Then came the Saturday night show with Mr Tsipras announcing the issue was worthy of referendum, as also approved by parliament yesterday morning.
The TV address by Alexis Tsipras was noteworthy not only by its internal-national message (agreeing to proposals would equal new burdens on Greek people’s backs) but also by the picture painted by words probably aimed to weight on EU conscience. Pitting authoritarianism against democracy, referring to Greece and democracy’s birthplace which is now issuing a resounding democratic reply to Europe, lets listeners know that throwing Greece out of the monetary union (and, thereby, figuratively also from Europe) would almost amount to casting aside foundations democracy itself.
Hence, parallels can easily be drawn to the discussions around receiving Greece into eurozone and the words of one-time French President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing that Plato cannot be left waiting in the door. Thus, we must now imagine it is Europe that sentenced Socrates to drink the poison. Nothing doing, figures of speech work: while some analysts think Greece rather resembles the Balkans as society and state, symbolically it is the home of the values Europe is operating with.
So, what next? On Tuesday, the Greek rescue package expires and IMF will have to be paid €1.54bn. On July 20th, Greece must make European Central Bank payment of €3.5bn. At the ATMs in Athens, people are lining up and during this week-end alone a billion euros were pulled out. Today, the banks did not open.