Greek parliament approves referendum on bailout

(Vatican Radio) A majority of the Greek Parliament in the early hours of this morning endorsed Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s call for a national referendum on the terms of the Greek economic rescue proposals.

The voting in the 300-member chamber was 178 in favour.  The yes votes came from Tsipras’s Syriza party and its coalition partners, the right-wing Independent Greeks, plus the anti-European neo-fascist Golden Dawn.  Voting no were the opposition conservative New Democracy party, the socialists and a centrist party called To Potami, meaning the River.

Tsipras had announced the referendum 24 hours earlier, after walking out of a fruitless week of negotiating with Greece’s creditors, saying he needed a new people’s mandate to back him up.

The response among Greeks this weekend has been a run on ATMs all over the country, and uncertainty over how the banks will function this coming week.  The referendum has been set for next Sunday, 5 July.

Government sources here in Athens say that a repayment of 1.5 billion euros to the International Monetary Fund scheduled for Tuesday may well not happen, deepening the crisis.

Next Sunday’s vote is already being viewed as a referendum on Greece’s continued membership of the eurozone, though the Syriza government strenuously denies that’s the intention.  Yet Tsipras himself is urging Greeks to vote no to Europe’s bailout terms.

Listen to John Carr's report: