Varoufakis says he quit because he felt marginalised

Athens

YANIS Varoufakis said in an interview about the reasons for his surprise resignation as Greek finance minister that whenever he tried "to engage in economic arguments" with his eurozone colleagues, all he got was "blank stares".

"You might as well have sung the Swedish national anthem - you'd have got the same reply," Mr Varoufakis told the New Statesman magazine as he summed up five months of tense talks with his 18 peers to secure a new bailout.

"There was no engagement at all. It was not even annoyance, it was as if one had not spoken." The outspoken economist, who clashed repeatedly with Greece's creditors during the talks over a debt rescue, announced his resignation a day after the Syriza-led government won the backing of 61 per cent of voters in a July 5 refer…