Yanis Varoufakis admittedly had a rough Eurogroup session in Riga, Latvia on Friday, with the media fallout painting an utterly negative impression of the Greek finance minister, at least as far as some his European colleagues are concerned.

In response, he turned to an “old friend”, social media, and specifically Twitter, where on Sunday he used inspiration from … Franklin Delano Roosevelt!

Although the “unnamed” attribution is found in most stories citing his detractors, the fact that Yanis has few fans in official places – outside Greece – is rather indicative.

According to a Sunday dispatch by Bloomberg, the vitriol against Varoufakis did indeed come on Friday at the Eurogroup session, and it all started with Slovakian FinMin Peter Kazimir responding to the former. This is what Bloomberg wrote:

“…When Yanis Varoufakis warned his fellow euro-area finance chiefs of the dangers of pushing his government in Athens too far, Peter Kazimir snapped.
“Kazimir, Slovakia’s finance minister, launched a volley of criticism at his Greek counterpart, releasing months of pent-up frustrations among the group at the political novice. They’d had enough of what they called the economics professor’s lecturing style and his failure to make good on his pledges.

“The others at the April 24 gathering in Riga, Latvia, took their cue from Kazimir — they called Varoufakis a time waster and said he would never get a deal if he persisted with such tactics. The criticism continued after the meeting: eight participants broke decorum to describe what happened behind closed doors. A spokesman for Varoufakis declined to respond to their descriptions.”

Nevertheless, the international financial news agency then cited Proto Thema’s opinion poll results from the same day, saying that “…Varoufakis has the backing of a majority of Greeks, according to an Alco survey published in Proto Thema newspaper. Some 55 percent of respondents said they had a positive view of him, compared with 36 percent who said they viewed him negatively.

An article in the Financial Times more-or-less echoed the sentiment reported by Bloomberg, pointing to a Yanis that is “increasingly isolated both in Brussels and in Athens as officials seek to bypass him in an effort to jump-start bailout talks.”

FT’s two reporters added that European leaders are now looking to Greek PM Alexis Tsipras to bypass Varoufakis, with one unnamed source, described by FT as a “senior Athens official” saying the former and Deputy PM Yannis Dragasakis will take a “more hands-on role”.

The paper also reported that Jeroen Dijsselbloem phoned Tsipras from Riga after the dismal reaction to Varoufakis’ latest positions at the Eurogroup meeting.