Greeks will be asked on Sunday to accept or reject proposals made by creditors last week.
Advertisement
“Official Europe” would also vote “No”, since they are in favour of restructuring Greece’s debt.
“Come Monday, the Greek government will be at the negotiating table after the referendum with better terms for the Greek people”, Tsipras said.
Greece’s finance minister Yanis Varoufakis told Australian radio his country was on a “war footing” to get the referendum ready in time.
The government’s failure on Tuesday to make a €1.5 billion loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund has also focused minds.
German MP of The Left Party, Gregor Gysi, slammed Merkel saying that the Chancellor has been trying to silence the critics of the austerity policy.
Greece offered more concessions to its creditors, but was rebuffed – Eurozone finance ministers refused to negotiate any more aid until the referendum clears up what the country wants. The country has put limits on cash withdrawals to keep banks from collapsing after Greeks rushed to pull money out of ATMs following the referendum call at the start of the weekend.
“I don’t have a lot of money, but I have to buy medicine”.
So far, the Greek crisis has had relatively little impact on the markets, suggesting contagion from a possible Greek departure from the Eurozone – a “Grexit” – will be contained. The rest said they would abstain or leave their ballots blank. The strategy is built on the idea that keeping Greece in the euro zone is less painful for the European Union than a potentially messy break.
Greece has suffered its fourth ratings downgrade this week, as Moody’s investors service slashed the country’s rating from Caa2 to Caa3, or just above default. He said he would “rather cut my arm off” than sign a new accord that doesn’t restructure Greece’s outstanding debt.
There are news reports today that Greece and its creditors are in last-minute contacts, but what that portends is unclear.
While there is no legal mechanism to directly force Greece out of the eurozone, it could end up as a zombie member with no euros, analysts say.
Revived hopes for a deal sent European stock markets higher after two days of downturns.
“The world is watching us”.
“The future of Europe is not at stake”, Xinhua news agency quoted her as saying. But French President Francois Hollande urged an accord before then.
Euro zone finance ministers were due to discuss the Greek request on a conference call at 1530 GMT, but the initial reaction from ministers and senior officials was that the letter contained elements that ministers will find hard to accept.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced a referendum, to be held Sunday, which will allow the Greeks to vote yes or no to worldwide creditor demands for spending cuts and tax rises.
It adds that Greece would permanently lose access to financing from the European Central Bank, which would create a serious foreign currency shortage for the private and public sectors.
It was the ECB’s decision on Sunday to refuse to increase emergency funding for Greek banks that pushed Athens to close lenders for a week and impose the capital controls.
Meanwhile, Argentinian President Cristina Kirchner compared the crisis in Greece to her own country’s debt default in 2001, in the latest expression of solidarity from the Latin American nation.
Advertisement
Yet the prospect of an imminent breakthrough was nearly immediately quashed by Greece’s main creditors, including economic powerhouse Germany, even as Washington continued to press for both sides to reach a compromise.
