On the night of June 17, 2011, early in the morning, I was in Brussels at a meeting of the Euroworking Group and received a message from the then Minister of Finance, George Papakonstantinou, saying: Vangelis Venizelos is the new Minister of Finance. I’m leaving for a meeting of the Euroworking Group. It was a very difficult meeting. During the meeting, I send a message to Papakonstantin and ask him to send me Venizelos’ phone number, I didn’t have his number either. I send him a message saying: I’m Giorgos Zanias, I’m going to Athens. On Monday, in two days, he has a decisive Eurogroup and we should meet at the weekend. Venizelos immediately answers me: tomorrow at 9.00 am in the office.

We spent the weekend together. On Monday morning we went to Luxembourg, it was the first Eurogroup that Venizelos was in. It was a very difficult Eurogroup, in which they even offended the president, then, of course, they took everything back when they realized how quickly he makes decisions. On the way back, I told him, Minister, I accompanied you to your first Eurogroup, as soon as we arrive in Athens, I will submit your resignation, because the president of the Council of Economic Experts is your closest partner, you may be your own person, which you want to put He tells me, are you crazy? This place is on fire, are we for change now? Thus began the journey. We both retired from the Treasury ten years ago, and I a few months after that. He was in the ministry for nine months, which he considers to be nine years. That’s how it started (…).

(…) Venizelos and I shared a meeting in Berlin with Schäuble. The day before yesterday I read in Izvestia in his interview that he does not remember my name, but the journalist reminded him that he was there with another person, he says. We were together in Cannes, about Cannes, he describes everything in great detail, as well as what happened immediately after. There I was especially jealous of Venizelos, because he listened to Sarkozy’s “French” in French, and I had to first translate them into English, whatever that means (…).

“We, with sullen faces, I don’t even know what color we were, crossed paths with everyone who looked at us as strange creatures, because everyone was interested in what the Germans had done to the Greeks there.”

(…) I want to refer to the incident in Wroclaw, Poland, at bar number 1, as I said, because there were events in two bars that evening. We went from bar to bar, even though Venizelos doesn’t put a drop of alcohol in his mouth – those of you who know him know that very well. I want to talk about when we left there, because what happened there is very well described by Venizelos. Imagine the scene when we leave the underground bar where the meeting took place and go up to the first floor, where the lobbies of the Monopole Hotel were located. The 26 countries were joined by the 27th Germany as they rose from the top. These were all EU finance ministers with their delegations. Everyone ate, drank, had fun, it was wonderful. We, with sullen faces, I don’t even know what color we were, crossed everyone who looked at us as strange creatures, because everyone was wondering what the Germans had done to the Greeks there. At the end of the hotel there was another empty bar, there was only one bartender inside, we took a corner table and sat down together. At that moment, I think if Lanthimos, the award-winning director, was with us, he could show the panorama, the floor plan of the hotel, seeing 27 countries having fun and us on the verge, in our national loneliness, as he says in the song Dimitris Mitropanos, let’s try to get together. All together, and the psoriatic apart, as the people say. There, Venizelos called the Prime Minister because we knew that in a few months what Schäuble said would become Eurozone policy and we thought it was very likely that he would follow through to the end, despite the backlash that existed in the underground. and perhaps even he succeeded. He found the prime minister on his way to America and brought him back. The rest is mentioned in the book.

* Mr. Giorgos Zanias is Professor at the Athens University of Economics and Business and Chairman of the Board of Directors. Eurobank. Between October 2009 and May 2012, he was President of the Council of Economic Experts, and then, until June 2012, he served as Acting Minister of Finance. The text published here is an excerpt from his speech at the presentation of Evangelos Venizelos’ book “Versions of War”, published by Pataki Publishing House.