Former European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told the BBC that the Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras made “completely unrealistic promises” to voters that it cannot now fulfil.

Alexis Tsipras has called prime minister Antonis Samaras “Mr Baroso's puppet, “ commenting on yesterday's Financial Times article describing the repercussions from former PM Papandreou's decision to call for a referendum.

Samaras and Barroso both sought to strike an upbeat note at an official ceremony for Greece’s assumption of the European Union’s Presidency emphasizing the country’s progress and playing down the fragility of Samaras’s government.