Voters in Greece delivered a resounding “NO” to the nation’s creditors on Sunday. Now Greek leaders must go back to those same creditors to ask for more money and better repayment terms, which raised a question: will Greece get a better deal and will the rest of Europe compromise to keep Greece in the Eurozone? Greeks said “NO” in a historic referendum that has the potential to reshape the Greek economy and possibly the Eurozone. It has already led to a shakeup at the highest levels of the Greek government.
Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis resigned Monday morning saying: “I was made aware of a certain preference by some Eurogroup participants, and assorted ‘partners’, for my ‘absence’ from its meetings – an idea that the Prime Minister judged to be potentially helpful to him in reaching an agreement”, said Varoufakis. “For this reason I am leaving the Ministry of Finance today.”
Eurozone nations have agreed to an emergency summit on Greece, beginning Tuesday. CCTV America’s Kate Parkinson filed this report from Athens.
For more on Greece’s referendum, CCTV America’s Nathan King spoke with following guests.
- Constance Baroudos is a policy analyst and program director at the Washington policy firm the Lexington Institute.
- James Galbraith from Athens is a professor at the University of Texas.
- Nicholas Larigakis is the president and chief operating officer of the American Hellenic Institute.