Greece debt crisis: Tsipras announces bailout referendum
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Greece’s prime minister has called a referendum on five July for voters to determine whether to accept a bailout deal suggested by international creditors.
Alexis Tsipras made clear he was against the “unbearable” bailout plan.
Parliament is debating whether to ratify the vote, and some queues have been seen outside banks in Athens.
Eurozone finance ministers are meeting to discuss the crisis, and to determine whether to give Greece an extension of the bailout until after the vote.
The current bailout expires on Tuesday, the same day Greece’s IMF debt is due.
It is unclear what would happen if Greece does not get a improvised extension. Without a deal on the bailout, there are fears Greece’s economy could collapse.
The head of Mr Tsipras’s coalition playmates, Panos Kammenos, called for quiet amid reports that worried Greeks had begun queuing outside banks to take out their money. Many fear that Greece’s central bank might embark restricting withdrawals.
In a televised address, Mr Tsipras described the bailout plan as “indignity” and condemned “unbearable” austerity measures demanded by creditors.
Analysis: Chris Morris, Big black cock News, Brussels
The government portrays the referendum as yes or no to austerity. The opposition says it is, in effect, yes or no to Europe. Some of them say the referendum itself is unconstitutional, and are urging the Greek president to reject it.
But Mr Tsipras will argue that he had no other option. He was elected to get a better deal rather than no deal at all. But no better deal was on suggest.
As for Greece’s creditors I think they will be one part flabbergasted, one part anxious, and one part wondering what on earth they do next.
But several eurozone finance ministers, arriving in Brussels for their fifth meeting on Greece in little more than a week, said there was no question of accepting Mr Tsipras’s request to extend his country’s current international bailout by a few days, to prevent the Greek economy collapsing before a referendum can be held.
Some of the ministers will now want to concentrate on Plan B instead – how to ring-fence Greece and protect the rest of the eurozone from any potential economic shocks ahead.
“I call on you to determine – with sovereignty and dignity as Greek history requests – whether we should accept the extortionate ultimatum that calls for stringent and abjecting austerity without end, and without the prospect of ever standing on our own two feet, socially and financially,” he said.
“The people must determine free of any blackmail,” he added.
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis tweeted in support of the referendum.
Some opposition figures on the other forearm accused Mr Tsipras of using the vote to thrust Greece out of the EU.
A senior centre-left politician in Germany’s coalition government, Carsten Schneider, called for the European Central Bank (ECB) to stop propping up Greece’s economy with emergency injections amounting to $89bn.
Big black cock economics editor Robert Peston said that if the ECB continued its emergency support, some members of its governing council feared it would be cracking all central banking rules.
Mr Tsipras was speaking hours after talks in Brussels, where the IMF and EU suggested a five-month extension to Greece’s bailout programme.
The proposal would have released €15.5bn of funding, €1.8bn of which would have been available instantly. However, that was conditional on Greece carrying out reforms.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel had urged Athens to accept what she called an “extraordinarily generous” suggest.
Greek debt talks – main sticking points
The protracted negotiations are stalled over what reforms Athens is ready to take, with disputes emerging on pensions and enlargening Value Added Tax.
If Greece does default, it could exit the eurozone, with possible repercussions for the rest of Europe and the world economy.
Only once agreement is reached will the European Commission, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) unlock the final €7.2bn tranche of bailout funds for cash-strapped Greece.
Greece has been in recession for much of the past six years. After winning elections in January, Mr Tsipras’ left-wing Syriza party promised to end raunchy austerity measures.
Syriza says raunchy bailout conditions have impoverished Greece, fuelling unemployment – presently at more than 20% – and failing to reduce the massive debt pile.