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 The surprise call marked the most dramatic twist yet in five-month
negotiations between Greece and its lenders, plunging the
cash-strapped nation into uncharted waters and risking a default and
capital controls as hopes for an agreement faded.
"Our responsibility is for the future of our country. This
responsibility obliges us to respond to the ultimatum through the
sovereign will of the Greek people," Tsipras said in a televised
address to the nation just after midnight.
Euro zone finance ministers were still due to meet at 1200 GMT (8.00
a.m. EDT) in Brussels to discuss the aid offer from the euro zone
and the International Monetary Fund, just after the Greek parliament
meets to approve the referendum decision.
Germany's Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel urged Greece to reach a
deal with creditors to give Greeks something to vote on.
"We'd be well advised not to dismiss this suggestion from Herr
Tsipras out of hand and say 'that's just a trick'," Gabriel told
Deutschlandfunk radio. "But rather if the questions are clearly
framed... then that could make sense."
Tsipras, the 40-year-old novice prime minister, said he would
respect the outcome of the vote. But he argued the lenders demands
"clearly violate European social rules and fundamental rights",
would asphyxiate Greece's flailing economy and aimed at the
"humiliation of the entire Greek people".
Government ministers emerging from the cabinet meeting in Athens
said they were confident Greeks would vote no and reject the bailout
demands, leaving open the question as to whether the country had
other options beside leaving the euro.
QUEUES AT BANKS
The referendum call puts the country's banking system into focus,
though a deputy minister said there were no plans to impose capital
controls and banks would open on Monday.
Soon after the address in the early hours of the morning, lines of
up to 10 people were seen forming to withdraw cash from automated
teller machines in some parts of Athens. Small groups of
anti-establishment protesters threw petrol bombs and stones at
police in an Athens neighborhood where protests are common.
The euro zone had offered to release billions in frozen aid if
Greece accepted and implemented pension and tax reforms that are
anathema to its leftist government, elected in January on a promise
to end austerity.
Without the bailout funds, Athens is due to default on 1.6 billion
euros in repayments to the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday,
pushing Greece closer to being forced out of the euro, causing chaos
for its economy and financial markets.
A default would not necessarily lead to Athens leaving the 19-nation
single currency area, but is expected to pave the way for it,
worrying European leaders who fear it would undermine the principle
that membership is irrevocable.
Tsipras said he would ask euro zone finance ministers for an
extension of Greece's bailout program that ends on Tuesday by a few
days to accommodate the referendum.
He also spoke with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi to
discuss the referendum, and senior government officials were due to
meet the ECB chief later on Saturday.
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With Greece's stricken banking sector dependent on central bank
funds to remain afloat, the ECB will play a vital role in keeping
the system on its feet over the next few days.
Opposition parties attacked the government, saying the Tsipras's
hardline stance had brought Greece to its knees.
"Tsipras brought the country to a total deadlock. Between an
unacceptable agreement and a euro exit," former conservative Prime
Minister Antonis Samaras said. The referendum question was
effectively a "yes" or "no" to Europe, he said.
A 15.5 BLN EURO DILEMMA
This is not the first time that Greece has flirted with a referendum
in recent years. Former Prime Minister George Papandreou sought one
in 2011 as he struggled to impose painful cuts demands by lenders,
but was ousted over the call and his administration replaced by a
government of technocrats.
The latest drama came after weeks of phone calls,
face-to-face-discussions and several rounds of meetings among
European leaders to sort out Greece's troubles. In the latest round,
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois
Hollande met Tsipras on the sidelines of an EU summit to coax him to
accept an offer to fill Athens' empty coffers until November in
return for painful reforms.
Both she and Hollande said Saturday's meeting of euro zone finance
ministers would be the decisive moment for a deal since time was
running out to secure German parliamentary approval in time to
release funds needed to avert a Greek default.
The creditors laid out terms in a document handed to Greece on
Thursday. It said Athens could have 15.5 billion euros in EU and IMF
funding in four instalments to see it through to the end of
November, including 1.8 billion euros by Tuesday as soon as the
Greek parliament approved the plan.
The total is barely more than what Greece needs to service its debts
over the next six months and contains no new money. Further funding
would require a third bailout program, which is politically
impossible for the moment in Athens and Berlin.
The lenders also made a gesture towards Tsipras' demands for debt
relief by offering to reaffirm a 2012 pledge to consider stretching
out loan maturities, lowering interest rates and extending an
interest payment moratorium on euro zone loans to Greece, a senior
EU official said.
But the demands come at the price of pension cutbacks, new
reductions in public sector salaries, an increase in taxes on food,
eateries and tourism, and elimination of tax breaks on tourist
islands. That has sparked protests in Greece, where one in four
people are out of work.
(Additional reporting by Michele Kambas,; George Georgiopoulos and
Lefteris Karagiannopoulos in Athens, Erik Kirschbaum in Berlin,
Robin Emmott, Alastair Macdonald and Jan Strupczewski in Brussels)
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