He had announced resignation in case of victory of the Yes, however, surprisingly, the Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis he chose to take a step back despite the triumph of the NO (61,3% against 38,7%) in Sunday's referendum on the acceptability or otherwise of the European proposals.
“I'm leaving to help Tsipras in the negotiations – wrote the economist on his blog -. Soon after the referendum results were announced I was informed of a certain preference by some Eurogroup members and assorted 'partners' for my… 'absence' from their top leadership, an idea the prime minister deemed potentially useful to enable him to reach an understanding. For this reason, I am leaving the Ministry of Finance today. I consider it my duty to help Alexis Tsipras to exploit as he sees fit the capital that the Greek people guaranteed us in yesterday's referendum and I will proudly bear the disgust of creditors".
For months it had become clear that the personal friction between Varoufakis and some prominent personalities of the European counterpart – first and foremost the number one of the Eurogroup, Jeroen Dijsselbloem – constituted a significant obstacle to the continuation of the negotiations.
