Yanis Varoufakis, a “libertarian Marxist” who played the heavy in Greece’s negotiations with its creditors, has stepped down after helping to secure a historic popular mandate rejecting austerity.
Varoufakis, who was educated in the UK and taught in Australia, the US and the UK before becoming the chief economist for the games company Valve, took a hard line in negotiations with Greece’s creditors since he became finance minister, and was renowned for his expert debating skills and quotable soundbites.
He says he stepped down so that Greek PM Alexis Tsipras can go back into negotiations without being impeded by the Eurozone finance ministers’ personal animus against him.
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The Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has resigned, despite a no vote in the referendum. In a blog post on his website Varoufakis flagged that his decision was prompted in part by “some European participants” expressing a desire for his role to end in any further negotiations.*
Alexis Trsipras has called for a key political meeting to take place in Greece on Monday morning at 10:00am to discuss the outcome of the referendum.
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Greeks voted overwhelmingly for a no vote in the referendum, with over 60% casting a no vote in the groundbreaking political decision.
Greek referendum: finance minister Yanis Varoufakis resigns – live [Nick Fletcher, Paul Farrell and Helen Davidson/The Guardian]
(Image: Yanis Varoufakis Subversive interview 2013 cropped [Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis: “All the good stuff that cannot be measured”, May 2013 at Subversive Festival, Zagreb, PanchoS, CC-BY)
