“It’s now up to the government of Alexis Tsipras to offer serious, credible proposals so that this will can be turned into a programme which gives a long-term perspective, because Greece needs a long-term perspective in the euro zone with stable rules, as the euro zone itself does”. “If the Chancellor wants to secure her place in the history books, just like [Helmut] Kohl did during reunification, then she must forge a solution to the Greek question, including a debt conference where we can start with a clean slate”.
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He also said Greece leaving the Euro would have irreparable geopolitical implications for the continent “If someone has any illusion that it will not be so, they are naive”.
According to the European Commission the proposal did not include any cuts in salaries and pensions.
As Athens awoke after a night of celebration after the “No” camp won a closely-watched referendum on bailout terms, Greece’s firebrand finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, announced he was stepping down to try to ease friction with creditors.
Eurozone finance ministers are to meet on Tuesday followed by a full summit of eurozone leaders.
Germany, Finland, Slovakia and the Baltic states have taken a notably harder line, whereas France, Italy and Spain have adopted a more conciliatory tone.
In recent days, a host of top European officials, including the finance ministers of France and Luxembourg, have said discussion of a debt writedown should not be taboo. “In this context, the Governing Council decided today to adjust the haircuts on collateral accepted by the Bank of Greece for ELA”, the statement said without giving further details.
Senior eurozone officials were to hold talks on Monday to discuss the result, a European source told AFP.
Piketty’s pleas are likely to fall on deaf ears on Tuesday as European leaders meet in Brussels for what’s seen as the last chance to find a deal to prevent Greece from crashing out of the euro.
“But we continue to take heart in the fact that everyone who’s sitting around that table acknowledges that it’s in their collective interest for this to be resolved in that way”, Mr. Earnest said. “It would be the beginning of the end of the single currency”, he said.
He said the Bank of Greece was immediately asking the European Central Bank to inject emergency cash for Greece’s banks, which have been closed all week because of capital controls. They have also a democratic mandate to consider in their own countries. The global Monetary Fund and several other prominent critics have called for Germany to write off some of Greece’s debt, but German Chancellor Angela Merkel has refused to budge.
In April, during talks with its creditors, Athens had demanded repayment of $303 billion in reparations for the Nazi occupation of Greece, which was termed “dumb” by the German economy minister. The losses were not as great as some had feared, however, suggesting investors think that a Greek exit from the euro, while devastating for the country and destabilizing in Europe, would be manageable for the global economy.
The vote leaves Greece in uncharted waters, risking a banking collapse that could force it out of the euro.
The last EU-IMF bailout for Greece expired last Tuesday, despite Tsipras’s appeals for it to be extended.
The ongoing Greek drama hurt stocks around the world, particularly in Europe.
Obama spoke to both Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tspiras and German Chancellor Angela Merkel before the leaders gathered in Brussels.
“I stress that there is not lots of time left. It would blow the eurozone apart, for sure”, he added. They correctly recognized that, after large crises that created huge debt loads, at some point people need to look toward the future.
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“I won’t hide from you that I am very nervous and very anxious”.
