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Yanis Varoufakis, the former Greek finance minister, claims a German finance minister privately admitted he would not have personally gone through with the crippling austerity policies. In an explosive tell-all book, Mr Varoufakis reveals how Wolfgang Schaeuble admitted he would not have gone through with EU-ordered measures. Austerity measures plunged Greece into crisis with huge job losses and billions of euros cut from budgets.

BLOOMBERG Yanis Varoufakis claims Wolfgang Schaeuble said he would not go through with austerity measures

Mr Varoufakis asked Mr Schaeuble if he would sign up to the austerity measures in a frank exchange in June 2015. The former Greek finance minister said: “I was expecting him to give me the predictable answer- that, under the circumstances, there was no alternative- along with all the usual, senseless arguments. “He didn’t. Instead he looks out of the window. By Berlin standards, it was a hot and sunny day.

BLOOMBERG Yanis Varoufakis claims the minister told him the measures were "bad" for Greece

He turned and stunned me with his answer. ‘As a patriot, no. It’s bad for your people’ Yanis Varoufakis

“Then he turned and stunned me with his answer. ‘As a patriot, no. It’s bad for your people.’” Mr Varoufakis reveals how Germany, the EU’s economic powerhouse, used its financial weight to impose austerity measures on Greece. The former finance minister said his experiences with the German-dominated EU should act as a warning for Theresa May as she prepares for Brexit negotiations.

BLOOMBERG Wolfgang Schaeuble and Yanis Varoufakis pictured in 2015

BLOOMBERG Wolfgang Schaeuble reportedly admitted he would not have gone through with EU-ordered measures

He told The Telegraph: “My advice to Theresa May is to avoid negotiation at all costs. “If she doesn’t do that she will fall into the trap of Alexis Tsipras, and it will end in capitulation. “The parallel with Brexit is the tactic of stalling negotiations. They will get you on the sequencing.

Why these nations could leave the Eurozone Fri, February 24, 2017 Heavily indebted Greece has no acute shortage of money, but will need money again from the ongoing aid programme this summer. But Athens is not the only shaky candidate of the Eurozone. These are the other countries causing worries Play slideshow 1 of 7