March 13, 2020
Yiannis Varoufakis has released the first audio recording from the Eurogroup sessions in the turbulent first half of 2015. The first audio clip that has been released is a spoiler of what will follow, when all secret recordings will be public on Saturday.
The Euroleaks Part 1 features no other than former German finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble responding to Varoufakis.
Schaeuble speaks in English and is heard saying that he has no mandate to negotiate additional Greek financing.
“I don’t have no mandate, not at all, even to negotiate an additional financing. Including, be very specific, including the SMP transfer for 2014. Uh, uh and it is not, also in light of things have been in Greek, including payment of the SMP from 2015 to the ESM, which we have a clear uh, uh, uh, uh agreement, as precondition for this, and as long as these preconditions are not delivered, I can’t pay, and as a case we are not, um, we are not in a procedure of loans, of guarantees, but we are in a procedure of transfer, of transfer. And the other part is for my is for my budget. I have to take the SMP for my budget.” – Wolfgang Schaeuble
The audio was obtained exclusively by daily efsyn that notes:
“The passage highlights Wolfgang Schaeuble’s characteristic way of negotiating, but also how he linked the issue of Greek debt and its implications with the German economy and his own capacity as finance minister.”
Daily ethnos notes that the discussion was about pensions.
Varoufakis will reportedly release all the secret recordings on Saturday, March 14, 2020.
In February, he handed over a usb stick with all Eurogroup recordings to the Speaker of the Greek Parliament, who refused to accept it – most probably because he wouldn’t know what to do with the content as Greece does not investigate or search or move a finger about the incidents that led to capital controls.
Varoufakis then decided to release the recordings at his own legal risk. The release was initially scheduled for end of February then postponed to MArch 10, apparently for technical reasons.
The Euroleaks will be uploaded on a special website of DiEM25.org here on Saturday.
Published at https://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2020/03/13/euroleaks-varoufakis-audio-eurogroup-released/
