A key figure in this hardline group is Energy Minister Panagiotis Lafazanis, who believes a “strong “No” from the Greek people on Sunday will be above all a big “Yes” to an independent and sovereign Greece”.
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Mr. Tsipras said that a No vote in the referendum would boost Greece’s leverage in any new negotiations.
“If it’s the yes, even if it’s on the basis of proposals that have already expired, negotiations can resume and I imagine be quickly concluded”, he said during a visit to Cotonou, Benin.
The fund-a major institutional creditor to Athens-has long called for Greece to adhere to a strict reform program, but the left-wing government has resisted, and ended up missing its June 30 debt repayment of about 1.55 billion euros to the IMF.
More reassuring to those who want to see the Greeks face their financial responsibilities is the fact that this week the euro has more or less held its ground against the dollar, despite the seemingly endless speculation about the Greek situation in the media, among European leaders and in financial markets. “It’s up to the Greeks to respond”. The European Central Bank has been providing “emergency liquidity assistance” which allows Greeks to withdraw up to 60 euros a day from Greek cash machines, but the signs are that this limit will have to be reduced unless a deal is reached.
“All I know is that that we are all going insane here”, said Anisia Kaklamanou, among those waiting to get into a bank in central Athens.
Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told CNN he would resign if the vote goes that way; Tsipras has hinted he’ll quit too.
Sapin had been pushing for an agreement with Greece before Sunday’s referendum, but after a fruitless meeting of European finance ministers Wednesday, he conceded that there’s no point negotiating until after the vote.
However, there is no suggestion that they will defy the party line in favour of a No vote.
In a televised address earlier in the day, Tsipras seized on a report by the global Monetary Fund – which argued that Greece’s massive public debt could not be sustained without significant writedowns – as vindication of his rejection of the lenders’ terms.
“It’s more the perception, the psychology and the precedent”, he said, “if (the Greeks) do leave”.
Greece has gotten commitments of $244 billion from various countries and organizations as part of two bailouts, in 2010 and 2012, The Telegraph estimates.
“Tsipras is caught between different tendencies”, says Othon Anastasakis, director of the European studies centre at Oxford University. The Greek government says that argument is merely an attempt to terrorize the people into voting in favor of destructive austerity policies.
Greece has said its citizens have suffered enough with spending cuts and tax increases that have lowered their standard of living. “I’m in total agreement with (banks) closing”.
French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said Europe remains committed to avoiding “catastrophe” for Greece and keeping it in the eurozone.
If voters reject global bailout terms in Sunday’s vote, then “we are entering in an unknown zone, an economic slide”, Sapin warned.
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A “Yes” vote in the July 5 referendum means Greece would likely receive more bailouts and remain in the eurozone, but also undergo harsher austerity measures that have so far crippled the economy.
