The Greek economist was not the first political figure to suggest Brexit could help bring about the collapse of the European Union.

Brexit architect Nigel Farage has repeatedly claimed Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union was the “first brick knocked out of the wall” of EU institutions.

With Brexit on the horizon, experts in EU policy have warned the bloc changes will have to be made to the inner structure of the European Union machine to save it from total collapse.

Italy emerged as a significant menace to the bloc due to repeated clashes the populist Government led by eurosceptic Matteo Salvini and Luigi di Maio have had with Brussels since coming into power in the summer of 2018.

Both leaders have threatened to cut off contributions to the common budget to obtain more control over policy-making, especially in regards to immigration and deficit goals. The leaders of the populist Government had also expressed support for a referendum on euro membership.

European Affairs expert Ian Kearns said: “It would be fatal to the entire European project were a country like Italy to leave the single currency.

“If Italy were to leave there would be speculation that others would be forced out, or that others might one day follow. That would be enough for markets to stop lending to those countries and the bailout mechanism of the single currency would be simply insufficient to cope.