After news of Greece’s decision to reject the bailout deal they were offered, it has been reported that the minister of finance, Yanis Varoufakis, has resigned.
Last weekend’s referendum resulted in 61.3% of voters saying no to the compromise offered by international creditors, meaning a victory for Greece. However, this has raised concerns about whether the country can remain within the Eurozone, according to The Financial Times.
In a blog post entitled “Minister No More!” Varoufakis announced his resignation and said that the “referendum of 5th July will stay in history as a unique moment when a small European nation rose up against debt-bondage.”
He also thought the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, believed that the finance minister’s resignation would be beneficial for Greece. “Soon after the announcement of the referendum results, I was made aware of a certain preference by some eurogroup participants, and assorted “partners”, for my “absence” from its meetings; an idea that the Prime Minister judged to be potentially helpful to him in reaching an agreement. For this reason I am leaving the Ministry of Finance today,” Varoufakis posted on his blog.
The FT reported that the referendum is not likely to help Greece’s situation and the economy will decline further. Tsipras said his priority was to restore the banking system as soon as possible as Greek banks are unlikely to open this week, unless the heads of the European Commission and European Central Bank can come to a decision in a conference call on Monday.
The European Central Bank has to decide between whether it needs the Eurozone in order to guarantee Greek debt, if it is to continue supplying emergency loans, or increase purchases of the Eurozone government debt under the quantitative easing programme, in case the markets react badly, as said in the FT.
Varoufakis ended his blog post stating that he is proud that the creditors are loathing him and that the Left know how to act collectively, disregarding privileges members of the office receive. “The superhuman effort to honour the brave people of Greece, and the famous OXI (NO) that they granted to democrats the world over, is just beginning,” Varoufakis said.
