“In 20 minutes all of the ATMs will have been emptied dry; poverty will have conquered 80% of (Greek) households,” was the way centrist Potami leader Stavros Theodorakis described the repercussions of Greece’s exit from the eurozone – the financial markets’ bogeyman known as “Grexit”.

His apocalyptic statements, coming from Parliament’s podium during a debate on a draft bill, generated heated reactions by ruling Radical Left Party (SYRIZA) backbenchers, to which Theodorakis replied:

“Before you start reacting, allow me to tell you that this is from an article by Mr. Varoufakis in protagon (a local opinion website) posted in April 2011. You will ask: ‘What will you do, dear Yanis, so that we don’t live through this nightmare? And I will agree with you.”

The “Yanis” in this case is Yanis Varoufakis, the current Greek FinMin who has more-or-less “exploded” onto the international limelight since the Greek election in late January for his controversial style and statements.

Theodorakis, 52, a well-known local television presenter before forming his own political party last year, took dead aim at the virulently anti-capitalist and Marxist-leaning “Left Platform” within SYRIZA itself, that party’s so-called “internal opposition”.

“ In 20 minutes all of the ATMs will have been emptied dry; the lines outside banks will be unending, and in about an hour the banks will lower their shutters – the economy would collapse; the European Central Bank would withhold its support and banks would not open their doors again; the country will have been sunk into complete darkness … the clock would be turned back many decades,” Theodorakis emphasized, reading from the article he attributed to the self-described “erratic Marxist”.