The Greek referendum begins

'Yes' or 'No': Greece votes in crucial bailout referendum

The polls have opened in Greece as the crisis-hit country votes in a referendum on whether to accept the harsh bailout demands of its international creditors and, consequently, its future in the eurozone and the EU.

RT,

5 July, 2015

A total of 4,800 polling stations across the country opened at 7:00 am local time (4:00 GMT) and will close at 7:00 pm, with first results expected after 9:00 pm.

Approximately 9.9 million Greeks are eligible to participate in the vote, which was labeled #Greferendum by the social media.

A turnout of at least 40 percent is required for the results of the plebiscite to be vlid.

Voters are handed two ballots as they enter the booths – one contains the referendum question and the other, for those who wish to abstain, is blank.

“Should the deal draft that was put forward by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund in the Eurogroup of June 25, 2015, consisting of two parts, that together form a unified proposal, be accepted?” the question reads.

The people are asked to put “+” in either ‘No’ or ‘Yes’ boxes, while the use of any other symbol makes the ballot invalid.

With the country’s economy on the brink of default, the interior ministry said that the vote cost around €25 million to hold, which is half the cost of January’s general election that brought the current anti-austerity government to power.

Sunday’s referendum in Greece was called by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras last week in order to add more clout to his negotiating position in the ongoing talks with the Troika of global lenders – the European Central Bank (ECB), European Commission (EC), and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The negotiations have been stalled since June 25, after creditors declined to prolong a financial aid program for the struggling country or delay payments on earlier debts.

Speaking in front of a 25,000-strong rally in Athens on Friday, Tsipras urged the crowd to say a “proud ‘No’ to ultimatums” by the lenders, stressing that the plebiscite is about “staying in Europe, and deciding to live in dignity in Europe.”

Greek economic minister, Yanis Varoufakis, went a step further on Saturday, describing the actions of the Troika as “terrorism.”

“What they are doing with Greece has a name: terrorism,” Varoufakis told Spanish El Mundo paper.“Why have they forced us to close the banks? To make people frightened. And when it comes to spreading terror, this phenomenon is called terrorism.”

He said the country’s creditors want the people to say “Yes” to the bailout terms, so that “they could humiliate the Greeks.”

If the Greeks do vote ‘Yes,’ Tsipras’s government is likely to resign, and Greece will have to accept more austerity measures, including pension cuts and tax increases.

A ‘No’ vote, on the other hand, may lead to Greece’s exit from the eurozone, and potentially the EU, raising questions about the euro as a viable currency.
Four opinion polls published on Friday showed that the “Yes” and “No” camps were running neck and neck ahead of the vote.

A survey published by To Ethnos newspaper two days ahead of the referendum revealed that 41.5 percent would back the bailout terms and 40.2 percent would reject the Troika’s demands.

Merkel OXI-ed: Greek solidarity protesters heckle chancellor's speech

Greeks begin voting in referendum as the euro faces its biggest challenge

Almost 9.9 million Greeks have the right to vote in Sunday’s plebiscite on whether the country should accept the terms of its creditors

the Guardian,

5 July, 2015

Greeks began voting in a referendum on Sunday that presents the biggest challenge to the running of the euro since its adoption and risks sending shock waves through the world’s financial markets.

The nationwide ballot was taking place at the end of a week of unending drama that saw Greece close its banks, ration cash, fail to repay the IMF and lose billions of euros when its bailout programme expired. The vote is on the last terms offered to Greece before its prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, abandoned talks with his country’s lenders last weekend, saying their conditions would only exacerbate the plight of a country whose economy has already shrunk by a quarter.

At a rally in the centre of Athens on Friday night, Tsipras urged his compatriots to cast a no ballot, assuring them it would not be a vote for leaving the euro, but for remaining in Europe “with dignity”. Greece’s creditors and most of the opposition parties have claimed that, on the contrary, it could lead to exit from the single market (“Grexit”) and even the European Union.

Almost 9.9 million Greeks have the right to vote in the referendum, which the interior ministry said would cost less than half the amount spent on the general election in January that brought Tsipras’s Syriza party into office in a coalition with the populist, nationalist Anel party.

Among the many imponderables was the impact of votes cast by Greeks living abroad. Under the same rules that govern elections, expatriates must return to the country if they are to cast valid ballots. There was evidence that large numbers of Greeks living abroad were coming back for the referendum and that most leaned towards voting yes.

The prime minister’s decision to call the vote prompted outrage among opposition politicians who favour a yes vote. They have argued that the offer on which the referendum is based was withdrawn when the bailout programme ran out and that Syriza has rigged the ballot by putting both options on one ballot sheet with the no option first. But a claim that the vote was unconstitutional was thrown out by Greece’s highest court on Friday.

Polling stations will be open from 7am local time until 7pm (5pm British summer time). The first results are expected around 9pm.

Opinion polls have given contradictory results and none has shown a clear majority for either option. But they have all shown an overwhelming majority of Greeks – around three-quarters – want their country to keep the euro.

A no vote is supported by both the parties in government and the neo-NaziGolden Dawn party. The centre-right opposition New Democracy party has campaigned for a yes vote as have Pasok and To Potami, both of the centre-left.

In a surprise development on the eve of polling, the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble – until now even more of a hardliner than his chancellor, Angela Merkel – turned a more conciliatory face towards Greece. Having previously insisted that a no vote on the lenders’ last terms would see their country forced out of the euro, Schäuble told the Bild newspaper that the choice before them on Sunday was between holding on to the euro and being “temporarily without it”. It was far from clear what Schäuble had in mind, but economists have mooted the notion of a period in which Greece might go back to its national currency, the drachma, while its economy recovered.

With pharmacists in Athens reporting that the government had rationed the distribution of drugs, and fears being raised of food shortages within weeks, the finance minister of Europe’s biggest economy said: “It is clear that we will not leave the [Greek] people in the lurch.” Schäuble’s last-minute intervention appeared to favour the no camp’s argument that the vote is not on membership of the euro.

The German minister’s tone was strikingly at odds with that of his charismatic but controversial Greek counterpart, Yanis Varoufakis, who turned up the heat before the ballot by accusing Greece’s creditors of terrorism.

“Why did they force us to close the banks?” he asked in an interview published by the Spanish daily El Mundo. “To instil fear in people. And spreading fear is called terrorism.”

Rallies in support of Greece were held in several European capitals on Saturday. Others were also held in Britain: in London, Liverpool and Edinburgh.

Several economists warned that financial markets were underestimating the risks of a no vote – and even of a yes vote. In a reference to the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers – the spark that detonated global recession – Megan Greene, chief economist of the Canadian asset management firm Manulife, said: “Grexit would be a Lehman-type event, but with a much slower fuse.”

EU warns of Armageddon if Greek voters reject terms

"Without new money, salaries won't be paid, the health system will stop functioning, the power network and public transport will break down," warns President of European Parliament

Greek referendum: Germany says it won’t leave Greece in the lurch

German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, appears to bolster No vote in last-minute intervention on Saturday

Investors around the world held their breath on Saturday as 10 million Greeks prepared to vote in a referendum that presents the biggest challenge to the euro since its adoption.

After more than five months of eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation between Alexis Tsipras’s radical left-led government and Greece’s creditors, and with only hours to go before voting began, one of the most hawkish of the lenders appeared to blink. Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, until now even more of a hardliner than his chancellor Angela Merkel, suddenly turned a more conciliatory face towards Athens.

Having previously insisted that a No vote on the lenders’ last terms would see their country forced out of the euro, Schäuble told the Bild newspaper that the choice before them on Sunday was between holding on to the euro and being “temporarily without it”.

It was far from clear what Schäuble had in mind, but economists have mooted the notion of a period in which Greece might go back to its national currency, the drachma, while its economy recovered.

With pharmacists in Athens reporting that the government had rationed the distribution of drugs, and fears being raised of food shortages within weeks, the finance minister of Europe’s biggest economy said: “It is clear that we will not leave the [Greek] people in the lurch.”

What effect Schäuble’s last-minute intervention may have on the vote is impossible to gauge. But it appears to favour the No camp.....

Finally, on a lighter note, Monty Python had something to say about German-Greek relations....