The fallout from Yanis Varoufakis’ apparent “reshuffling” over the weekend continued on Tuesday, with Eurogroup head Jeroen Dijsselbloem, in fact, saying he told Greek PM Alexis Tsipras it would be “very helpful” for there to be a sole representative reporting directly to him (Tsipras).

In a quick response, government officials in Athens were quoted by the TV station Mega as saying that “Greece has stopped for some time being a colony,” while reminding that Yanis is still the finance minister. Earlier in the day, Varoufakis attempted to deflect growing criticism of his handling of negotiations with Eurozone partners over the past three months by charging he was “duped” into thinking a Feb. 20 agreement would mean the disbursement of bailout funds.

“It seems that in Europe we need to try, all of us, more in order to restore trust,” Varoufakis said in arriving at the finance ministry atop his motorbike. The news that Yanis was more-or-less replaced as the main “point man” in negotiations with creditors couldn’t go unnoticed in Europe. According to an acerbic article in Süddeutsche Zeitung, Varoufakis used his time at Eurogroup meetings to delay “reasonable negotiations” through provocations.

“The solution for proceeding with negotiations between Greece and its creditors was a … ‘Varoufexit’,” the paper emphasized. The always glib Economist headlined an article on Varoufakis with the football term “Sent off”.

“… At last, Greece may be about to step back from a potentially disastrous default. The sudden demotion of Yanis Varoufakis, the argumentative finance minister, suggests a last-minute policy switch by Alexis Tsipras, the Greece’s left-wing prime minister—one which could re-invigorate fractious bail-out negotiations with the country’s international creditors.”

Finally, Vienna-based cartoonist Marian Kamensky’s take on Tuesday showed a … headless Varoufakis, accompanied by Tsipras, appearing before German FinMin Wolfgang Schaeuble, who states that “I had given an order for Varoufakis to be removed, not beheaded…”   «