Germany might have thought it had Greece cornered, but as Eurozone leaders meet to talk about debt repayments, Varoufakis warns that breaking promises to the electorate could see another referendum.
“There could be problems. But, as my Prime Minister has said, we are not yet glued to our chairs. We can return to elections, call a referendum,” the finance minister told Corriere della Sera, an Italian newspaper. .
The country, led by Alexis Tsipras’ anti-austerity Syriza party, is on the cusp of running out of cash and is calling for a deal that would bring in another €7.2bn in funding.
The negotiations are particularly fraught as Varoufakis has said that the country will not be able to meet its repayment obligations.
“I can only say that we have money to pay the salaries and pensions of public employees. For the rest we will have to see,” he said.
However, Varoufakis claims that supporting the country in its recovery is a better investment for the Eurozone than squeezing it for cash it does not have.
“I’d like for Europe to understand that this would be a ways of paying back more money, not less,” he said.
It is shaping up to be another difficult week for the Eurozone. In addition to the instability created by the Greek negotiations and threat of new elections, the ECB’s quantitative easing programme began today, in a bid to raise inflation. Last week, the Euro hit an 11 year low against the dollar.
