The clashes between the two men inspired a Dutch rap video, and although Mr. Varoufakis was replaced by Euclid Tsakalotos in July 2015, he remained critical in his references to Mr. Dijsselbloem, writing in April 2016

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The clashes between the two men inspired a Dutch rap video, and although Mr. Varoufakis was replaced by Euclid Tsakalotos in July 2015, he remained critical in his references to Mr. Dijsselbloem, writing in April 2016 that they were never going to have “a beautiful friendship.” Ultimately, the Eurogroup failed to reach a deal with Greece, and it fell to national leaders like Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister Mark Rutte of Holland to negotiate an agreement. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister and current president of the Eurogroup, has been one of the public faces of austerity in Europe. At a joint news conference with Mr. Dijsselbloem in Athens, Mr. Varoufakis flatly rejected working with the so-called troika — the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank — which had jointly demanded spending cuts and tax increases in exchange for loans. With his Dutch Labor Party recording a poor showing at the polls, he will probably lose his post as finance minister, meaning he will be replaced in the Eurogroup by the end of his term early next year. Eurogroup meetings have also run far more smoothly than under his predecessor, Jean-Claude Juncker, the current president of the European Commission, according to finance ministers and European officials. Mr. Dijsselbloem had been his country’s finance minister for a matter of months when he took over as head of the Eurogroup in early 2013, and his tenure had a rocky start. And since the European Central Bank introduced an effective backstop in 2012, buying bonds from eurozone countries with distressed economies, the Eurogroup has also allowed countries like France and Italy significant fiscal leeway.