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1) Defiant Tsipras issues call to reject "insulting bailout" in referendum The parliament approved Alexis Tsipras' motion for a referendum next Sunday, with the PM issuing a defiant call of rejection of the "insulting bailout offer". Times of Change, Greece, June 28 (Reuters, AMNA) <http://www.thetoc.gr/eng/politics/article/defiant-tsipras-issues-call-to-reject-insulting-bailout-in-referendum> In the early hours of Sunday, the Greek parliament approved a motion to hold a referendum on the proposals submitted by the institutions to the government on July 5. Voting by roll call vote, 178 lawmakers approved the motion, 120 were against, while two were absent, Parliament President Zoi Konstantopoulou announced. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras issued a defiant call on Greeks to reject an "insulting" bailout offer from foreign creditors in the referendum. "The day of truth is coming for the creditors, the time when they will see that Greece will not surrender, that Greece is not a game that has ended," he said in an address to parliament laced with references to democracy and national dignity. "I am certain that the Greek people will rise to the historical circumstances and issue a resounding 'No' to the ultimatum," he said as he wound up the debate before a vote to authorize the referendum. “We will all respect the result. We will defend democracy, popular sovereignty and the founding values of Europe,” Tsipras told lawmakers, while adding that the government will not ask permission by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble or Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem to allow the people to have their say and secure democracy in the country it was born. He criticized the exclusion of Finance Minister Vanis Varoufakis by the second Eurogroup meeting earlier today, saying “this day will go down in our common European story as gloomy, not only because some decided outside and beyond any institutional process to block an equal partner from a meeting, but also because finance ministers questioned the right of a sovereign country to decide on its future democratically.” Earlier in the House debate, former Conservative Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said the July 5th referendum proposed by the ruling Syriza government on the country's bailout terms would end up thrusting Greece out of the euro zone. "In the referendum, it's not really the deal that is being decided; it's the fate of our country in staying in the euro," Samaras said during the heated late-night debate in parliament. 2.a) Greek MPs approve referendum as lenders see difficulties ahead I Kathimerini, Athens, June 28 (Reuters & Bloomberg) <http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_28/06/2015_551603> Greek lawmakers on Sunday authorized Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' proposed July 5th bailout referendum, setting Greece on course for a plebiscite that has enraged international creditors and increased Greece's chances of exiting the euro zone. The government easily passed the 151-vote threshold needed to authorize the referendum, with deputies from the far right Golden Dawn voting with the government and pro-European opposition parties New Democracy, PASOK and To Potami and the KKE Communist Party voting against. . . . European partners have reacted negatively to the announcement of the referendum. On Saturday, they rejected a request by Tsipras to extend the current bailout in order to cover the period leading up to the referendum. The rejection means Athens is likely to default on a key payment to the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday. Meeting in Brussels Saturday evening after rejecting Greece’s request to extend its aid program beyond June 30, eurozone finance ministers said the cash-strapped nation will need to take steps to protect its banks. The European Central Bank, which has kept the nation afloat, is set to discuss Sunday whether to pull the plug on its emergency lending, leaving the country with no backstop. “Monday could be a bank holiday” in Greece, Ireland’s Michael Noonan told reporters. “It’s not a question of waiting to see what might happen on Monday in terms of crisis. The crisis has commenced.” . . . Public opinion is at odds with Tsipras, according to a survey published Saturday. Two-thirds say Greece should remain in the euro area and 57.5 percent say the government should back down to reach a deal with creditors, the Kapa Research poll for To Vima newspaper showed. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister and head of the Eurogroup, told reporters in Brussels that Varoufakis had requested a one-month extension. With “no comprehensive package agreed” to by ministers, Dijsselbloem said the Greek government faces the expiry of its aid program on Tuesday night without any future financing in place. In the coming days, “Greece will experience acute difficulties,” German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told reporters in a briefing that ended with him shrugging his shoulders. . . . Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis said that his government rejected the latest offer by creditors -- the European Commission, the ECB and the International Monetary Fund -- to unlock aid in return for more fiscal austerity because the package gave no hope that Greece would emerge from the economic crisis. He said the measures, ranging from cuts in pensions to wage curbs, have been “quite clear failures” since Greece first sought aid in 2010, leading to twin bailouts worth 240 billion euros ($268 billion). Still, Varoufakis said, it’s possible that a majority of Greeks will vote in the referendum to accept the creditors’ plan. It’s not clear, though, whether those proposals will still be on offer by then. IMF chief Christine Lagarde told the BBC late on Saturday that “legally speaking, the referendum will relate to proposals and arrangements that are no longer valid.” Greece is due to make a payment to the IMF of about 1.5 billion euros on June 30. If that is missed,“Greece no longer has access to funding,” Lagarde said. The ECB has increased Emergency Liquidity Assistance in weekly and sometimes daily increments to the Greek central bank to funnel to the country’s lenders amid a slow-motion bank run. The total stood at almost 89 billion euros as of Friday, up from less than 60 billion euros in February. While any decision to rein in ELA requires a two-thirds majority in the 25-member Governing Council, that may not be hard to achieve should ECB chief Mario Draghi back it. He would already have weighty support from Germany’s Jens Weidmann. The Bundesbank president said on Thursday that ELA for Greece raises “serious” concerns over monetary financing of governments, which is illegal under European Union law, as Greek banks regularly roll over about 9 billion euros of short-term government debt. 2.b) Greece closer to euro exit as bailout extension rejected by Peter Spiegel and Alex Barker in Brussels Financial Times, June 27 <http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/94fd2ff2-1cde-11e5-ab0f-6bb9974f25d0.html> Greece took a major step towards exiting the EU’s common currency on Saturday after eurozone finance ministers rejected Athens’ request to extend its bailout programme through next week’s surprise referendum, a decision that officials acknowledged would unleash significant economic turmoil. . . . Mr Dijsselbloem suggested even if Greece voted to approve the bailout plan it would be hard for its eurozone partners to continue to trust Mr Tsipras’s leftwing Syriza government to implement it — hinting a new government would be necessary. “If a government has spoken so negatively about the package and approach, then there is little credibility that even after a ‘yes’ [vote] that it would implement it in a right and conscientious way,” Mr Dijsselbloem told reporters after the Greek delegation left the meeting. “If a ‘yes’, who are we trusting, who are we working with to then implement that programme?” In the clearest sign yet that eurozone officials are anticipating significant economic upheaval in Greece, Mr Dijsselbloem said “the situation in Greece will deteriorate very rapidly” without a bailout agreement in place. At a post-meeting news conference, Mr Varoufakis appeared taken aback that his colleagues had cut off talks and allowed the programme to expire, saying he had anticipated negotiating up until the referendum vote so that his government could eventually campaign in favour of the deal. “We didn’t have a mandate to sign a non-viable, unsustainable proposal,” he said. “If the Greek people wanted us to sign on the dotted line, we would — even if that meant a government reshuffle or some other kind of configuration at the level of government.” A key issue now will be the continued functioning of the Greek financial system. The European Central Bank, which must approve emergency loans to keep Greek banks open, said its governing council would meet “in due course” to discuss the situation. “The ECB is closely monitoring developments,” it said. One person familiar with the matter said a teleconference had been scheduled for Sunday morning between the Bank of Greece and the ECB to discuss options for possible capital controls to be imposed from Monday. One option would be to declare a bank holiday, rather than formal restrictions on capital movements, until a referendum was held. But Mr Varoufakis told Reuters banks should stay open during the referendum period. The government has the final say on capital controls. 3.a) Greece Referendum: First Polls Show Greeks Favor Agreement by Anastasios Papapostolou The Greek Reporter, June 28 <http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/06/28/greece-referendum-polls-greeks-favor-agreement-yes> Although Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras urged Greeks to not approve the creditor’s bailout agreement terms, the first polls in Greece find that most Greeks favor the deal even if it includes a new memorandum. In a poll conducted by Alco for the Greek newspaper ‘Proto Thema’, 57% of the participants said they would vote yes in the upcoming referendum, favoring a deal. Another poll conducted by Kapa Research for ‘To Vima’ found that 47% of the population will vote yes approving the agreement, while 33% will vote ‘NO.’ According to the referendum, voters will be asked to respond to the following question: “Greek people are hereby asked to decide whether they accept a draft agreement document submitted by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, at the Eurogroup meeting held on June 25.” Those citizens who reject the institutions’ proposal will vote, “Not Approved / NO”, while those citizens who accept the institutions’ proposal will vote, “Approved / YES”, according to the cabinet proposal. The referendum will take place in voting booths through secret ballot in a similar manner to general elections. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. on July 5 while the results will be announced the following day. 3.b) IMF Won’t Help Greece If Payment Missed, Lagarde Says by Mehul Srivastava and Andrew Mayeda Bloomberg Business, June 27 http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-06-28/imf-won-t-help-greece-if-payment-missed-lagarde-says International Monetary Fund officials, stung by the breakdown of negotiations over a new European bailout package for Greece, won’t provide further aid if the Greeks miss a payment due to the IMF on June 30, Managing Director Christine Lagarde said. Lagarde, in an interview with the BBC, also said a referendum scheduled in Greece for July 5 will be asking voters to weigh creditors’ proposals that are no longer under consideration. “I can’t speak for the IMF program, because the IMF program is on, but the European financial arrangement expires June 30,” she said. “So, at least legally speaking, the referendum will relate to proposals and arrangements that are no longer valid.” If Greece doesn’t make the $1.7 billion payment due to the IMF on June 30, it won’t have access to funding until it clears up its debts, she said, reiterating the fund’s policy on arrears. The IMF also wouldn’t help Greek banks with their immediate liquidity needs, which would have to be met by the European Central Bank and the Bank of Greece. With Greece on the brink, talks with the IMF broke down over differences on pensions and taxes, and whether Greece’s plan to reach fiscal targets is credible. Negotiations could be revived if Greek voters defy their leaders and show they want to stay in the euro zone, Lagarde said. “If there was a resounding ‘yes, we want to stay in the euro for good, we want to be part of that, we want to restore the status of the economy, we want to be sustainable in the long run,’ there would be a resounding ‘let us try,’” she said. 3.c) ND's Samaras to meet President Pavlopoulos on Sunday I Kathimerini, Athens, June 27 (Reuters) <http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_1_27/06/2015_551597> Greek conservative opposition leader Antonis Samaras will hold talks with the country's president on Sunday, the president's office said, after opposition parties condemned the government's call for a referendum. Samaras, head of the New Democracy conservatives, earlier this week said he would be willing to participate in a cross-party government to pull Greece back from the brink of bankruptcy. _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
