Varoufakis echoes Syriza defiance before Greek referendum

The Greek finance minister has reiterated the Syriza government’s defiant stance ahead of Sunday’s referendum on the country’s bailout terms.

Yanis Varoufakis backed his prime minister’s recommendation of a ‘No’ vote and repeated the assertion by Alexis Tsipras that the government may resign if the result goes the other way.

Interviewed on Australia’s ABC Radio, Varoufakis added that Syriza would cooperate with whoever took over.

The economist said in his blog that a ‘No’ vote would in fact be a ‘Yes for a proud Greece in a Decent Europe’.

Why a NO vote in the Referendum is a Yes for a proud Greece in a Decent Europe – Talking with Phillip Adams, on LNLhttp://t.co/Qd2QZ64Eki

— Yanis Varoufakis (@yanisvaroufakis) July 2, 2015

Compounding nerves already jangling ahead of Sunday’s vote, opinion polls contradict each other.

One survey by GPO for the BNP Paribas bank gives the ‘Yes’ campaign a four-point lead.

An earlier poll gave the ‘No’ camp a nine-point lead, while finding that support for the government’s stance had fallen.

Thursday morning again saw long queues of pensioners waiting to receive payouts from the limited number of banks that have opened.

For many Greeks such scenes symbolise the state of the country, with the referendum widely seen as determining whether Greece will stay in the euro.

Eurozone finance ministers have ruled out further talks until after the vote.