Greeks yesterday struggled to adjust to shuttered banks, closed cash machines and a climate of rumors and conspiracy theories as a breakdown in talks between Athens and its creditors plunged the country deep into crisis.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who blindsided creditors by calling a referendum on the austerity cuts in the aid package proposed by the creditors, appeared on television on Sunday night to announce capital controls to prevent banks from collapsing.
Their imposition capped a dramatic weekend for Greece that has pushed the country towards a likely default on 1.6 billion euros (US$1.77 billion) of IMF loans today and closer to an exit from the euro currency bloc.
Photo: AP
French President Francois Hollande appealed to Tsipras to return to the negotiating table and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was willing to talk to the 40-year-old Greek leader if he wanted.
“There are a few hours before the negotiation is closed for good,” Hollande said after a Cabinet meeting on Greece.
However, with Greece’s bailout program expiring in less than a day, hopes of a last-minute breakthrough were fading fast.
Greeks — used to lengthy talks with creditors before an 11th-hour deal materializes — were left stunned.
“I can’t believe it,” Athens resident Evgenia Gekou, 50, said on her way to work. “I keep thinking we will wake up tomorrow and everything will be OK. I’m trying hard not to worry.”
European officials sent confusing signals about their next move. A spokesman for the European Commission told French radio that Brussels would not make any new proposals yesterday, appearing to contradict comments by EU Economics Commissioner Pierre Moscovici, who said that a new offer was forthcoming and the two sides were “only a few centimeters” away from a deal.
The Greek government will keep banks shut at least until after Sunday, the day of the referendum, and withdrawals from ATMs were limited to 60 euros per day when they reopened at midday. The stock exchange will also stay shut.
After months of talks, Greece’s exasperated European partners have put the blame for the crisis squarely on Tsipras’s shoulders.
As Tsipras announced the emergency measures late on Sunday, there were long lines outside ATMs and gasoline stations as people raced to take out cash before it was too late. Lines of more than a dozen people formed at ATMs when they reopened yesterday.
“I’ve got 5 euros in my pocket, I thought I would try my luck here for some money. The queues in my neighborhood were too long yesterday,” plumber Yannis Kalaizakis, 58, said outside an empty cash machine in central Athens. “I don’t know what else to say. It’s a mess.”
Newspapers splashed pictures of long lines outside cash machines on their front page. The Nafetemporiki daily headlined yesterday’s edition “Dramatic hours,” while the Ta Nea daily simply said: “When will the banks open.”
The conservative Eleftheros Typos accused Tsipras of announcing the referendum as a ruse to tip the country into early elections in the hopes of winning them.
“Mr Tsipras’ decision to call a referendum and a possible euro exit constitutes a premeditated crime,” it said in an editorial. “It is clear that Mr Tsipras has lost the trust of citizens. That’s obvious from the queues at ATMs and petrol stations, and it will become obvious at next Sunday’s ballot.”
As rumors flew about, dozens of pensioners lined up outside at least two offices of the National Bank of Greece yesterday after hearing they could withdraw pensions from some branches. They were turned away, photographers said.
Despite the financial shock, parts of daily life went on as normal, with shops, pharmacies and supermarkets in the city opening and Greeks meeting to discuss their country’s fate at cafes and restaurants.
A rally called by Tsipras’s SYRIZA party to urge voters to say “No” in the referendum on bailout terms was expected later yesterday.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats