Greeks ‘going crazy’
Chaos in advance of debt vote
ATHENS — In the shade of oak trees in a dusty Athens park, a fierce debate is raging: Is it better to vote “no” in Sunday’s referendum and unshackle Greece from its creditors, or say “yes” to a European bailout?
Orange posters urging a “no” vote line the streets, the word “OXI” (no in Greek) in large letters, and toward evening, groups of youngsters target the city’s bars and clubs with fliers urging people to defy the creditors.
“All I know is that we are all going crazy here,” said Anisia Kaklamanou, among those waiting to get into a bank in central Athens. “And I don’t know what to do on Sunday. Vote yes? Vote no? I don’t know. All I know is that I have 120 euros to get by until whenever the banks open.”
Many Greeks say they will be casting their ballots to end the budget cuts and tax increases imposed in return for bailout loans from other eurozone countries and the IMF.
“I was going to vote no because I think the Greek people are being treated with contempt. But Tsipras has made the situation so much worse — it’s his fault the banks are closed,” said shop assistant Suzanna Alizoti of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
The controls mean ordinary Greeks can withdraw just $67 a day. With many cash points running out of money, people queueing for hours at a time can come away emptyhanded.
“I have worked hard, saved hard and I support my parents with my savings. And now I can’t even ac cess my money? We need new jobs, new investments, not more chaos,” Alizoti, 32, said.
Pensioner Koula Makri, standing in a bank line, said, “We’ve been going through this crisis over the last five years and we had nothing to eat, our pensions and our wages have been slashed, and some made a profit off us.”
She said Tsipras took too long to shut down the banks: “I’m in total agreement with [banks] closing. The queues are nothing next to all the suicides, the soup kitchens and the homeless on the streets of Athens.”
Tsipras has a vote against the latest bailout deal offered by European governments, the European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, slamming their conditions as “humiliating.”
But since the government enforced capital controls this week — including the bank closures and cash limits — anger has been growing.
Five years of austerity have bled the country dry, but it is Tsipras and his radical left Syriza party that are blamed for inflicting this latest pain on exhausted Greeks, and some potential “no” voters are now sliding over to “yes.”
Confusion also reigns over what the referendum is about — or whether there is any point to it at all. Many people agree with EU leaders, who say it is a vote on whether Greece wants to remain in the European Union. But the government says the vote simply asks Greeks if they want to accept tough austerity conditions demanded by the international creditors.
With only two days to go before the referendum, Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has said the government is “on a war footing” to ensure ballot papers reach even the nation’s farthestflung islands in time.
“All the creditors care about is getting the money back, they are suffocating us,” said student Elizabeth Markos. “If we don’t free ourselves, it will be the pensioners, the poor, the students who pay, and there will be no future for Greece.”