Kammenos says SYRIZA-Independent Greeks coalition explored drachma option
Independent Greeks leader Panos Kammenos has suggested that the previous coalition, which his party formed with SYRIZA, explored the option of taking Greece out of the eurozone.
Kammenos, however, claimed that the plan was abandoned when it was clear that Greece did not have the currency reserves to support a Grexit.
Speaking on Alpha TV on Monday night, Kammenos, who served as defense minister in the power-sharing government, said that “when the time came to send the C-130 [military craft] to load up the palettes with the money that would basically be a guarantee for a [new] currency everyone pretended they weren’t aware of the implications.”
The head of the anti-bailout party said that “if there had been a path to the drachma with real prospects I would not have said no.”
The plan, he said, was abandoned because “there was no money anywhere.”
“We were sold down the river by everyone who said they would help,” Kammenos said. “We had no rubles… to put up as collateral… nor any other foreign currency,” he added, alluding to several high-level meetings between officials in Athens and Moscow in the first months after SYRIZA was elected.
On the question of whether former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis had presented the cabinet with details of an alleged plan to transition Greece out of the eurozone by setting up a parallel currency, Kammenos said that Varoufakis “mumbled something about making preparations with a team but didn’t give any details.”
