Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called a referendum on austerity demands from foreign creditors on Saturday, rejecting an “ultimatum” from lenders and putting a deal that could determine Greece’s future in Europe to a popular vote.
The surprise call marked the most dramatic twist yet in five-month negotiations between Greece and its lenders, plunging the cash-strapped nation into uncharted waters and risking a default and capital controls as hopes for an agreement faded.
“Our responsibility is for the future of our country. This responsibility obliges us to respond to the ultimatum through the sovereign will of the Greek people,” Tsipras said in a televised address to the nation just after midnight.
Euro zone finance ministers were still due to meet at 1200 GMT (8.00 a.m. EDT) in Brussels to discuss the aid offer from the euro zone and the International Monetary Fund, just after the Greek parliament meets to approve the referendum decision.
Germany’s Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel urged Greece to reach a deal with creditors to give Greeks something to vote on.
“We’d be well advised not to dismiss this suggestion from Herr Tsipras out of hand and say ‘that’s just a trick’,” Gabriel told Deutschlandfunk radio. “But rather if the questions are clearly framed… then that could make sense.”
Tsipras, the 40-year-old novice prime minister, said he would respect the outcome of the vote. But he argued the lenders demands “clearly violate European social rules and fundamental rights”, would asphyxiate Greece’s flailing economy and aimed at the “humiliation of the entire Greek people”.
Government ministers emerging from the cabinet meeting in Athens said they were confident Greeks would vote no and reject the bailout demands, leaving open the question as to whether the country had other options beside leaving the euro.
QUEUES AT BANKS
The referendum call puts the country’s banking system into focus, though a deputy minister said there were no plans to impose capital controls and banks would open on Monday.
Soon after the address in the early hours of the morning, lines of up to 10 people were seen forming to withdraw cash from automated teller machines in some parts of Athens. Small groups of anti-establishment protesters threw petrol bombs and stones at police in an Athens neighborhood where protests are common.
The euro zone had offered to release billions in frozen aid if Greece accepted and implemented pension and tax reforms that are anathema to its leftist government, elected in January on a promise to end austerity.
Without the bailout funds, Athens is due to default on 1.6 billion euros in repayments to the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday, pushing Greece closer to being forced out of the euro, causing chaos for its economy and financial markets.
A default would not necessarily lead to Athens leaving the 19-nation single currency area, but is expected to pave the way for it, worrying European leaders who fear it would undermine the principle that membership is irrevocable.
Tsipras said he would ask euro zone finance ministers for an extension of Greece’s bailout program that ends on Tuesday by a few days to accommodate the referendum.
REUTERS
