Greeks completely rejected conditions of a bailout package from international creditors on Sunday, throwing the future of the country’s euro zone membership into further doubt and deepening a standoff with lenders.
The anti-austerity campaign of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras won a resounding victory in Sunday’s referendum but heightened the financial crisis that could force Greece out of the euro zone, shattering the continent’s most ambitious integration project.
The final result in the referendum, published by the interior ministry, was 61.3% “No”, against 38.7% who voted “Yes”.
Greece’s governing Syriza party had campaigned for a “No”, saying the bailout terms were humiliating.
Their opponents warned that this could see Greece ejected from the eurozone, and a summit of eurozone heads of state has now been called for Tuesday.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said late on Sunday that Greeks had voted for a “Europe of solidarity and democracy”.
The outcome leaves Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in charge, with a clearer mandate to continue his strategy than he had Sunday morning. His message to his key interlocutors, including Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank president, will be simple and well supported by the outcome of the referendum: The Greek people will not abide a continuation of the austerity policies of the last five years. Make us a better offer.
In Athens, thousands of jubilant Greeks waving flags and bursting fire crackers poured into the city’s central square as official figures showed 61 percent of Greeks had rejected a deal that would have imposed more austerity measures on an already ravaged economy.
Stunned European leaders called a summit for Tuesday to discuss their next move after the surprisingly strong victory by the ‘No’ camp defied opinion polls that had predicted a tight contest.
Less evidently true was the contention by Mr. Tsipras that this outcome need not involve abandoning the euro. During the run-up to the vote, European leaders were shouting from the rooftops that rejecting the bailout offer would mean saying goodbye to the common currency, ushering in a volatile, dangerous era for Greece with far-reaching consequences.
Now we will find out whether they were bluffing.
The European creditors are exasperated by the Greek leaders, who cast aside many of the niceties of intra-European diplomacy in pursuing an aggressive negotiating style. (Hint: If you are negotiating with Germany seeking debt relief, bringing up Nazi war reparations, as Mr. Tsipras has,isn’t the most effective idea).
But the decision for European leaders isn’t whether they like or dislike Mr. Tsipras and his finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis. It is whether they believe the goals of maintaining a united Europe are worth yielding to Greece’s demands: maintaining a spigot of cash (through E.C.B. bank lending programs) and ultimately a new bailout that lets the Greeks write down meaningful debt and relax some of the cuts to pensions and government worker pay of past deals.
