The MPs of MeRA25-Alliance for Breakup will not go for a… bath during the vote for the vote of confidence in the government that will result from the elections. This message was sent by Yanis Varoufakis, through his interview on the First Program.

Starting from the quality of the political dialogue, G. Varoufakis observed that “we have a Parliament, in which there is no dialogue, we have a series of monologues. Something similar, unfortunately, also happens in the pre-election period. There is no serious dialogue, there is demonization, there is fake news.”

Called, then, to take a position on the proposal to give a vote of tolerance to SYRIZA – Progressive Alliance, the head of MeRA25-Alliance for Break-up, stated verbatim:

“I answer directly […] a huge no. There is no tolerance. These are jokes. There is a Constitution, there are laws, there is a parliamentary procedure […] when a government asks for a vote of confidence, there is no “present”, as is done in bills. But when you have a vote of confidence, there is “yes” or “no”. There is no tolerance. The only way to show tolerance is not to come, to go on an excursion, to go for a bath. This is what the MPs and MPs of MeRA25-Alliance for Break-up – who are campaigning by looking the people in the eye and whom we ask to send us to the Parliament with their vote – were missing – let’s go for a bath.”

Asked, in particular, about the position of Alexis Tsipras, he argued that “it is a retreat on his part”.

At this point, in fact, G. Varoufakis added that the official opposition leader “last week […] asked us to lie to the citizens about abolishing the energy exchange, about abolishing the bad debt market […] to make Mr. Tsipras prime minister, who will not do these things, because he has declared that he will not do them”. And, in “therefore,” “no we will not tolerate you, no trust or tolerance. We do not enter the Parliament to play such games”.

Besides, SYRIZA itself has burned the cooperation script, he said at a later point in the interview, recalling that “for two years we have been inviting them to discuss, not to agree. Let others come, KKE, PASOK, whoever wants to. Let’s see our disagreements and where there is room for convergence.” And, to the question, if there is now room for agreement, he answered that now “the bird has flown and we are all running from village to village and holding pre-election rallies”. Also asked to give his own explanation of what Mr. Tsipras means when he says that he does not exclude anyone, he argued that the president of SYRIZA means that he does not exclude anyone’s votes.

And to the question, if he has the ambition to even become the prime minister of the country, he answered as follows: “When you ask for a vote from the people, you ask for a vote to govern […] I have the moral obligation as the secretary of MeRA25 to ask for a vote for a government […] I have a sacred obligation to ask for a mandate to rule.”

Concerning the “Dimitra” plan, explained that it is a digital payment system, built on taxisnet, and in euros. With a key difference, he continued, that citizens do not pay fees to the banks, as he said, for transfers. “Right now the Greek people pay around 2 billion a year.” In addition, the “Demetra” plan is “a fiscal system. Because it is independent, it is unscathed from any banking crisis.”

And, given the opportunity, the head of MeRA25-Alliance for Breakup stated that “every bank is unsafe all over the world, not only in Greece. Banks are built to be insecure […] we are always close (in the event that a bank closes) […] we in Greece are completely defenseless,” he said verbatim.

And, consequently, he added, “the “Dimitra” plan is a system to live better within the euro. But it is also a system, if necessary – in case of Draghi-style financial terrorism that closed our banks in the summer of ’15 – then we can use it to create our own liquidity, which is necessary for any country in the eurozone.” However, “apparently the euro is not a fetish either. Currencies exist to serve people, not people to serve currencies. We will exhaust every margin for Greece to become viable within the euro.”

Finally, on the issue of red mortgages, G. Varoufakis complained that “we have 1.5 million properties, soon it will be 2 million and more. Right now they’re being usurped by funds coming from Delaware, paying 3,000 to get a 100,000 loan, ‘killing’ the house for 50,000, pocketing 47,000 (going) to the Cayman Islands.” In the end, “Hercules” must go, it is a disgrace. Schäuble wouldn’t do this in Germany, he wouldn’t have “Hercules” snatch German assets and take them to the Cayman Islands, he would say “no” to that,” he concluded.