Money worries dominate Greek referendum

(Vatican Radio)  Hours before the polls open Sunday on a crucial national referendum, few Greek voters are sure what they’ll be voting about.

Listen to the report by John Carr:

The clumsy, 72-word referendum question, asking them to approve or reject the creditors’ latest bailout conditions, leaves a lot of uncertainty.  Most people are inclined to think it’s about the Syriza government itself, and whether it should remain in power.

Voters face an excruciating dilemma of either signing on to more years of creditor-mandated austerity, or ditching it altogether, which means an unknown future with no economic underpinnings.  So far the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ campaigns are about evenly matched.

Greece’s private channels and most of its daily press, run by media barons, are campaigning heavily for a ‘yes’ vote, while the government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is urging a ‘no,’ so the Greeks have to decide between two streams of propaganda, as it were.

Banking officials here in Athens today dismissed foreign media reports that the banks, closed all this week, would run out of money early next week.

It’s by far the hardest issue facing Greek voters in any referendum ever.  But judging from the present money scare, they’ll most likely vote for whatever promises to open the banks next week.