New Greek finance minister is a change of style, not substance

Euclid Tsakalotos, the mild-tempered professor who was appointed as Greece’s new finance minister on Monday, brings a clear change in style from his combative predecessor, Yanis Varoufakis. The 55-year-old Tsakalotos studied at prestigious private London school St. Paul’s and at Oxford University, speaks Greek with a British accent and rarely appears in public. But if European officials expect Athens’ new finance chief — who has already been a key negotiator in drawn-out talks between the Greek government and creditors — to take a softer approach in the substance of new bailout talks, they can think again. As the brainchild of Syriza’s economic thinking, Tsakalotos is likely to redouble efforts to put one of the most contentious issues in the five months of negotiations between Greece and its creditors — debt relief — back on the table.

European Monetary Union has created a split between core and periphery, and relations between the two are hierarchical and discriminatory.

Tsakalotos, in a paper on the website of the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty, a British Socialist group

Tsakalotos, who coauthored a book with Greek central bank governor Yannis Stournaras, has been dubbed in leftist jargon a “revolutionary Europeanist” — an economist who supports European Union integration but not its capitalist principles. Like Varoufakis, Tsakalotos has often decried Europe for big democratic deficiencies and argued that ill-guided fiscal austerity imposed by the core of the eurozone has unnecessarily impoverished Greece and other countries on the periphery. People who know Tsakalotos say he has strong negotiating qualities, which will come in handy as Athens heads back into talks with creditors.

He is the ideal person to help the Greek government break the current deadlock and reach an agreement with international lenders. He is modest, calm and a very good listener.

Panicos Demetriades, a former ECB Governing Council member for Cyprus who knew Tsakalotos in Britain

World Greece