What if Greece Votes "No" in the Referendum

• 06.30.2015, 11:31
•  Europe

The Greek parliament approved the decision to hold a referendum on the country's acceptance the international creditors’ conditions. The Greek government has not come to an agreement with creditors, and has decided to shift the burden of the decision onto the shoulders of the people. The decision is indeed crucial, as it will mean the following: if the Greeks agree with the terms of creditors, they will have a few years to tighten their belts and together with the Europeans to pull the country out of the crisis. Otherwise, it means that the country should withdraw from the euro area and to conduct their own affairs without the support of pan-European structures. The choice is of course a difficult one. Moreover, in both cases, no one is going to cancel or freeze the country's debts.

 Greeks have about 200 billion euros to pay only to euro-zone countries, 32 billion euros to the IMF and another 20 billion euros to the European Central Bank.

Although many experts believe that Greeks will vote against the conditions of international creditors, as suggested the Prime Minister of Greece, Alexis Tsipras himself,  in Greece, however, many citizens believe that the way out of the euro zone and the declaration of default in the country contain even more challenges, than the implementation of those conditions.

"If we, like the Greek nation, had the ability to resist to what is happening, I would say "yes", let's leave the eurozone. But we do not have such a power. And I believe that we will not trudge somewhere behind Europe and will be in Europe. But in order to stay in the eurozone and the EU, we need real negotiations, real conversations," the respondents in the streets of Athens were telling to the correspondent of Euronews.

However, there is a panic in the country now and many citizens have rushed to ATMs to cash out their savings. The financial system of the country is on the brink of disaster. Thus, from today on already, because of growing fears of default and exit from the eurozone, the Greek banks will be closed for a week. Public transport in Greece will be free of charge for a week. The government in its turn has introduced a limit on cash withdrawals at ATMs of only 60 euros a day. The stock exchanges will not work either.