Luis de Guindos, Spain’s economy minister, said that “if the “no” vote wins, we will continue to be open to talks”, reported the Associated Press news agency.
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Greece failed to meet a midnight deadline on Tuesday for making a roughly 1.6-billion euro payment to the global Monetary Fund, sending the nation into greater financial turmoil.
With shifting positions and negotiating tactics becoming an nearly daily occurrence, European creditors appear to want to wait until after the referendum for the Greek position to become clearer.
European officials and the Greek opposition have warned a “No” outcome Sunday could be tantamount to a decision to leave the euro.
In Athens, crowds of anxious elderly Greeks thronged banks beginning before dawn Wednesday, struggling to withdraw their maximum of 120 euros ($134) for the week after the government reopened some banks to help pensioners who don’t have bank cards.
Mulling her response, 64-year-old retiree Eleni Maili said: “I can’t vote “yes” or “no” – both have their pitfalls”.
“I don’t know if we’ll get a deal”.
“You can’t in all honesty expect us to talk with them in a situation like this”, he added. Under that proposal, Tsipras would need to accept the creditors’ proposal that was on the table last weekend.
Meanwhile, poll conducted between June 24 and 26 by Greek newspapers suggested almost 60 percent of Greeks would vote “Yes” in the Sunday referendum in favor of accepting Eurozone terms, according to the Telegraph.
With the previous eurozone bailout expired, Greece no longer has access to billions of euros in funds.
“If there is a “no” vote, it would be very hard to start new bailout negotiations”, said Vassilis Monastiriotis, professor of political economy at the London School of Economics.
Hopes for an 11th-hour deal were raised when the Greek side announced it had submitted a new proposal Tuesday afternoon, and the eurozone’s 19 finance ministers held a teleconference to discuss it.
On Monday, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker made a new offer to Greece.
“That suggestion is simply wrong”, Dijsselbloem told lawmakers in the Netherlands.
– If Greece and the Eurogroup agree terms, the countries of the euro zone must approve lending which would be guaranteed by their own treasuries. “And we take all governments, duly elected…as the legitimate partner in the negotiations”.
She said Tsipras took too long to shut down the banks.
Another dissenter, Vassilis Kokkalis, said he had not been elected on a mandate to close banks, and called for the referendum to be scrapped. “The queues are nothing next to all the suicides, the soup kitchens and the homeless on the streets of Athens”.
“It is our duty to keep Greece in the eurozone”, he said.
Mr Tsipras said: “A “No” vote is a decisive step towards a better agreement that we aim to sign right after Sunday’s result”.
The main gist of the point-by-point case for “no” is that the Eurogroup of European finance ministers should (Point 2) – and in fact already did, in the view of the Greek government (Point 3) – promise to restructure the debt owed by Athens (Point 4).
After the meeting, however, the finance chiefs decided not to negotiate any more ahead of the Sunday vote.
Varoufakis today insisted that Greece’s banks will be able to open without difficulty on Tuesday, after the planned closure is completed.
In an interview with Bloomberg Thursday, Varoufakis said he would rather “cut off his arm” than accept an austerity debt deal that does not include restructuring and debt relief.
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Business associations and the country’s largest labor union urged the government to cancel the referendum, while two private citizens have appealed to the Council of State, the country’s highest court, to rule the vote unconstitutional.
