By Elena Becatoros, The Associated Press on July 1, 2015.
On Wednesday pensioners lined up at banks across the country.
Many online bookmakers already have stopped taking wagers on the outcome as money has flowed in heavily in favour of Greeks voting “yes”.
But the referendum on July 5 remains on track, with Tsipras campaigning openly for Greeks to reject the bailout proposal that he is still trying to negotiate with creditors.
Still, there was some good news: Amid more chaotic scenes outside closed banks in Athens and elsewhere, the terms of its emergency $100 billion cash support were left unchanged. “The referendum will be held on Sunday”.
However, she added that it is equally right for other countries to have their own positions.
“We desperately want to stay in the euro”, Varoufakis said. “Everything is developing”, Health Minister Panagiotis Kouroumplis said when asked during a morning news show on Antenna television whether the referendum could be called off under certain circumstances.
However, the proposal, which comes ahead of a planned referendum in Greece on Sunday, was reportedly rejected by German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble on Wednesday, who claimed that the letter “did not provide further clarity”.
“This is what was written in many newspapers but it was never the truth”, he said, adding that he felt the blame for the delays in negotiations rested more with the creditors than with the Greek negotiators.
“Before a referendum, there is indeed no basis (for an agreement)”, Schaeuble said. The bank runs have brought the realities of default and socialist ruin to voters in Greece, which their new government has managed to accelerate.
But in a surprise move late Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Yannis Dragasakis hinted that the government might be open to calling off the popular vote, saying it was a political decision. But they were later updated and are now no longer on the table as the European part of Greece’s bailout program expired at midnight Tuesday.
A “Yes” vote will not result in eurozone bailout plan being accepted as the proposal expired on Tuesday.
The International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank and European Commission have pegged future aid to Greece to tax increases and spending cuts.
The International Monetary Fund confirmed at about 10am NZST that Greece had failed to make the payment.
Traders responded positively, thinking that it could form the basis of a new deal between Greece and its creditors that would prevent a messy Greek exit from the euro.
French Finance Minister Michel Sapin is hoping for an agreement with Greece before Sunday’s referendum but called the situation “terrifyingly complicated”.
“Mrs Merkel really tried to find a solution”, he told reporters in Rome, saying a proposal blessed by Merkel and offered to the Greeks last week had amounted to a real compromise.
Greece is on its own financially for the first time in five years.
“Maybe we’ll change the configuration of the government because some of us will not be able to stomach it”, he said.
BBC Europe Editor Katya Adler, who has been in Athens said there was a “huge sense of tension” in Greece about what could happen next. However, European Union leaders have warned that a rejection would effectively mean Greece leaving the eurozone.
Osborne said it is vital to resolve uncertainty to ensure economic and financial stability across Europe.
Meanwhile Chancellor George Osborne said the United Kingdom will “prepare for the worst”.
In Athens, crowds of anxious elderly Greeks thronged banks for hours from before dawn Wednesday, struggling to be allowed to withdraw their maximum of 120 euros ($134) for the week after the government reopened some banks to help pensioners who don’t have bank cards.
Others were told their pensions had not yet been deposited and they would therefore have to return later in the week.
