In These New Times

Just when Greece requires clarity and direction they have got Alexis Tsipras. Whatever he is attempting to do he is creating a fine mess. It’s a good idea in principle to put any agreement with the Troika to a referendum but there was no agreement. Now he wants to agree on most of the “agreement” which he is calling on people to reject on Sunday. According to La Repubblica he told Martin Schulz leader of the European parliament that he hoped for a “Yes” vote.  “Eurozone officials said they were baffled by the mixed messages coming from Greece.” Meanwhile, leftist luminaries in Britain such as  MacWhirter are hailing the “No” vote as the rejection of the Eurozone  Is that, despite his claims to the contrary, Tsipras’ real goal. If Tsipras doesn’t want to wreck the European project we are left with the unlikely conclusion that the European leadership do.

FT

Greece’s prime minister accused Europe’s leaders of attempting to “blackmail” Greek voters, just hours after apparently holding out an olive branch to the country’s creditors by accepting most of the terms of the economic reform plan they had tabled last weekend.

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