Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia have long insisted they are too poor to pay for the mistakes made by wealthier Greece and that it should have stuck to the reforms and austerity measures laid out in its massive 240 billion euro ($273 billion) bailout.
I hear some Greeks have pensions over 1,000 euros ($1,100) a month. That's outrageous. I refuse to pay for their debt while they are making fortunes compared to my salary," Bratislava waitress Martina Lelovicova told AFP on Monday in a country where the average monthly salary is 880 euros.
"It's good news for the eurozone. Greeks should leave it, this will only make it healthier," a Bratislava entrepreneur in his thirties who wished to remain anonymous told AFP of Sunday's Greek referendum result.
Slovak Finance Minister Peter Kazimir – the first Eurogroup minister to warn that the Greek 'No raises the specter of a "Grexit" or exit from the euro – told reporters: "With the result of the referendum, a possible crisis scenario, the gradual withdrawal of Greece from the eurozone, is unfolding."