Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis this week was the latest top government official to raise eyebrows amid the spectre of a cash crunch faced by leftist SYRIZA, telling Spiegel that “there’s only enough money to last until mid April”.

“If until April 9 money isn’t received, we’ll first pay wages and pensions here in Greece, and then we’ll ask for consensus and understanding from our partners overseas for the fact that we won’t pay 450 million euros to the IMF on time,” he was quoted as saying.

In a bid to qualify his incendiary statement, the veteran leftist politician such a development must “be done via an agreement that this won’t be a credit event”.