Greeks voted on Sunday whether to accept or reject the tough terms of an aid offer to stave off financial collapse, in a referendum that may determine their future in Europe\u2019s common currency.<\/p>\n
Held against a backdrop of default, shuttered banks and threats of financial apocalypse, the vote was too close to call and looked certain to herald yet more turbulence whichever way it went.<\/p>\n
The country of 11 million people is deeply divided over whether to accept an offer by international creditors that left-wing Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, elected in January on a promise to end years of crippling austerity, calls a \u201chumiliation\u201d.<\/p>\n
He is urging a resounding \u2018No\u2019, saying it would give him a strengthened mandate to return to negotiations and demand a better deal, including a writedown on Greece\u2019s massive debt.<\/p>\n
His European partners, however, say rejection would set Greece on a path out of the euro, with potentially far-reaching consequences for the global economy and Europe\u2019s grand project of an unbreakable union.<\/p>\n
“I voted ‘No’ to the ‘Yes’ that our European partners insist I choose,” said Eleni Deligainni, 43, in Athens. “I have been jobless for nearly four years and was telling myself to be patient … but we’ve had enough deprivation and unemployment.”<\/p>\n
Voting on whether to accept more taxes and pension cuts would be divisive in any nation at the best of times.<\/p>\n
In Greece, the choice is faced by an angry and exhausted population who, after five years of pension cuts, falling salaries and rising taxes, have now suffered through a week of capital controls imposed to prevent the collapse of the nation’s financial system.<\/p>\n
Pensioners besieging bank gates to claim their retirement benefits, only to leave empty-handed and in tears, have become a symbol of the nation’s dramatic fall over the past decade, from the heady days of the 2004 Athens Olympics to the ignominy of bankruptcy and bailout.<\/p>\n
Tsipras, a 40-year-old former student activist, has framed the referendum as a matter of national dignity and the future course of Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs of tomorrow we will have opened a new road for all the peoples of Europe,\u201d he said after voting in Athens, \u201ca road that leads back to the founding values of democracy and solidarity in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n
A \u2018No\u2019 vote, he said, \u201cwill send a message of determination, not only to stay in Europe but to live with dignity in Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n
Not everyone agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cDIGNITY\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cYou call this dignity, to stand in line at teller machines for a few euros?\u201d asked pensioner Yannis Kontis, 76, after voting in the capital. \u201cI voted ‘Yes’ so we can stay with Europe.\u201d<\/p>\n Polls close at 7 p.m. (1600 GMT), with the first official projection of the result expected at 9 p.m.<\/p>\n Four opinion polls published on Friday showed the ‘Yes’ vote marginally ahead. A fifth put the ‘No’ camp 0.5 percentage points in front. All were well within the margin of error.<\/p>\n Called at eight days\u2019 notice, the referendum offers Greece a \u2018Yes\u2019 or \u2018No\u2019 vote on a proposal that is no longer on the table.<\/p>\n Given the chaos of the past week, in which Greece became the first developed economy to default on a loan to the International Monetary Fund, a new bailout package would probably entail harsher terms than those on offer even last week.<\/p>\n Anxious Greeks rallying for a ‘Yes’ vote also say Greece has been handed a raw deal but that the alternative, a collapse of the banks and a return of the old drachma currency, would be far worse.<\/p>\n The \u2018No\u2019 camp says Greece cannot afford more of the austerity that has left one in four without a job.<\/p>\n If Greeks vote ‘Yes’ to the bailout, the government has indicated it will resign — triggering a new chapter of uncertainty as political parties try to cobble together a national unity government to keep talks with lenders going until elections are held.<\/p>\n European creditors have said a ‘Yes’ vote will resurrect hopes of aid to Greece. A \u2018No\u2019, they say, will represent rejection of the rules that bind the euro zone nations, leaving Greece to fend for itself.<\/p>\n \u201cIf they (Greeks) say \u2018No\u2019, they will have to introduce another currency after the referendum because the euro is not available as a means of payment,” Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, said in remarks broadcast on Germany\u2019s Deutschlandfunk radio on Sunday.<\/p>\n “And how are they going to pay salaries? How are they going to pay pensions? As soon as someone introduces a new currency, they exit the euro zone.\u201d<\/p>\n Much will depend on the European Central Bank, which on Monday morning will review its emergency liquidity line to Greek banks, keeping them afloat.<\/p>\n The ECB could decide to freeze the liquidity or cut it off altogether if Greeks vote \u2018No\u2019, or if Athens subsequently defaults on a bond redemption to the ECB on July 20.<\/p>\n An inconclusive result may sow further confusion, with the potential for violent protests.<\/p>\n “The nightmare result would be 51-49 percent in either direction,” a senior German official said. “And the chances of this are not insignificant.”<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Greeks voted on Sunday whether to accept or reject the tough terms of an aid offer to stave off financial collapse, in a referendum that may determine their future in Europe\u2019s common currency. Held against a backdrop of default, shuttered banks and threats of financial apocalypse, the vote was too close to call and looked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":131518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[14],"class_list":["post-131516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-papa-owusu-ankomah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=131516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/131518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=131516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=131516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=131516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}