Sunday, June 28, 2015

28/6/15: IMF Gun, Greek Voters


Just as the Greek Parliament engaged in a vote to hold or not to hold a referendum on Troika proposals, the IMF has decided to end any hope for any referendum to have any basis for validity. As noted by ZeroHedge (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-27/imf-confirms-greek-referendum-irrelevant-after-program-expires-tuesday), the IMF chief told BBC that Greece can vote as much as it wants, but by the time the referendum is held next Sunday, there won't be any proposals standing that a vote can address in any shape or form. The reasons is that the current 'bailout' offer is only good if accepted before July 1st when the current programme expires.

Christine Lagarde also seemed to have been implying in her statement that the creditors have zero interest in working with Greece unless Greece accepts their demands in full prior to the referendum or unless the voters support the (by-then unavailable) 'bailout' in a referendum. In other words, Madame Lagarde had just issued an ultimatum directly to Greek people (if you do vote, vote as we want you to) and to the Greek Parliament (as you vote on referendum, vote as we want you to).

Funny thing, European democracy... as Italian voters should know...

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