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On 18 March the European Central Bank (ECB) launched an emergency €750bn ($820bn; £700bn) package to ease the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

This came just one week after the ECB president, Christine Lagarde, was widely criticised for saying it was “not the job of the ECB to close bond spreads”, which caused borrowing costs to spike in some of the countries worst affected by the pandemic.

Yanis Varoufakis, the renowned economist, Greek MP and DiEM25 co-founder, spoke to openDemocracy about the ECB’s latest intervention, and how the coronavirus pandemic is intensifying Europe’s pre-existing economic problems.

Watch the interview below, and subscribe to our Youtube channel: