JUST VOTE ‘NO’
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras addresses his nation Wednesday from his office in Athens. Mr. Tsipras urged Greeks to reject further austerity measures central to a proposed financial bailout in a referendum Sunday. While he has made overtures to the European Union for new talks on Greece’s debt crisis, euro group officials said no negotiations will take place before the vote.
ATHENS — European officials on Wednesday slammed the door on any further negotiations with Greece before a national referendum planned for Sunday, daring the Athens government to go ahead with a vote that holds peril for the country no matter which option Greeks choose.
“There will be no talks in the coming days,” Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselboem told reporters Wednesday evening. “We will simply await now the outcome of the referendum on Sunday.”
The hard-line European stance came on a day when Greek authorities had seemed to waver in their once-firm determination to proceed with the vote, and it appears to reflect an emerging European view that Athens is in a no-win situation.
The referendum, which Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced last weekend, will give Greek voters a chance to weigh in on the cuts Europe has demanded as a condition of financial rescue. But the exact stakes in the vote have been unclear since Greece’s old bailout program expired Tuesday, making the country the first developed nation to miss an International Monetary Fund repayment deadline.
The government has urged a “no” vote, a verdict that European officials say would trigger Greece’s exit from the euro zone. A “yes” vote could cause Mr. Tsipras’s government to collapse.
After insisting for days that Europe’s offer was intolerable, Mr. Tsipras sent a letter late Tuesday night to Greece’s main creditors in which he appeared to open a space for significant concessions in the cash-for-cutbacks standoff, suggesting that he could agree to the stringent austerity measures he once repudiated. His letter proposed some changes to EU demands but left in place many of the bloc’s most farreaching provisions, including fundamental reforms of the way Greece’s economy is organized.
With Greece now cut off from its financial lifelines, the proposal also reiterated a request for a new $32 billion bailout and more relief from Greece’s crushing debts than EU leaders have been prepared to offer.
The proposals were contained in a letter Mr. Tsipras wrote to the heads of the EU executive arm, the European Central Bank and the IMF.
Revived hope of a deal sent European stock markets higher after two days of downturns. Wall Street also rose.
Yet the prospect of an imminent breakthrough was almost immediately quashed by Greece’s main creditors, including economic powerhouse Germany, even as Washington continued to press for both sides to reach a compromise.
German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the latest Greek letter “did not provide further clarity” in the impasse and was “no basis” for resuming serious negotiations before the referendum. He went on to blast Mr. Tsipras’s government for dragging the country into deeper crisis since coming to power in January with a promise to fight further EU-imposed financial pressures.
“Greece is in a difficult situation, but purely because of the behavior of the Greek government,” Mr. Schaeuble said in a speech in the German Parliament’s lower house. “Seeking the blame outside Greece might be helpful in Greece, but it has nothing to do with reality.”