Yanis Varoufakis, leader of the Greek party MeRA25, launched a fierce attack on former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, ruling out any possibility of his party joining a coalition government that included him.
Speaking to the Greek broadcaster OPEN, Varoufakis was asked whether MeRA25 could take part in a government alongside Tsipras. His answer was blunt. He said no, under no circumstances, and that he would prefer death, pointing back to his political experience in 2015 and the rupture that followed with the SYRIZA government.
Varoufakis explained that he had initially backed Tsipras but later broke sharply with the government's choices, particularly after the 2015 referendum and the signing of Greece's third bailout memorandum. Varoufakis served as Greece's finance minister in early 2015 under Tsipras before resigning that July, and went on to found MeRA25 in 2018.
'The souffle does not rise twice'
Varoufakis was equally scathing about Tsipras's attempt at a political comeback, using a pointed comparison. He said the souffle does not rise twice, meaning in his view that the former prime minister cannot return to the political front stage the way he once did.
Later in the interview he used another harsh phrase about Tsipras, saying the rotten fig had ripened. Through these remarks, the MeRA25 leader made clear he considers the political rift that opened between them after the events of 2015 to be permanent, closing the door on any future cooperation.
Criticism of Tsipras's 'patriotic levy'
Varoufakis also took aim at Tsipras's economic proposal for a so-called patriotic levy on the economically strongest earners. He argued that a one-off tax burden cannot by itself tackle economic inequality.
According to Varoufakis, the real issue is not simply redistributing a portion of profits after the fact, but changing the economic model itself, which he believes generates and widens inequality in the first place.
'Mitsotakis, Tsipras and Androulakis could govern together'
Varoufakis also addressed relations between Greece's main political forces, arguing that the substantive differences between Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Tsipras and PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis are smaller than they are made to appear.
He suggested the three politicians could even end up in a coalition government together, if the parliamentary arithmetic after an election created the right conditions. Mitsotakis leads the conservative New Democracy party, while Androulakis heads the center-left PASOK.
Asked about MeRA25's chances of returning to parliament, Varoufakis avoided making a specific prediction about the election outcome, saying instead that the final decision belongs to citizens and will be reflected at the ballot box.
