greek social economy viable again," he said, asserting that a new plan for Greece's growth and revival will be presented shortly.
Among other things, he denied that he was criticised by his Eurogroup colleagues, a fact he wishes that Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem had denied sooner, and spoke highly of Euclid Tsakalotos, the alternate foreign minister in the Greek negotiation team. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble is "an important political adversary" and Greece's creditors are "disparate partners", he commented.