Eurogroup says no new Greece talks as Tsipras sticks by referendum

Athens/Brussels  July 2 – Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras remained steadfast Wednesday in his plan to hold a referendum on creditors’ bailout demands, while eurozone finance ministers decided not to consider any aid requests until after the hotly debated vote.

Frantic negotiations have been under way ahead of Sunday’s planned vote, with some analysts predicting that a rejection of the creditors’ reform package could propel Greece out of the eurozone.

Tsipras said during a televised address to the nation that anyone equating a no-vote with a return to the drachma is “telling lies,” and repeated his call for people to vote against the measure.  

© dpa-International

PHOTO: Anxious pensioners line up outside Athens bank to withdraw cash – © Yannis Kolesidis, EPA

Telegraph

https://twitter.com/tsipras_eu/status/616677507186749442

An EU that allows this to happen to the citizens of a member state is an EU squandering all its moral capital http://t.co/IQ0TYWXBXI #Greece

— Tom Holland (@holland_tom) July 2, 2015

 Greece: Understands Three Default Issues

While negotiations between Athens and its creditors have not borne fruit, francetv info explains what a default with respect to the experiences of countries that have also experienced this situation.

Some Greek DrachmaProponents Include Nationalists –

Leftists –Profiteers – Youth

The financial markets are in chaos, Is Europe failing? Horror scenarios are circulating about Greece’s future. But in the country there are also profiteers.
The proponents of a euro exit at a glance. 
Athens, June 29 – All Greece fears for the fate of the euro? From because: Some Greeks approve a Grexit, some groups crave a return to the old currency actually brought. Which actor has what motives?  

BY IAN TRAYNOR and JENNIFER RANKIN

Athens June 30 – Greece was left alone, insolvent and almost bankrupt after five years of €240bn (£170bn) in European bailouts dried up and the country became the first in the EU to default on its creditors.

The long-running debt debacle left Greece on the brink of financial collapse, worsening recent years of wrenching austerity, and represented a historic blow to a Europe committed to the irreversibility of its 16-year-old single currency.

After stunning fellow EU leaders last Saturday by calling the referendum, Tsipras delivered his last-minute bombshell by writing to eurozone leaders demanding a new, separate two-year bailout hours before the current arrangements lapsed.

During a day of gambles, demands and standoffs , Tsipras’s aides remained in telephone contact with commission officials for most of Tuesday before the Greek leader delivered his final move.

He asked for bridging loans to get him through the IMF non-payment problem and for a new two-year programme covering almost €29bn in debt servicing costs as well as debt relief measures.

Any such arrangement would come with tight strings attached. Tsipras has already rejected the creditors’ terms. If he wins his no vote, the Germans and others believe he has burnt his boats and bid farewell to the euro. If he loses to a large yes vote, however, eurozone leaders would be keen to strike a new deal but not with Tsipras, whom they do not trust to deliver.

A new rescue package would take time to negotiate with no guarantees of a successful conclusion. An agreement on more loans for Greece would need to pass through several eurozone parliaments, including the Bundestag in Berlin where it would get a rough ride.

Since the weekend eurozone leaders desperate to avoid the blame for the departure of the first country from the currency have been declaring that the door remains open to more talks. Tsipras’s gambit on Tuesday tested the credibility of that pledge. But it appeared that it came too late.  Read more

The Guardian 

2015-30-2015