Greece’s outspoken finance minister resigned today, removing a major obstacle to any deal to keep Athens in the euro zone after Greeks voted resoundingly to back the government in rejecting the austerity terms of a bailout.
Yanis Varoufakis, an avowed «erratic Marxist» economist who infuriated euro zone partners with his unconventional style and hectoring lectures, had campaigned for Sunday’s sweeping ‘No’ vote, accusing Greece’ creditors of «terrorism».
«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,» Varoufakis said in a statement.
Greece’s chief negotiator in aid talks with international creditors, Euclid Tsakalotos, a soft-spoken academic economist, is the frontrunner to become finance minister, a senior government official said. Tsakalotos had already taken over a prominent role with lenders after Varoufakis was sidelined from the talks in April.
Austrian Finance Minister Hans Joerg Schelling, saying out loud what many peers have whispered privately, said he hoped talks with Greece would become easier with Varoufakis gone.
To win any new deal, Greece will have to overcome the distrust of partners, above all Germany, Greece’s biggest creditor and the EU’s biggest economy, where public opinion has hardened in favor of cutting Greece loose from the euro.
Varoufakis had a particularly acrimonious relationship with Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. A German government spokesman, asked about the departure of Varoufakis, told reporters policies mattered more than people.
The door to negotiations with Greece on a new aid program was open but the conditions were not yet met until there were new proposals from Athens, spokesman Steffen Seibert said.
European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis told a news conference there was no easy way out of the crisis and the referendum result had widened the gap between Greece and other euro zone countries.
Greek political leaders met at the president’s residence at 10 a.m. as a strengthened Tsipras sought to build a national consensus behind his negotiating position.
Tsipras has spoken by telephone to French President Francois Hollande, who is trying to broker an agreement ahead of an emergency euro zone summit on Tuesday. Hollande was due to meet later on Monday with Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel to seek a joint response from the two biggest euro zone economies.
While France and Italy have emphasized the importance of more talks, German public opinion is running out of patience. Merkel’s vice-chancellor, Social Democrat Sigmar Gabriel, said on Sunday that Tsipras had torn down the last bridges of compromise with the euro zone.
A German Finance Ministry spokesman pushed aside Greek demands for a big debt write-down, as the International Monetary Fund said last week may be necessary. He said the IMF was promoting its traditional stance but Europe had opted for solutions other than debt cuts to put countries back on track.
With banks shuttered, cash machines running out of banknotes and sympathy for Athens among EU governments close to exhausted, Greece’s fate is largely in the hands of Merkel and the European Central Bank.
Source: Buenos Aires Herald