Greece’s radical left government said that it might resign if loses in a make-or-break referendum on Sunday that could decide the nation’s financial future.
Greek Minister of Finance Yanis Varoufakis yesterday said in a radio interview that the government “may very well” quit, adding that “we are on a war footing” to ensure the rushed referendum happens in time.
International creditors and markets are stepping back after days of dizzying drama over the Greek crisis to watch the outcome of the consultation over the weekend.
Photo: AFP
Ordinary Greeks, though, are left in financial limbo under capital controls imposed all this week to stem a bank run.
They are reduced to an ATM withdrawal cap of 60 euros (US$67) a day, adding hardship to lives already ground down by years of austerity.
Although Athens insists that the referendum is narrowly on tough austerity conditions attached to a bailout that expired on Tuesday, EU leaders said it is a vote on whether Greece wants to remain in the euro.
The Greek government led by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is fiercely campaigning for a “no” vote, believing that rejecting the bailout conditions would strengthen its hand in negotiations with creditors.
On Tuesday, it failed to repay 1.5 billion euros to the IMF.
THREAT OF ARREARS
Athens is in danger of failing in arrears to two other major creditors, the EU and the European Central Bank, if it also fails to pay 3.5 billion euros on July 20.
EU leaders, including those of Greece’s biggest creditors Germany, France and Italy have all said they would view a “no” result in the referendum as a rejection of Europe.
However, if the “yes” wins, Varoufakis said in his interview with Australian Broadcasting Corp that the government could hand over to a caretaker administration.
‘MAY VERY WELL’
“Yes, we may very well do that, but we will do this in the spirit of cooperation with whoever takes over from us,” he said.
In any case, he told Bloomberg TV in a separate interview, he “will not” continue to serve as finance minister in that event.
A survey published in the Greek press on Wednesday said that 46 percent of voters intended to vote “no,” down from the 57 percent recorded just days earlier before the banking restrictions.
“I am going to vote ‘yes’ because we are more secure in Europe.... I blame Tsipras for this crisis and certainly hope he steps down if the ‘yes’ vote wins,” Marin Bouboura, a 38-year-old former banker who lost her job in the crisis and now works as a secretary, said in Athens.
Elizabeth Markos, a philosophy student sitting in a park in the capital, said she was “definitely voting ‘no.’”
“All the creditors care about is getting the money back; they are suffocating us. If we do not free ourselves, it will be the pensioners, the poor, the students who pay — and there will be no future for Greece,” she said.
NEW GOVERNMENT
The prospect of a new Greek government would bolster EU partners who say they are exasperated with what they describe as the “erratic behavior” of the current Greek administration.
“We are exhausted,” said one of the 18 eurozone finance ministers who had been negotiating bailout terms with Greece before its sudden referendum announcement on Friday last week.
“We tried right to the end to find a collective solution,” said the minister, who asked not be identified.
European Parliament President Martin Schulz told the German newspaper Passauer Neue Presse that Greece’s negotiating strategy was “very frustrating and disappointing, but especially dramatic for the Greek people.”
Tsipras’ changing tack so often “is really tiring and a lot of people have had enough,” he said.
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