New Greek finance minister's notes to himself for key crisis meeting revealed

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Euclid Tsakalotos, the mild-tempered professor who was appointed as Greece's new finance minister on Monday, is a clear change in style from his combative predecessor Yanis Varoufakis.
Newly appointed Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos (centre) is welcomed by Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem (left) at a euro zone finance ministers meeting. PHOTO: REUTERS

BRUSSELS (Bloomberg) - The world was on edge waiting for news of some kind of development that could lead to a resolution of the Greek debt crisis.

Eurogroup finance ministers were meeting in Brussels on Tuesday, with the hopes of working out a deal.

Joining them, of course, was new Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos. In only his second day on the job, he managed to set off a brief wave of speculation on social media after posing for a photo with his handwritten meeting notes visible to the cameras.

They're a little hard to make out (though they are written in English) and it's not clear what any of it really means.

One of the few phrases everyone noticed was "no triumphalism," possibly a reference to the Greek government's successful effort to get a "no" vote on their recent referendum. There also appears to be reference to KKE, the Greek Communist party. And what's the word missing in this statement: "mostly I -- on viability grounds" ?

People on Twitter investigated the mystery with little success.

And the inevitable joke versions arrived.

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