Photographs of Greek Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis in his beautiful Athens home in a French celebrity magazine caused a storm on social media sites on Friday as his ministry said that it may raid the nation’s social security funds to stave off bankruptcy.
Varoufakis is seen in Paris Match at a piano in his living room, and dining in some style on the roof terrace of his “love nest at the foot of the Acropolis,” while telling the magazine how he abhorred the “star system.”
“There is always a relationship between a democratic deficit and a deficit of values,” he added.
Paris Match also revealed that Varoufakis and his wife, artist Danae Stratou, are about to move from their present home, in a building owned by her industrialist family at the foot of the Acropolis, to a larger apartment.
The reaction on international social media sites was instant and unforgiving of the finance minister in Greece’s new SYRIZA government, which has described the nation’s financial plight as a humanitarian crisis.
Financial Times economics editor Chris Giles tweeted: “The humanitarian crisis in Greece... Un-put-downable... Highlight of the morning.”
US Council on Foreign Relations economist Benn Steil, of the, joked: “Lifestyles of the rich and famous, SYRIZA edition,” while Eric Maurice of the European Journalists Association, tweeted: “Varoufakis has a good lifestyle, but very bad PR.”
The article in the glossy weekly came days after Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said he had asked his flamboyant finance minister and others not to give so many interviews and to focus on getting things done.
Greece faces repayments of 6 billion euros (US$6.4 billion) in the next two weeks alone and, with its bailout frozen, the Ministry of Finance is asking parliament to allow it to raise money from the reserves of the pensions and social security system.
In his first speech as minister, Varoufakis said the SYRIZA government heralded a return to the restraint of the ancients.
“We are in favor of austere life. Growth does not mean having Porsche Cayennes on narrow Athens streets,” he said. “Greeks created when they were austere: They did not have loans and overdrawn credit cards.”
There were far fewer negative reactions on social media in Greece than in the rest of the Europe, and his French publishers, Editions du Cercle, were quick to come to his defense on Twitter: “I find the Varoufakis report in Paris Match absolutely wonderful. [However,] there are always idiots who will spit their venom!”
The Paris Match shoot, apparently done last weekend when Athens was looking its best in spring sunshine, has the finance minister flicking through one of his own books, and opening his family photo album.
With no reaction as yet from Varoufakis — his final tweet on March 1 was “dedicated to muck-racking journalists” — another Greek user, versendaal, attempted to predict his reaction.
“Tomorrow Varoufakis will claim to have been misled by muckraking Paris Match journos. ‘I thought I was talking to Le Nouvel Observateur [the French political weekly].’”
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not