Greeks turning the tables on Eurogroup

YANIS Varoufakis is an unlikely minister from an impossible country heading for an improbable victory. When he strides, tieless and tireless, into the Brussels Eurogroup arena on Wednesday, the Greek finance minister has the odds stacked against him. Precisely because of that, he looks likely to win.

Mr Varoufakis, economic standard-bearer of the far-left Syriza government, has done whatever it takes to stoke the hostility of his peers. In a parlour packed with less-than-convincingly multilingual finance ministers, this soundbite-toting, neckwear-despising university teacher speaks far better English than anyone else. Not a factor destined to boost his popularity.

Mr Varoufakis rails rhetorically against paying back the full value of Greek loans. He terms Italian debt unsustainable. He summons up war claims on Germany which decades ago were termed unpayable. He gives succour to opposition parties in Spain, Portugal and France, baying for concessions that, if enacted, would dismantle austerity policies and demolish debt mountains around the continent.