The controversial Yanis Varoufakis is out as Greece’s finance minister and Euclid Tsakalotos is in. Here’s what you need to know about Tsakalotos:
- He’s spent much of his life in the U.K. Tsakalotos attended St. Paul’s, an elite London private school, and received a degree in Politics, Philosophy, and Economics from Oxford, reports Business Insider.
- He was born in Rotterdam, in South Holland in 1960.
- Tsakalotos has more Greek political experience than Varoufakis. Tsakalotos was elected to the Greek parliament in 2012, where Varoufakis has been around less than six months. Tsakalotos has been acting as alternative foreign minister since January, so he’s already been embroiled in the debt discussions.
- Tsakalotos’s background is in academia. He has taught at the universities of Kent and Athens, reports the Telegraph.
- He has written six books, most of which challenge the accepted causes of Greek economic problems. Tsakalotos says Greece’s problems don’t just stem from an economic crisis, but “a crisis of democracy” in the eurozone.
- Tsakalotos is anti-Grexit. But he told CNN: a “‘no'” vote against the latest bailout program would ‘give us the strength to fight for a deal that will be both sustainable and a fair compromise.'”
- He may ruffle less feathers than Varoufakis, but Tsakalotos is certainly not more conservative. He has some very left-wing attitudes, like when he jokingly apologized to Sinn Féin for his British accent.
Photo: Sinn Féin via Flickr.