Referendum, or elections, if Athens proposals rejected

In an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, he stated that the next step in negotiations is, none other, than Monday’s Eurogroup venue.

“If they don’t accept our plan then there will be problems,” he noted, adding that a new snap election or even a referendum may be options to consider. No details were offered on what the question of the referendum would be.

Varoufakis describes his relations with European Central Bank (ECB) chief Mario Draghi as formal, stressing that the “ECB, instead of buying huge amounts of German bonds, would have to buy Greek bonds — yesterday and not tomorrow … The ECB in 2012 faced a similar crisis, but led by a conservative government (in Greece), it opened up funds in order to deal with the funding needs. Now it has a strict stance never before seen, a stance where it wants to discipline Greece,” said Varoufakis.

“All I can say is that we have enough money to pay wages and pensions of public servants, as for the rest we’ll see,” he said at another point in the interview. Nevertheless, he said he believes that the government will survive even if there is no agreement with Brussels and characterised talk of a Grexit as toxic.

The last time a top Greek office-holder mentioned a “referendum” when facing obstacles in talks with European partners was former PM George Papandreou in late October 2011, following his purportedly diastrous meeting with Angela Merkel and then French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Cannes. Papandreou soon resigned as Greek premier, with an appointed coalition government led by one-time central banker and ECB vice-president Lucas Papademas taking over.

However, government circles are denying that Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis mentioned the possibility of a referendum being held over staying in the euro. “Over the last few days we have noticed an effort to strike against Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis through ironic statements or by fabricating fake or misleading news. Statements that were never made or with the addition of ‘clarifications’ that totally change the meaning of the answers, as was the case in the particular interview that appeared in the Spanish newspaper Corriere della Sera,” state government agents, adding that Varoufakis never refered to a “referendum for the euro.” They state that the word “euro” was added by the journalist  herself, hence she placed it in brackets.

Government sources state that there is no talk of replacing Varoufakis. “We won’t do them the favor. Finance Minister of Greece is Yanis Varoufakis. If they want someone styled after Gikas Hardouvelis, who says ‘yes’ to everything then they will be disappointed,” say Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) sources.

The same sources state that the Greek government has the majority of the Greek people on its side and will keep its commitments for real negotiation with its EU partners, something that government sources say never occured during the Samaras government.

On his part SYRIZA MEP Dimitris Papadimoulis said that the government has the people’s mandate that needs to be put into effect before thinking of the next elections.”The people spoke recently and very clearly and the support and the order for a solution within the euro has been heard loud and clear,” he said.