"I was made aware of a certain preference by some Eurogroup participants, and assorted 'partners', for my … 'absence' from its meetings; an idea that the [Greek] Prime Minister [Alexis Tsipras] judged to be potentially helpful to him in reaching an agreement. For this reason I am leaving the Ministry of Finance today," he wrote. Yanis Varoufakis exits a polling booth after marking his ballot in the national referendum in Athens on Sunday. Credit:Bloomberg "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. "I shall wear the creditors' loathing with pride." Mr Tsipras acted quickly, announcing mild-tempered professor Euclid Tsakalotos as Greece's new finance minister.

The resignation of Mr Varoufakis was a surprise move – though less so in retrospect. Yanis Varoufakis leaves Maximos Mansion, the residence of the Greek prime minister, in Athens in June. Credit:AP When Mr Varoufakis came on Greek television to comment on the referendum result on Monday night, he was greeted with cheers by those gathered in Athens' Syntagma Square to celebrate. He had thrown all his energy behind the 'No' campaign, in rhetoric that pulled no punches. IMF chief Christine Lagarde with Yanis Varoufakis in February 2015. Credit:Reuters

He even labelled the country's creditors terrorists, in an interview published on Saturday in Spain's El Mundo. "What they're doing with Greece has a name: terrorism," Mr Varoufakis said. "What Brussels and the troika want today is for the yes [vote] to win so they could humiliate the Greeks. Why did they force us to close the banks? To instil fear in people. And spreading fear is called terrorism." He had promised to resign if the referendum came down for 'Yes'. But even with the backing of his country, it was hard to imagine how he could face Europe's creditors after such an insult. In truth, Mr Varoufakis has for months been only an occasional visitor to the rooms where Greece was trying to hammer out a rescue deal. The presence of the former Sydney University economics professor and close ally to Mr Tsipras had become a provocation to EU representatives, who resented his confrontational, lecturing style.

According to The New York Times, several months ago Mr Tsipras stopped Mr Varoufakis from negotiating face to face with Greece's creditors, at the request of Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the head of the Eurogroup, the eurozone's working group of finance ministers. The Times said Mr Tsipras recognised that "the finance minister was more comfortable giving lofty speeches than he was drilling down on technical issues". "From time to time, however, Mr Tsipras would push Mr Varoufakis into these meetings, joking to his aides that he enjoyed seeing Mr Dijsselbloem and Wolfgang Schauble, Germany's finance minister, squirm as the Greek finance minister lectured them on the need for debt relief." At one of those meetings, when Mr Varoufakis against insisted that creditors consider debt relief for Greece, he put IMF director Christine Lagarde on the spot, demanding that she formally state that Greece's debt would be sustainable under the proposed rescue package. It triggered yet another testy exchange with Mr Dijsselbloem. For the moment, at least, Greece's Syriza government has decided that for the next step it needs practical dealmakers in the room to try to secure the country's future.