After brutal assault, Yanis Varoufakis urges progressives to focus on 'what really matters'
Recovering from a brutal assault that left him with a broken nose and cheekbone, leftist Greek lawmaker Yanis Varoufakis on Tuesday urged progressives "not get distracted" from the railway accident that killed 57 people last month or the neoliberal "privatize everything doctrine" he blames for the disaster.
Appearing on ANT1's Kallimera Ellada ('Good Morning, Greece') on Tuesday, Varoufakis — the parliamentary leader of the left-wing MeRA25 party and former finance minister in 2015 — said he needs to "thank the public hospital staff" because "they worked miracles" to treat his fractured cheekbone and nose, which was broken in six places during the Friday evening assault by a group of young men the lawmaker described earlier as "hired thugs."
"The oligarchic establishment is trying to exploit my injuries in the most hideous, Goebbels-like manner."
"I will recover," he said, brushing off more questions about the attack. "But those 57 from the train accident in Tempi won't, and their families' pain cannot be treated" — a reference to the February 28 collision of passenger and freight trains in Larissa.
At: https://www.commondreams.org/news/yanis-varoufakis
Former Greek Finance Minister and leftist leader Yanis Varoufakis speaks to the media in Athens on Tuesday.
He was brutally attacked three days earlier in an Athens restaurant by men he described as "hired thugs."
Varoufakis had earlier blamed rail privatization for a recent rail accident that cost 57 lives.
