Eurozone Crisis: ‘Everything is possible’ in deal talks

The finance minister puts on his helmet, still sporting his characteristic grin, as crowds try to get close enough to take selfies.

He vroom, vrooms out of the finance department that just months ago was clogged with protestors, forcing the Troika to run the gauntlet every time they ventured near the place.

Minutes later Yanis Varoufakis parks his motorcycle outside the Greek parliament and looks out over Syntagma Square, empty except for a group of Japanese tourists taking photographs with the pigeons, or the Guards.

He left the journalists buzzing with excitement when he told them that “everything was possible” when asked of rumours about a last minute deal with Brussels.

People shout slogans during a rally by demonstrators suporting a yes vote in the upcoming referendum, at Syntagma Square in Athens, yesterday.

Word was that their plane was on standby, but it stayed on standby as the cabinet’s eleven-hour long meeting dragged on and merged with the eurogroup conference call with other euro ministers considering the latest Greek proposals.

Shortly after 6pm Syntagma Square began to bustle with people strolling around, chatting, checking their phones, waving flags in readiness for the “Yes” rally. There was a roaring trade in whistles with their screeches regularly blocking out all sound of the speeches.

The umbrella sellers did good business too as rolls of thunder gave way to light rain. The mood was relaxed among the crowd that quickly filled some of the streets around the peculiarly un-classical looking parliament building.

The city’s mayor, George Kaminis, drove home the message that Sunday’s vote is a verdict on the country’s membership of the EU.

A man walks past anti-EU graffiti in Athens, Greece. Greek voters will go to the polls on Sunday.

There were lots of families, and groups that work together. It was difficult to find people who were out of work or young students in the crowd – they seemed to have been more plentiful in the ranks of the ‘no’ rally on Monday night.

One couple differed in their views but she hoped to convince him that they could not vote no in case it meant going back to the drachma. “I know that too many people retired early, but it was a choice of retire or be fired when the Troika said there were too many people working for the state. But having to work until we are 67 is too much. I know the truth, the best thing is somewhere in the middle”, she said. Being a public servant she was afraid to give her name, in case her number comes up next on the ‘fire’ list.

For Spilios Laueptopoulos it’s simpler.

“Greece is destined to belong to Europe, there is no alternative”, so he will vote ‘yes’ in the referendum, and he would like a two party system like the US, rather than the 15 political parties in Greek politics.

More anti-EU graffiti adorns a wall in Athens, Greece.

This was just the second ever rally in Syntagma Square for John Simos – the first was for football, and he believes that only people who have never worked and don’t want to work are in the ‘no’ camp.

But George, a taxi driver, is furious because the rallies mean he is evicted from his stand in the square.

“Now I can only take €60 a day out of the bank, but tomorrow I need €600 to pay for my house. And I can only get 40 litres of petrol but I need 60. We Greeks are crazy. I like crazy, but I like this to end.”