Varoufakis and Schäuble: 'Do you need help to do Grexit?'
anecdote · personal/autobiographical ·
retold in 3 talks
Varoufakis thought threatening Grexit would be his blackmail card against Schäuble; Schäuble responded 'Fine, do it, do you need more money?' The plan was to push Greece into chaotic exit and use the suffering to enable a soft coup. Žižek uses this to illustrate the left's dangerous fascination with suffering-as-authenticity.
≤2000talks it is told in, per year2026
As told 3
“Varoufakis almost got a heart attack. You know what was Schäuble's answer? 'Fine, do it. Do you need help?'”
“Fine, how much money do you need? We can give you billion”
“Varoufakis told me that his greatest surprise was this one he visited Wolfgang Schäuble... what was Schäuble's reaction fine we fully support you”
What it carries
one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)
contents · one story, 1 jobsuses
principled pragmatism
×1
Its cast and sources
populated by
Wolfgang Schäuble3Gerhard Schröder1Axel Honneth1Hans Petter Moland1John McCumber1Kenya1Nikki Johnson-Huston1Oskar Lafontaine1
alongside works
Every retelling 3
Varoufakis thought threatening Grexit would be his blackmail card against Schäuble; Schäuble responded 'Fine, do it, do you need more money?' The plan was to push Greece into chaotic exit and use the suffering to enable a soft coup. Žižek uses this to illustrate the left's dangerous fascination with suffering-as-authenticity., illustrating surplus enjoyment of suffering,fascism-populism,left and revolutionary enthusiasm
When Varoufakis threatened Schäuble with Grexit during negotiations, Schäuble responded 'Fine, how much money do you need?', revealing that European bureaucracy actually wanted Grexit and had a plan for it. Varoufakis's radical strategy was to stay inside Europe and cause maximum disruption there., illustrating capitalism's resistance to imagination,limits of Grexit strategy,left's dilemma
Varoufakis expected threatening Grexit would be a trump card against Schäuble; instead Schäuble enthusiastically supported it, offering billions, proving that leaving the system was not subversive, only remaining inside and defaulting was., illustrating Syriza and Varoufakis,remaining inside to cause chaos,radical politics