‘Yes’ and ‘No’ voters worlds apart in sleepy Greek town
Torn between rejecting austerity and possible return of drachma
ARGOS, Greece: In the sleepy town of Argos in southern Greece, the ‘No’ and ‘Yes’ camps ahead of a historic bailout referendum are worlds apart. For one it’s about rejecting austerity, the other is haunted by a possible return of the drachma.
The leftist government has called for tomorrow’s vote in order to ask Greeks whether or not they want to accept the sacrifices demanded by the country’s international creditors in exchange for bailout funds. But European leaders have insisted the referendum is effectively a vote on staying with, or exiting from, the eurozone. “The ‘ Yes’ is going to win because people are afraid. People want the euro and not the drachma,” retiree Magdalini told AFP, referring to the currency used in Greece before it joined the euro-zone in 2001. “That’s why I’m going to vote ‘Yes’,” she said, despite low-key campaigning by the ‘No’ camp in the main square.
Young unemployed teacher Litsa, who supports Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s radical left Syriza party, said: “I’m going to vote ‘ No’, because the vote is not going to determine whether or not we stay in Europe.” Surrounded by fields of olive trees, chirping crickets hidden in the long grass, Argos lies around 130 kilometers (80 miles) west of Athens in the lush Peloponnese region, and is famous for its lemons. The questions being debated-in cafes, on street benches, in supermarkets among its 20,000 inhabitants are being echoed in cities, mountain hamlets and island villages across the country.
‘Europe is our motherland’ If Greece leaves the euro-zone “we will lose our jobs, we will lose everything, the situation is critical,” said a jewellery shop assistant who didn’t want to give her name, adding that she’d had no customers since Saturday.
That was the day talks with the creditors descended into chaos-and by Monday the government had been forced into damage control mode, closing banks and capping ATM withdrawals.
Argos is rich in many ways: fertile agricultural land, the sparkling blue sea just five kilometres away. But if things get very bad, this shop assistant is thinking of emigrating to Canada, where she has relatives.
Costa Golemis, who used to own a marble business before he retired, said “‘Yes’ is synonymous with the future,” and insisted Greece belongs within the euro-zone and Europe because of its geographical location. “Europe is our motherland. Who are we going to go with if we leave Europe?
With Venezuela? With the former communist countries?” he said. Tsipras’s government has staked their future on the outcome of the July 5 referendum-but like many Greeks, Golemis said the plebiscite should not be taking place at all.
“The prime minister was given a mandate to resolve Greece’s problems. Unfortunately, he’s trying to transfer responsibility to the Greek people to know what to do,” he said.
There have been widespread grumblings as well over the formulation of the referendum question, which is labored and highly technical, with fears the elderly in particular risk being left confused.
‘Only interested in money’ But Dimitris Kodelas, Syriza MP for the Argolide region, said the real danger was people believing it was a vote on the euro-something he said was an “unacceptable” portrayal by EU leaders tantamount to “blackmail”.
“The question posed by the government is clear: do you accept the deal with the Eurogroup and (European Commission head Jean-Claude) Juncker, which will lead the country into a catastrophe worse than the one lived through in the past five years?” Syriza supporter Costas Deligiannis said Europe was “only interested in money, not productivity”. “We want a democratic Europe, not a Europe which crushes us!” he said, complaining that years of bailout-imposed austerity measures were forcing young Greeks to emigrate to Germany to find work. ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ camps here may be divided over what they are actually voting on. But they are united on one thing: everyone wants to keep the euro. “The government doesn’t want to take us out of the euro, that’s not in its interest,” said Tasos, a 55-year-old taxi driver. “The country needs a reduction of its debt to give it room to breathe.” Litsa insists that whatever way you look at it, with sky-high unemployment figures and growing poverty, another bout of force-fed austerity is not what the country needs. “It’s not a solution.” —AFP