Athens, Greece (BBN)-The Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has quit, despite the country’s decisive rejection of the eurozone’s terms for the country remaining in the single currency.
Varoufakis, who infuriated eurozone leaders and recently compared Greece’s creditors to terrorists, said the Greek prime minister Alexis Tsipras, thought it would be better if he stood down, after pressure from European leaders, reports The Guardian.
Announcing his resignation in a blog post entitled “Minister No More!” he wrote:
“Soon after the announcement of the referendum results, I was made aware of a certain preference by some Eurogroup participants [Eurozone finance ministers], 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.
“I consider it my duty to help Alexis Tsipras exploit, as he sees fit, the capital that the Greek people granted us through yesterday’s referendum.
“And I shall wear the creditors’ loathing with pride.”
BBN/SK/AD