After a deadlock in bailout negotiations, the Greek government is now asking Greek citizens to vote YES/NO on a take-it-or-leave-it bailout proposal by Greece’s creditors. The Greek Prime Minister said that his negotiating team was given an ugly ultimatum on a “humiliating offer” made by the creditors to debt-ridden Greece. He said that because this proposal was against his government’s campaign promises and against the Greek people’s will, he could only ask the Greek people to decide directly if they approve it, or reject it. Since the referendum announcement Greece has been divided in two camps, the ones who reject the EU proposal and those who say ‘yes’ to that specific bailout deal offered by the country’s creditors (composed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the European Central Bank (ECB) and the European Commission). Europe has been making attempts to influence a YES vote ahead of the referendum, implying that Greeks vote to approve or reject Greece’s membership in the Eurozone SYRIZA and his governing partner ANEL who are supporting the NO vote often resonated to populism in order to respond to those who criticized the timing of the Greek referendum, resulting in Greek banks being closed in absence of liquidity. The referendum discussion in Greece and Europe became so heated that Europeans said their proposal is not anymore on the negotiations table, trying to make the Greek referendum obsolete, but without luck. Today, voters in Greece started casting their ballots, being asked to check one of two boxes: “not approved/no” and “approved/yes,” in response to the following question: “Must the agreement plan submitted by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund to the Eurogroup of 25 June, 2015, and comprised of two parts which make up their joint proposal, be accepted? The first document is titled ‘reforms for the completion of the current program and beyond’ and the second ‘Preliminary debt sustainability analysis.’” Related: Greece’s Possible Outcomes after the Referendum Results on an Infographic
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