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Chris Ratcliffe / Bloomberg / Getty Images
ATHENS — As it became clear Sunday night that nearly two-thirds of Greek voters had given a thumbs-down to the deal offered by the country’s creditors, the main square in Athens, Syntagma, erupted into an impromptu celebration. Crowds cheered and waved Greek flags. Some danced.
But Monday morning, Greeks woke up with a hangover, so to speak. The jubilation evident in the square just the night before gave way to the harsh reality that a solution for Greece’s financial crisis is nowhere in sight.
The country still has to negotiate with its creditors, banks are closed, and no one knows for sure when they will reopen. For now, people cannot take out more than 60 euros a day, or about $67, and even those with cash stashed safely in deposit boxes aren’t sure they can get to their money anytime soon. Adding to people’s confusion, the country’s pugnacious finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis — one of the architects of the vote — abruptly resigned Monday morning, even though the vote went the way the government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras wanted.
In Zografou, a neighborhood in central Athens where close to 56 percent voted against the proposal and 44 percent voted in favor of it, the mood was mixed Monday morning, ranging from cautious optimism to despair.
“It’s in God’s hands,” said Alexis Athanasiades, 45, a clerk at OK, a 24-hour convenience store in the neighborhood. “I voted ‘no’ because I am tired and I want something better for myself and my country. But I do not know how this will turn out. I can only hope.”
Others in the neighborhood were more despondent. “Things have gone from bad to worse,” said Sophia Mitas, 63, who said she voted “yes.”
As she sipped a cup of coffee in a shaded café with a friend, she said she waited three hours at a bank on Friday to collect the 120 euros she was allotted as a pensioner and traveled to the nearby island of Evia, her birthplace, to vote Sunday. “I am extremely disappointed. I want to stay in Europe. I am afraid that we will go back to the drachma.”
Her friend Hara Tsitomenea, 68, pointed to her 5-year-old grandson fidgeting next to her and said, “I worry about his future … The division of the Greek people is the worst thing that could have happened to Greece. The only good news today is that the bald one resigned,” a reference to Varoufakis.
As she spoke, a man selling lottery tickets walked by. Mitas called him over and bought three tickets for two euros each. “You’re my only hope,” she chuckled.
“Good luck,” the man said as he handed them to her. “From your mouth to God’s ears,” she responded, pausing. “And to Tsipras’ too.”
People were quick to offer their views of what happened, even though many were reluctant to give their full names.
For the most part, retirees like Tsitomenea and Mitas voted in favor of the plan, interpreting it as an affirmation of their determination to stay in the eurozone. Poll results revealed that 59 percent of those over the age of 60 voted in favor of the creditors’ plan, while 37 percent of that age group voted “no.”
One 69-year-old woman who mentioned that she was a member of the Greek Communist Party and talked freely about her financial status would reveal only her first name, Eleni. She pointed to a bag at her side on the park bench where she rested in the shade and said she had just arrived from a pharmacy where she handed over 70 euros for a handful of heart medications. That left her, she said, with 50 euros for the rest of the week.
She waited two hours on Friday for the 120 euros pensioners were allowed, she said, but the bank on Monday told her she could not collect any more until Friday, after a week passes. She admitted that she hadn’t paid her 180-euro rent yet and that she might not pay this month at all. “It’s my medicine or my rent,” she said. “But I will survive. I am not afraid.”
Eleni was proud of the prime minister and how the nation voted, but she too was wary of what lay ahead. “He’s a leventi,” she said, using a Greek word for a strong, gutsy man. “I think he will figure it out. He’s smart and a patriot. But he has to proceed carefully. It’s not going to be easy.”
The vote on Sunday was orderly and calm. At the polls in Zografou, people seemed relaxed, even good humored. They waited their turns patiently and chatted amicably with each other as if they were attending a local gathering and not about to cast ballots in a vote that could change the fate of their country in Europe.
Near the entrance of the polling spot in a local school, supporters of a “no” vote manned tables just outside the doors, handing out flyers and explaining to voters why they should cast their ballots against the proposal. No posters or graffiti pushing the other position were visible.
The after-effects of the abrupt call for a referendum — the closure of the country’s banks and the imposition of capital controls — have triggered the most unease, as no one is certain when the banks will reopen. On the main commercial thoroughfare in Zografou, lines consistently about 10 people deep remained in front of two ATMs throughout the morning. Greeks are allowed to take out only 60 euros a day, and over the weekend, that sum dropped to 50 euros because banks ran out of 20-euro notes.
One 37-year-old, wearing a bright green T-shirt and sporting fashionable sunglasses, joined a line and gave a half-smile when asked how he felt about the vote. “I’m indifferent,” he said, refusing to offer his name. “The same thing would happen either way the vote went. Yes or no — I think an agreement will be reached eventually, though I can’t tell you when.”
Greeks ages 30 to 59 were more evenly split: 45 percent voted “yes,” and 54 percent rejected the plan, a slightly smaller gap than for other age groups. Young voters 18 to 29 gave a defiant thumbs-down to the creditors’ plan, with 69 percent of them voting “no.” But even they seemed somewhat nonchalant the morning after.
When asked how he felt about how the vote turned out, Michalis Mavroyiannis, a 26-year-old butcher at the local AB supermarket stood behind a counter stocked with fresh cuts of meat and simply answered, “I am tired. I’ve been up since 5 a.m.”
He said he wasn’t worried about how things would unfurl. His confidence may stem from the fact that he has a job. (Nearly 1 in 2 Greeks under the age of 24 is unemployed.) “People have to eat, and they’ll keep buying food,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.
Others aren’t quite as fearless. Take Litsa Lagogianni, 51, said, “I am very upset and very worried. I think the vote makes the situation even more difficult. I am afraid our vote has angered the Europeans, and it’s going to be even tougher to find a solution.”
A group of men sat as they always do at a neighborhood café drinking coffee Monday morning, pondering the future as they perused the daily papers and talked about Sunday’s vote.
“We Greeks say, when it rains, the drowning man is not afraid of the rain,” said Giorgos Goulias, 68, an engineer who has not yet retired, as he folded up his newspaper. “That’s what it’s like for Greeks today. We are a pawn in a global game of chess. Yes or no, the same thing will happen. [Our creditors and our government] will have to find a solution. Too much is at stake.”
Then with tears in his eyes, he added in a shaky voice, “We love our country, and it really hurts me to see this. We’ve been through so much, not just in this crisis but in our history. We’ll get through this too.”
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