Greek voters have decisively
rejected the terms of an international bailout. he 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.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said late on Sunday that Greeks had voted for a "Europe of solidarity and democracy". Referendum as it happened
"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".
Mr
Tsipras and his government were taking the country down a path of
"bitter abandonment and hopelessness", he told the Tagesspiegel daily.
Analysis: Mark Lowen, BBC News, Athens
The
partying by the "No" camp will go well into the night here and the
government will be popping open the ouzo. Alexis Tsipras has called the
eurozone's bluff - and it appears to have gone his way.
But the
triumphalism won't last. There is still a sizeable chunk of the Greek
nation deeply unhappy with what has happened. And the government will
have to unite a divided country.
More than that, a deal with the eurozone has to be struck fast.
Greek banks are running critically low and will need another injection of emergency funds from the European Central Bank.
Given
the bad blood of the past two weeks - Greece's Finance Minister, Yanis
Varoufakis, calling the eurozone's strategy "terrorism" - it will be
hard to get back around the negotiating table. And with the banking
crisis and tax revenues plummeting amidst the instability, Greece's
economy has weakened again, making a deal even harder to reach.
The
eurozone's tough rhetoric will continue. But Greece's government will
have its answer prepared: we put your demands to a democratic test - and
they were rejected. 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 (£1.1bn) payment to the IMF.
Robert Peston, BBC economics editor, Athens
Greek banks have stayed shut for a week
Greek banks are desperately in need of a lender of last resort to save them, and the Greek economy.
And
sad to say no banker or central banker to whom I have spoken believes
the European Central Bank (ECB) can fulfil that function - because it is
struggling to prove to itself that Greek banks have adequate assets to
pledge to it as security for new loans.
There are only two
options. The Bank of Greece could make unsecured loans to Greek banks
without the ECB's permission - which would provoke a furious reaction
from Eurozone leaders and would be seen by most of them as tantamount to
leaving the euro.
Or it can explicitly create a new currency, a
new drachma, which it could then use to provide vital finance to Greek
banks and the Greek economy. Greece on verge of euro exit Greek
government officials have insisted that rejecting bailout terms would
strengthen their hand, and that they could rapidly strike a deal for
fresh funding in resumed negotiations.
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 Mr Tsipras, said it was "absolutely
necessary" to restore liquidity to the banks now the referendum was
over.
Summit called
Some European officials sounded conciliatory after the vote.
Italian Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni tweeted:
"Now it is right to start trying for an agreement again. But there is
no escape from the Greek labyrinth with a Europe that's weak and isn't
growing."
Belgium's finance minister said the door remained open to restart talks with Greece "literally, within hours".
Eurozone
finance ministers could again discuss measures "that can put the Greek
economy back on track and give the Greeks a perspective for the future,"
he told the VRT network.
Media captionAlexis Tsipras said his priority was to restore the "financial stability of Greece"
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.
The European Commission - one of the "troika"
of creditors along with the IMF and the ECB - wanted Athens to raise
taxes and slash welfare spending to meet its debt obligations.
Greece's
Syriza-led government, which was elected in January on an
anti-austerity platform, said creditors had presented it with an
"ultimatum", using fear to put pressure on Greeks.
The Greek government's opponents and some Greek voters had complained that the question in Sunday's referendum was unclear. EU officials said it applied to the terms of an offer that was no longer on the table.
The turnout in Sunday's referendum was 62.5%.
As
the result became clear, former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who had
campaigned for a "Yes" vote in the referendum, resigned as leader of
the centre-right New Democracy party.
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