A woman celebrates at Syntagma Square in Athens yesterday after the first exit-polls of a referendum on austerity measures. Greeks voted overwhelmingly “No” in the historic bailout referendum.

Reuters/Athens

Greeks voted overwhelmingly yesterday to reject terms of a bailout, risking financial ruin in a show of defiance that could splinter Europe.
With nearly half of the votes counted, official figures showed 61% of Greeks rejecting the bailout offer. An official interior ministry projection confirmed the figure as close to the expected final tally.
The astonishingly strong victory by the ‘No’ camp overturned opinion polls that had predicted an outcome too close to call. It leaves Greece in uncharted waters: risking financial and political isolation within the eurozone and a banking collapse if creditors refuse further aid.
But for millions of Greeks the outcome was an angry message to creditors that Greece can longer accept repeated rounds of austerity that, in five years, had left one in four without a job. Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has denounced the price paid for aid as “blackmail” and a national “humiliation”.
Greeks began pouring into the central Syntagma square in front of parliament to celebrate, after a week of building desperation as banks were shut and cash withdrawals rationed to prevent a collapse of the Greek financial system.
“This is an imprint of the will of the Greek people and now it’s up to Europeans to show if they respect our opinion and want to help,” said Nikos Tarasis, a 23-year-old student.
Officials from the Greek government, which had argued that a ‘No’ vote would strengthen its hand to secure a better deal from international creditors after months of wrangling, said they would try to restart talks with European partners.
“I believe there is no Greek today who is not proud, because regardless of what he voted he showed that this country above all respects democracy,” Labour Minister Panos Skourletis said.
“The government now has a strong mandate, a strong negotiating card, to bring a deal which will open new ways.”
But eurozone officials shot down any prospect of a quick resumption of talks. One official said there were no plans for an emergency meeting of eurozone finance ministers today, adding the vote outcome meant the ministers “would not know what to discuss”.
Many of Athens’ partners have warned over the past week that a ‘No’ vote would mean cutting bridges with Europe and driving Greece’s crippled financial system into outright bankruptcy, dramatically worsening the country’s economic depression.
The result also delivers a hammer blow to the European Union’s grand single currency project. Intended to be permanent and unbreakable when it was created 15 years ago, the eurozone could now be on the point of losing its first member with the risk of further unravelling to come.
Any joint European political response may take a couple of days. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande will meet in Paris today afternoon. The European Commission, the EU executive, meets in Strasbourg tomorrow and will report to the European Parliament on the situation.
A ‘No’ vote puts Greece and the eurozone in uncharted waters. Unable to borrow money on capital markets, Greece has one of the world’s highest levels of public debt.

Scenes of joy as voters celebrate victory

AFP/Athens

Cheering and chanting, thousands of Greeks who voted to say ‘No’ to bailout austerity measures crowded into central Athens yesterday to celebrate a landslide referendum victory, seemingly oblivious to the threats facing the near-insolvent country.
Punching the air, the ‘No’ camp exulted as the news came through that at least 60% of voters had rejected international creditors’ demands.
“I’m so happy,” said 37-year old Dima Rousso, adding that she hadn’t expected there to be such a clear margin between the ‘No’ votes and the ‘Yes’ votes.
“This is Europe’s chance to become what it should have been in the beginning,” she said.
Young couples hugged at the fountain in front of parliament in the symbolic Syntagma square, the scene of violent anti-austerity riots in the past, as teens drove by on scooters, blaring their horns, Greek flags held high and streaming in the wind.
“This is a victory for the Greek people, a chance for Europe,” said Giorgos, 25, who had rushed along with his girlfriend to join some 6,000 people celebrating their triumph.
“Spain, and then Portugal, should follow this path. We’re for a Europe of the people,” he said, brushing off concerns the result could see the debt-laden country plunge further into the financial mire.
There was no mention of the scenes repeated across Greece this week of closed banks and food stockpiling that left supermarket shelves bare. While the future was unknown, for many celebrating on the streets it now had a fresh glow of hope.
Despite doomsayers who have warned a ‘No’ vote may well see the country crash out of the eurozone in a so-called “Grexit”, Giorgos insisted: “Greeks are not afraid”.
Support swelled for the ‘No’ camp not just because Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called for Greeks to turn the bailout offer down, but because Europe had tried to interfere, he said.
While many of those who voted ‘No’ were youths hit by record jobless rates, there were also elderly people in the crowds, wrapped in Greek flags and dancing in time with the victory chants.
A mechanic in his 60s named Giorgos said that Germans - viewed by many as Greece’s nemeses in Europe - “were not counting on a great Greek victory”.
An elated George Stasinopoulos, 25, grinning through his big brown beard, said “the governments of Europe don’t support us but their people do, and that gives us courage!”

PM says Athens ready to return to negotiating table
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras hailed a ‘No’ vote in yesterday’s referendum on a bailout offer and said his government was ready to return immediately to negotiations with creditors in a bid to get shuttered banks open again.
Dismissing talk that the referendum was effectively a vote on whether Greece stays in the euro, Tsipras said the mandate that Greeks had given him was to reach a viable solution rather than clash with Europe.
“With the difficult circumstances prevailing today you made a very brave choice,” Tsipras said in a televised address to Greeks.