The Question Before Greeks in Sunday's Referendum

Here's the Sunday referendum question being put before the Greeks:

Should the agreement plan submitted by the European Commission, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund to the June 25 eurogroup and consisting of two parts, which form their single proposal, be accepted? The first document is titled 'Reforms for the completion of the Current Program and Beyond' and the second 'Preliminary Debt Sustainability Analysis'.

Not approved/NO

Approved/YES

A poll published in the Efimerida ton Syntakton newspaper found that 54 percent of likely voters would vote "no" on the ballot question with 33 percent in favor. The gap, however, appeared to be narrowing.

Among the problems with this referendum is that the European Commission has already pulled the agreement the  Greeks will be voting on.

More problematic is specifically a "No" vote, since Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras appears to have no plan in place if voters do  reject the EC proposal (which is now off the table.)

Tsipras appears to think that he will be able to bring a "no" vote result as a club to negotiations with the EC. In other words, Tsipras doesn't seem to get that the EC doesn't care about his referendum or the results of a vote on it.

Since most Greek government debt is now held by transglobal government agencies, there is no private sector bankster-establishment-elitist pressure to get a deal done. They really don't care. It's the EC terms or the Grexit highway.

It's almost as though Tsipras doesn't get that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is not a left-wing radical socialist and that she feels no obligation to support a Greek socialist economy.

-RW

(Referendum translation by the BBC)