ATHENS, Greece — Greece looked set Sunday to enter an even more volatile phase of its financial crisis as official projections forecast a resounding win for the “no” campaign in a referendum that could decide the country’s financial fate in the short term and its role in Europe in the long term.
The vote, on a proposed bailout deal from Athens’ international lenders, was a strong rebuke to European Union leaders who had warned that the referendum was, in effect, a vote on whether Greece wanted to keep on using the euro as its currency.
The Interior Ministry estimated that “no” votes had received at least 61 percent of the total.
As the scale of the “no” victory becomes clear, the question immediately shifts to whether, and how quickly, Greece’s European partners are prepared to resume negotiations with Athens. Relations between the two sides have deteriorated badly over the past few weeks, especially after Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras broke off talks at the end of June and called Sunday’s referendum on bailout proposals that have technically since expired.
Perhaps even more pressing will be the reaction of the European Central Bank, which has been propping up the Greek banking system for months with emergency funding. If the ECB decides at a meeting Monday to end that support, Greece’s banks will quickly run out of cash, business will grind to a halt and basic supplies could start to dwindle on store shelves.
The Greek government is also nearly out of money.. If it cannot pay its debts – a major repayment is due July 20 – Athens could be forced to introduce a parallel currency and eventually leave the eurozone.
The leaders of Germany and France are to meet in Paris on Monday evening to discuss the crisis. Both had warned Greeks before the referendum that the poll was, in effect, a vote on whether Greece wanted to remain in the eurozone.