Greece votes to reject international bailout terms

PanARMENIAN.Net - Greek voters decisively rejected Sunday, July 5, the terms of an international bailout.

According BBC News, the final result in the referendum, published by the interior ministry, was 61.3% "No", against 38.7% who voted "Yes".

Greece's governing Syriza party had campaigned for a "No", saying the bailout terms were humiliating.

Their opponents warned that this could see Greece ejected from the eurozone, and a summit of eurozone heads of state has now been called for Tuesday.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said late on Sunday that Greeks had voted for a "Europe of solidarity and democracy".

"As of tomorrow, Greece will go back to the negotiating table and our primary priority is to reinstate the financial stability of the country," he said in a televised address. "This time, the debt will be on the negotiating table," he added, saying that an International Monetary Fund assessment published this week "confirms Greek views that restructuring the debt is necessary".

But some European officials had said that a "No" would be seen as an outright rejection of talks with creditors.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who heads the eurozone's group of finance ministers, said the referendum result was "very regrettable for the future of Greece".

Germany's Deputy Chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, said renewed negotiations with Greece were "difficult to imagine". Tsipras and his government were taking the country down a path of "bitter abandonment and hopelessness", he told the Tagesspiegel daily.

Greece had been locked in negotiations with its creditors for months when the Greek government unexpectedly called a referendum on the terms it was being offered.

Banks have been shut and capital controls in place since last Monday, after the European Central Bank declined to give Greece more emergency funding.

Withdrawals at cash machines have been limited to €60 per day. Greece's latest bailout expired on Tuesday and Greece missed a €1.6bn payment to the IMF.

Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has said that with a "No" vote, Greek banks would reopen on Tuesday. He was due to meet senior Greek bankers late on Sunday. State Minister Nikos Pappas, a close ally of Tsipras, said it was "absolutely necessary" to restore liquidity to the banks now the referendum was over.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said he was consulting the leaders of eurozone member states, and would have a conference call with key EU officials and the ECB on Monday morning.

French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are scheduled to meet in Paris on Monday. A summit of eurozone heads of state has been called for Tuesday.