Yanis Varoufakis is once again at the center of another media storm, this time over whether he raised his middle finger when talking about Germany.
But this time one can question whether Varoufakis is really to blame - or a German media that relishes any opportunity to portray him as a villain.
Appearing via link on a German panel show over the weekend, Varoufakis was presented with footage from a speech he gave at a conference in Zagreb in May 2013. Speaking about his opinion that Greece should have ‘defaulted within the eurozone’ in 2010 instead of accepting toxic policies established in Brussels and Frankfurt, Varoufakis said:
“My proposal is that Greece should simply announce that it is defaulting - just like Argentina did - within the euro in January 2010 and stick the finger to Germany and say, well, you can now solve this problem by yourself.”
For a brief moment he also raised his middle finger to make his point (see the original footage below, the point in question starts at the 1.50 mark). The remark was made as part of a broader argument about the future of Greece and the euro.
On seeing the footage yesterday Varoufakis denied the action, claiming the footage must have been doctored. However that does not appear to be the case after German experts analyzing the video say there was no evidence that it had been altered and the person who took the footage came forward and said that it was genuine. (See below - Varoufakis begins speaking at the 2.15 mark).
That revelation in turn led to much of the German press questioning the Greek Finance Minister’s reliability, with the 'cover-up' being worse than the crime.
The truth is that the video does appear to be genuine. However so too do Varoufakis’s protestations that he had never made such a gesture.
Instead of deliberately lying about it, what seems more plausible is that the Greek Finance Minister simply forgot having made the gesture and, somewhat shocked, opted (wrongly) for a flat out denial.
Seen in the context of the entire hour-long presentation, the raised middle finger is little more than a brief throwaway gesture made at a conference nearly two years ago. For a man who is no stranger to making bombastic statements – especially before he became Finance Minister – it would not be too surprising if he had no recollection of the action.
However now the denial has taken on even greater significance than the original sin, with parts of the German media, led by the ever-hostile Bild, breathlessly questioning Varoufakis’s reliability. This was not restricted to tabloids but more mainstream outlets including Die Welt, Die Zeit, Focus ,FAZ, Suddeutsche Zeitung and Stern.
Only the Spiegel managed to take a step back to note that “it went unobserved that Varoufakis was referring to the events of 2010 was therefore neither speaking as a minister, nor commenting on the present condition.”
The truth is that by focusing on the issue of Varoufakis’s finger, the media is once again ignoring more substantive discussion over what he was actually saying, taking offense where there is little to be found.
In fact, the Greek Finance Minister has been very consistent about his stance that - ever since the first bailout - the country has effectively been insolvent (i.e. in default) and its debt remains unsustainable. As such it was wrong, according to Varoufakis, to accept a bailout that could never be repaid.
Indeed the only reason he stopped saying so overtly in recent weeks was due to the displeasure expressed by other core Eurozone politicians who were unwilling to admit to their electorates that they may not be getting all of the money spent on Greece’s bailout back.
These of course are the same politicians who have regularly failed to note that Greece’s bailout was as much a bailout of German and French banks, given that the vast majority of the funds did not stay in Greece but went straight through to the European banks that had lent as irresponsibly as the Greek government had borrowed prior to the crisis. The banks avoided major losses (and any sense of accountability) while the Greek taxpayer has been left on the hook for hundreds of billions, largely owed to Germany and other eurozone member states.
As Philip Legrain, the former adviser to European Commission wrote in foreign policy recently, “If only German voters realized that Merkel and Schäuble have lied to them and sold them out, they wouldn’t fall into the nationalist trap of blaming the Greeks for their own banks’ and government’s misdeeds!”
But such details are all too frequently shrouded by pointless controversies that merely serve to stir up German distrust of Greece.
Varoufakis was obviously wrong to deny raising his middle finger and he should apologize for any offence caused.
But the German media is also wrong to focus excessively on such non-insults, wantonly whipping up controversies while clutching their pearls in shock.
After all isn’t Germany supposed to be the responsible one?
That is, at least, what the likes of Bild are constantly telling us.
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