Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras should resign if the Greek people vote "yes" in Sunday's national referendum on whether to accept the bailout terms demanded by creditors, said a key advisor on the ground to the New York and London hedge fund communities.
"I, as a Greek citizen, expect the prime minister of Greece—because he's campaigning in favor of a 'no'—if it's an overwhelming 'yes' or if it's a 'yes' in any case ... [to] resign," Axia Founding Partner George Linatsas told CNBC Thursday. "We, the Greek people, expect him to resign the day after the result of Sunday."
Debt negotiations were called off until the vote, while Tsipras urged Greeks to reject the aid package—saying a "no" vote would not mean a euro zone exit.
Linatsas, a leading supporter of the "yes" vote, said, "We are in favor of 'yes' because that's the only way for hope and future for the Greek people."
He accused the leftist Tsipras government of selling hope to "hopeless people" and "hijacking people's vote." That's how Greece finds itself at this crossroads, he argued. "It's not the Greek people. It's not the economy. It's politics that caused all this," he said.
"There's no way you get money without a reform package," said Linatsas—calling the government's negotiation tactics a failure because they didn't know what they were doing.
"There's no way you can sustain this government in place the day after Sunday if they want to stay in the euro zone with things the way they are today," he concluded.
Specializing in Greece and southern Europe, Axia is privately owned investment banking group headquartered in Nicosia, Cyprus.