"My proposal was that Greece should simply announce that it is defaulting…and stick the finger to Germany and say 'you can now solve this problem by yourself'," Varoufakis says on the video, raising his middle finger.
And here is the 'undoctored' by the unscrupulous media's video: https://t.co/WZ3ixfKHC5
— Yanis Varoufakis (@yanisvaroufakis) March 16, 2015
Confronted with the video, Varoufakis told German TV:
"I have never given the finger ever."
Varoufakis denied brandishing his middle finger — known in Germany as the "Stinkefinger" — during a lecture in Croatia where he said Greece should have defaulted in 2010 rather than accept a multi-billion euro bailout package.
Did the finger fall at the end or not? #Varoufake #Varouception pic.twitter.com/6Nqdu6PrvX
— Team Varoufakis (@TeamVaroufakis) March 19, 2015
"The video was faked, without doubt," he told German news magazine Der Spiegel's online version on Monday.
Jan Böhmermann, host of the satirical TV show Neo Magazin Royal, said he wondered how long it would be before he was asked if the footage shown was genuine. "Sorry, Mr Varoufakis, we won't do it again," Böhmermann said, admitting the production team had doctored the video.
The closing message from @janboehm really is quite something https://t.co/yCmepRbz4l pic.twitter.com/JnY656Bd3L
— Robert Mackey (@RobertMackey) March 18, 2015
Varoufakis has regularly traded barbs with Germany, especially with his irascible counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble, since the leftist Syriza party took power in January pledging to end austerity and renegotiate the bailout terms.
Athens has also urged Germany to pay reparations for the wartime Nazi occupation of Greece, a demand Berlin has rejected.
