A coalition lawmaker revealed on Monday that the Greek government is currently discussing the possibility of seeking a Referendum about the lenders’ demands for additional austerity measures after 2018, measures that Greece has to legislate now.
Christos Simorelis, SYRIZA MP from Trikala constituency, told Radio Leshi 97.6
“Elections will take place in 2019, because elections at this time are destructive for the Greek economy, as the Greek economy stabilizes,” Simorelis said in fact responding to pressure for early elections by major opposition party conservative New Democracy.
“There are no deadlocks in democracy, the society can not bear new measures, we will not accept new measures. Beyond this, there are other ways to get to the Greek people and ask their opinion, such as through a referendum. It is one of the solutions under discussion,” Simorelis revealed.
The SYRIZA-Indepentend Greeks coalition called a Referendum and asked Greeks to approve or reject the so-called Juncker package of bailout measures.
The Referendum took place on 5th July 2015.
Greeks rejected the bailout package with a majority of 61%, while 36% approved.
However, lenders’ pressure was much stornger than the public voice, the government let results be just results and signed the third bailout agreement a couple of weeks later.
Given the Referendum experience of 2015, a new Referendum could be at risk to turn into a farce.
Much will depend on the question formulation.
And this could be brutally clear. Something like: Stay or Exit the Eurozone.
Will SYRIZA dare to such a risky move?
PS I say it right away: either the government gives me a written guarantee that it will respect the Referendum results or I’ll go for a long relaxing walk in the countryside on that particular Sunday. And I won’t be alone…
After the last anti Austerity measure referendum this must surely be a joke for the ESM and of course Greeces best friends Jeroen Dijsselbloem and Wolfgang Schäuble who will tell the powers to be here in Greece to totally ignore the peoples wishes
Referendum! LoL!!!!!
Alex still hasn’t learnt what the word means (problem student in Latin, and in arithmetic).
He knows very well what the word means. The last one worked out very well for him, unlike the idiot British PM who lost power over the Brexit vote. A referendum where people neither know the actual meaning of the choices, nor is there any obligation for the government to act on the result, is ideal for useless politicians!
yes! another referendum! what a bold move…
whose results will be ignored like the first one!