A fresh rift has developed in Greek politics after reports emerged of the drawing-up of plans to raid central bank reserves, hack and copy coding from the Greek tax system, and to prepare for a return to the Drachma.
The plans have been attributed to Syriza's hardline former-energy minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, and former-finance minister Yanis Varoufakis - it is unclear how seriously the government considered this option.
Both ministers were removed from their positions before this story broke. Opposition parties have expressed their outrage, and are demanding a full explanation.
In an interview with The Real News Mr Lafazanis said that he wanted to tap central bank reserves in defiance of European orders to prepare for the nation's possible expulsion from the euro.
“The main reason for that was for the Greek economy and Greek people to survive, which is the utmost duty every government has under the constitution,” he said, arguing that the radical action may have been necessary to keep the country afloat if it was expelled from the euro.
Reports in the conservative Kathimerini newspaper allege that Yanis Varoufakis said that a small Syriza group secretly hacked the government's tax system, to copy codes to be used to launch a second internal Greek payment system.
It quotes the former-finance minister as saying, "This would have created a parallel banking system, which would have given us some breathing space, while the banks would have been shut due to the ECB’s aggressive policy."
He says that the paper's quotes are accurate, but taken out of context:
"The context of all this is that they want to present me as a rogue finance minister and have me indicted for treason. It is all part of an attempt to annul the first five months of this government and put it in the dustbin of history."
The economist has written about exploring similar options in the past - including the introduction of an internal Bitcoin-style electronic currency.
One quarter of Syriza MPs rebelled and voted against Greece's proposed austerity-heavy third bailout deal - including Mr Varoufakis.
