Bankruptcy is approaching and for the final squeeze of the negotiation Alexis Tipras changes the team in charge of negotiating with the EU, the IMF and the ECB. According to Reuters sources also cited by the Greek press, the new formation was decided in a meeting chaired by the Premier yesterday evening and the leadership was entrusted to the Deputy Minister of International Relations, Euclid Tsakalotos.
Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis was instead reconfirmed, although some speculate that his role could be downsized after the criticisms leveled against him last Friday by some colleagues during the informal Ecofin meeting in Riga.
Tsipras would therefore have entrusted more responsibilities to Tsakalotos - a professor and economist trained at Oxford, with a much more diplomatic tone than Varoufakis - in an attempt to overcome the impasse of the negotiations, clearing the field of possible personal tensions. Athens wants to reach an agreement on May 11, at the next Eurogroup, where, however, Greece will still be represented by the finance minister.
