
Schäuble’s plan for Europe - reinhardt
http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2015/07/13/dr-schaubles-plan-for-europe-do-europeans-approve-article-to-appear-in-die-zeit-on-thursday-16th-july-2015/
======
dang
This is just an announcement of an article that apparently hasn't come out
yet. It would be better to wait for the actual piece.

------
Mithaldu
Copy of my reply to his question:

As a German, and a worker in the tech industry, Schäuble has proven only one
thing in the past, that he is an ignorant and stubborn man, who completely
lacks a broader view of the consequences of the things he tries to put in
motion, but insists of pushing horrible things that he thinks help germany.
(Previously: Trying to allow German army activities within the borders of
Germany, trying to implement and make legal a government-sponsored trojan that
he claimed would be able to infiltrate _every_ computer.)

As far as i am concerned he is only continuing his plan of trying to put
Germany over everything, regardless what kind of damage he does or even of
whether he even does any good in the process.

\--

I don't know if Yanis will be able to effect any positive change anymore at
this point, but if even a few people learn that this is a horribly nationalist
plan by a horribly nationalist man, then i praise his efforts.

Edit:

Just to make it clear how horrible Schäuble as a human is:

    
    
        - committed tax fraud on 100_000 DM by a gun trader
        - tried to make it legal for the german army to operate
          in german borders in case terrorists try to attack
          ports with ships as bombs
        - tried to make it legal for the german army to shoot
          down passenger planes in case of terrorists
        - tried to make legal a government trojan that would
          breach all privacy rights, but is also impossible
    

Now he's minister of finance and seems to be successfully throwing a country
out of the EU.

~~~
DasIch
Not just any army activities by the way. Schäuble pushed for shooting down
civilian airplanes in case of a 9/11 scenario, something that is in clear
violation of the first amendment of Germany's constitution.

Let's not forget his previous financial dealings either, being involved in
illegal donations for the CDU and not willing to testify.

Schäuble is an incompetent despicable human being by any reasonable measure.

~~~
Mithaldu
Goddamn, i had completely forgotten about his involvement in the tax fraud
issue. Let me update my post a bit.

------
Tomte
Sticking to your validly formed opinion, no matter what, and never
compromising in the slightest is beneficial in academia, because you need grit
in convincing all those new students of your theories, and your results
probably came from decades of work. Similarly, diplomacy is not too important,
at least as soon as you have tenure.

While being a politician and dealing with other countries means lots and lots
of (sometimes bad) compromises and a lot of diplomacy.

Varoufakis never cared for that. He constantly insulted the people on the
other side, with the simple "excuse" that they are filthy politicians and he's
a noble warrior for the common good. He didn't care for established procedures
and common courtesy (like recording others without their knowledge or
consent), everything was fair game to him.

That's why he was such a terrible representative of Greece. And all his petty
attacks after the fact don't serve Greece in the slightest, they only feed his
ego and his fans.

I would have expected him to keep silent for a while, in order to help Mr
Tsipras reach a solution.

------
mafribe
"You have to be willing to blow things up in order to be effective in
negotiating strategy." Y. Varoufakis on "Behind the news" podcast, 2014.

Varoufakis is using classic populist rhetoric:

\- Simplisitc notion of the cause of the problem by an international cabal of
bankers and capitalists.

\- Us-vs-them, good-vs-evil manichean worldview.

\- Simplistic notion of how problems can be solved.

\- Strong and resolute mobilisation against "unnaturally" divisive parties and
querulous organised interest groups that want to destroy "us".

\- Varoufakis cast himself as representatives of the comman person, of an
betrayed and neglected Greek public.

\- He's effectively capitalising on lingering anti-german sentiment, and
personalising it in the figure of Schauble.

~~~
allendoerfer
He was dealing with power hungry career politicians and did everything to piss
them off and is now wondering why they act so mad and irrational.

I personally think, that Schäuble is horrible. Aside from the political
anecdotes [0] I find the press conference in which he humiliated his spokesman
particularly informing about his character [1].

In my mind Varoufakis is partly responsible for how things went, though. He
always underestimated how fragile the EU community is and how little interest
other leaders had to enrage the people at home by seemingly giving money away
to Greek clowns on motorcycles.

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi_2.0](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi_2.0)

[1]:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8TzusgYN30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8TzusgYN30)

