ATHENS (APP) – Greece voted on Sunday on whether to accept more austerity in exchange for international aid, in a high-stakes referendum likely to determine whether it leaves the euro-currency area after seven years of economic pain.
Staged against a backdrop of shuttered banks and threats of financial apocalypse, the vote looked too close to call and may not produce the clear mandate for negotiations that Athens’creditors seek.
Greeks are split on whether to accept an offer by creditors that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras calls a “humiliation” and is urging people to reject.
Investors and European policy makers say a rejection would set Greece on a path out of the euro, destabilising the global economy and financial markets. “I voted ‘No’ to the ‘Yes’ that our European partners insist I choose,” said Eleni Deligainni, 43, in Athens.
“I have been jobless for nearly four years and was telling myself to be patient … but we’ve had enough deprivation and unemployment.”
