BREAKING Greece Finance Minister Resigns

In a surprise move, on the heels of the referendum "No" vote in Greece, Yanis Varoufakis said he was quitting his post as finance minister.

“Soon after the announcement of the referendum results, I was made aware of a certain preference by some European 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,” he wrote on his personal blog. “For this reason I am leaving the Ministry of Finance today.”

He continued:

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.

We of the Left know how to act collectively with no care for the privileges of office. I shall support fully Prime Minister Tsipras, the new Minister of Finance, and our government.

The superhuman effort to honour the brave people of Greece, and the famous OXI (NO) that they granted to democrats the world over, is just beginning.

Who is named to replace Varoufakis will be a key indicator as to whether the Tsipras government wants to cut a deal with the Eurogroup or not.

-RW