The SYRIZA government has resorted again to the infamous “creative ambiguity,” a phrase used by Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis during negotiations with creditors. The creatively ambiguous referendum announced by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has left once again Greek people confused over what really this government wants.
On July 5, 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 is a smart move on part of the Greek prime minister because it serves as a good negotiating weapon. If Greek people decide to say no to the deal proposed by creditors, then the Greek team would sit on the negotiating table with a mandate that European partners and the IMF could not refute.
Unfortunately, on Monday July 6, when the referendum results appear, there won’t be a negotiating table waiting.
One wonders of the timing Alexis Tsipras chose to resort to a referendum. The idea of a referendum started looming about a month ago, when the Greek government had plenty of time to ask Greek people if indeed they wanted to bleed a little more, secure a deal and stay in the Eurozone. It would have taken place with the banks open, with pensioners not worrying whether they would get their pensions or not and citizens not afraid of their bank deposits.
Now, the referendum will be held after a week of capital controls, lines in super markets and gas stations, with state coffers practically empty and the country defaulting to the IMF. It will be a referendum amid odious propaganda on both sides and further polarization of an already polarized population.
Furthermore, the referendum is based on a non paper. It is not clear yet to which proposal we’ll say yes or no to. The honest thing for the Greek government to do would be to make public the actual proposal creditors made, so that we can decide what we are really voting on. The vague accusations that creditors want — prohibitive VAT hikes and deplorable pension cuts — are not a basis to decide on.
The last deal Greece had proposed would bring 8 billion euros in revenues while creditors asked for 9 billion euros. In other words, the deal was so close that 1 billion seemed insignificant after so many sacrifices the Greek people have made.
Also, the Greek government urges people to vote NO in the referendum. This is not very democratic. It is like saying, we don’t want a deal with austerity measures and we urge you to say no to it. In other words, we don’t have the guts to take the decision on our own, so, please help us say no to those who blackmail us and want to asphyxiate the country. Even if a little too late…
The truth is that a lot of Greeks cannot take any more austerity. They would love to stick it to creditors and leave the euro. The question is, what then?
Over the last five months, Greek people live inside a paradox: We have a government that was asking for financial aid from people they were demonizing. For five months we were negotiating with “extortionists,” “crooks,” “liars,” “inhuman technocrats” who had no respect for democracy and wanted to kill Greek society.
The same applied to Greek people too. Public opinion shifted against Europe, but at the same time the same people kept extending a hand to Europe for more aid.
The truth is that Europe showed an ugly face towards the end of negotiations. They hardly backed down on sensitive issues such as pensions or labor laws. Yet, in these five months, the Greek government never formulated a plan that would keep the country afloat in case there was no further aid from lenders. Instead, Athens spent five months in theoretical talks, aphorisms, useless committee meetings about the sovereign debt and bickering with the opposition over meaningless technicalities. There were no preparations made to brace against bankruptcy. Even if indeed SYRIZA had a secret agenda all along to take us back to the drachma, as some say, there are no steps taken towards a national currency.
In other words, if we say “the proud No” SYRIZA urges Greeks to say, what would the next day be? Are we going bankrupt? Back to the drachma? Back to the negotiating table? What exactly happens next?
And let’s say that the majority of Greeks say yes to a deal. What then? Do we beg our European partners to take us back to the herd? Will they ask Tsipras to publicly apologize for all the bad things he said about EU leaders and finance ministers? Will Jean-Claude Juncker starts hugging and kissing him again before official EU meetings? Will they start sending more euros our way?
Only God knows at this stage. And only God can save us crazy Greeks.
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