When SYRIZA was elected, Yanis Varoufakis quoted the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, saying that on that day, “Greek democracy chose to stop going gently into the night,” and instead “to rage against the dying of the light”.
“Tsipras wanted to make the wiggle-room and Yanis was the sacrificial lamb, and that’s a tragedy”.
Last Sunday, Greek democracy raged once more, but within hours the Greek finance minister was gone.
The motorcycle-riding economist, theoretician and blogger – noted for a healthy mistrust of politicians – burned like a comet for the past five months, until his trajectory reached its apex in the referendum vote.
SYRIZA’s call to arms at the polling booths, invoking Greece’s ancient democratic values, spurred a nearly two-thirds majority to dismiss the eurozone’s latest – if by then invalid – bail-out deal.
No small part of that historic poll is down to Varoufakis and his ability, not only to enrage eurozone ministers, but to translate the complex world of global capital movement, of bond yields and macroeconomics, into a spiritual crusade for millions of Greeks.
At the heart of his argument was not only to defeat the mantra of austerity, but to reimagine the relationship between what individual states want, and the collective will of those joined in a federation like the European Union.
Greece’s insolvency he vowed would remain until European-wide reforms and what he called the EU’s “fiscal water-boarding” was challenged.
On his elevation to minister, Varoufakis set out to destroy what he called the “extend and pretend” strategy: extending loan repayments and pretending Greece’s debt could be repaid.
As the academic-turned-politician sought to turned his theories into practice, Varoufakis’ eloquence, along with his T-shirts, 1300cc Yamaha, love of game theory and undiplomatic tweets, confused and unsettled the ‘eurocracy’.
As Greece bathed in a moment’s joy at the sheer defiance of the creditors last weekend, Varoufakis resigned to help smooth Greece’s negotiations with its lenders on a deal.
In his farewell statement he said he would “wear the creditors’ loathing with pride”.
Meanwhile he has his critics beyond Europe’s shores. Professor of Modern Greek Studies at the University of Sydney, Vrasidas Karalis said his departure was inevitable and necessary.
“He had many good ideas, indeed he came up with some visionary solutions, but most of them were totally unrealistic… his ideas offered utopian solutions to questions that really asked for mere mathematics”.
Melbourne University professor Nikos Papastergiadis, a long-time friend, believes ‘walking away’ from the job would have been anathema to Varoufakis.
“I know as a fact he did not acquiesce,” says Papastergiadis.
“Tsipras wanted to make the wiggle-room and Yanis was the sacrificial lamb, and that’s a tragedy”.
Papastergiadis believes the key to understanding Varoufakis’ mass popularity, beyond the ‘flamboyant rebel with a cause’ hype, is rooted in substance.
“His analysis has never been properly contradicted. He exposed fallacies and cant and hypocrisy, as well as the authoritarian behaviour that goes on in the European ‘club’.
“He communicated economic policies and theories with a clarity that has previously been unknown in these debates. For the first time we’ve had a translator, and we’ve lost that now.
“Love him or hate him, at least you got to see what was going on behind that curtain.”