But it wasn't possible. He sighs, flicking through the recently signed document of reform measures. But wasn't the referendum a complete waste of time, money and emotion, I ask? But our victory in the referendum was a mandate for him to continue to negotiate. I ask whether the idiosyncratic exercise in democracy was worth it; to have banks closed, Greece back in recession and Alexis Tsipras seen in Europe as the black sheep.
But for a great part of the people of Europe, Tsipras is not the black sheep - he is a hero. In truth, criticism of Greece's prime minister is growing on both sides: from those who berate him for breaking pre-election pledges and going back on the referendum result. On the other, from those who point out that a deal weeks ago would have avoided the nightmare of the past fortnight, with queues at bank machines, businesses haemorrhaging money and the need for even deeper austerity to redress the balance.
Ten days ago, Tsipras wouldn't have been able to get the agreement through his own party. What then explains this stark difference in vote intentions between younger and older people? Figure 3 shows that the age divide is, if anything, a preference-based divide. Another interesting piece of evidence that corroborates the importance of material interests is the average vote intention shown in Figure 2 of the age group, which mostly consists of employed people close to retirement.
A straightforward interpretation of this result is that the age group is very much against pension reform as this would lead to the extension of the minimum retirement age and the elimination of the possibility for early retirement. Those already in retirement 65 or older , however, are more worried about the possibility of a bankrupt state that cannot pay their pensions rather than any pension cuts stipulated by a new bailout agreement.
Second, we asked respondents whether the imposed bank holiday had affected their vote intention and about one fifth said that it had as shown in Figure 4.
Overall, these results suggest that material concerns did in fact play into vote intentions over and above just partisan narratives. A first control group was asked whether it would be better for Greece to keep the euro or to introduce a national currency.
Another group was told that, according to expert opinion, staying in the euro would require a few more months of pension cuts and tax increases, and a third group was informed that staying in the euro would require more years of austerity. Interestingly, support for EMU membership is very high: a clear majority of respondents were willing to endure more years of austerity in order to keep the euro.
Again, this should be interpreted as evidence in favour of the material interests-based approach. The obtuse nature of this referendum very much reflects the distorted realities of globalisation in terms of political representation, democratic accountability, and freedom to choose one clear-cut policy programme or another. People nowadays are often presented with stark, often bogus, dilemmas, compounded by a clutter of highly technical and often misleading information on issues they never had to consider before.
Notwithstanding instrumental cost-benefit explanations of voting behaviour, our findings may be viewed through the lens of a deepening democratic deficit. Please read our comments policy before commenting. As the austerity rejectionists partied into the night, key Greek officials said they believed the Syriza victory strengthened their hand for further negotiations with the creditors since opinion polls also consistently show that Greeks want to stay in the euro and because there is no legal avenue for kicking a country out.
The chancellor and president also agreed that the referendum result should be respected, said the spokesman. Late Sunday night, European Council president Donald Tusk said he has called a eurozone summit for Tuesday to discuss the situation in Greece.
Since Tsipras sprung his referendum on eurozone leaders just over a week ago, following an EU summit in Brussels, Merkel and Hollande have struck completely opposed positions.
The chancellor has closed down any prospect of negotiations until after the vote took place while the president had insisted on a quick agreement with Greece. The referendum was highly contested. Exactly what a no or a yes verdict signalled was also a point of much debate. Besides, the bailout terms that voters were deciding on had already been withdrawn by the creditors when the scheme expired last Tuesday without an agreement.
But Tsipras and his flamboyant finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, have been hugely vindicated following a big gamble which will resonate in Greece and Europe for years to come. There must be something better out there. But the Commission complained that "neither this latest version of the document, nor an outline of a comprehensive deal could be formally finalised and presented to the Eurogroup due to the unilateral decision of the Greek authorities to abandon the process".
IMF chief Christine Lagarde said any referendum would relate to "proposals and arrangements which are no longer valid". Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel says there can be no new Greek deal until after the referendum.
And Eurogroup chairman Jeroen Dijsselbloem has stressed the difficulty of reaching any deal, regardless of the referendum result.
Lenders' proposals - key sticking points. Source: European Commission document, 26 Jun 15 pdf. Why couldn't Greece get a bailout extension? There remains a big gap between what the lenders want and the Greek government's agenda. Syriza - a grassroots coalition of leftists - won elections in January promising to end austerity. The budget cuts demanded by the lenders have thrown many Greeks into hardship and a quarter of the workforce is unemployed.
The lenders say Greece must agree to widen the scope of its sales tax VAT - to boost revenue - and drastically reduce the numbers entitled to early retirement. The pension system is unsustainable, they argue.
Those are the main sticking points, but the lenders also want much more action against corruption and tax evasion. The lenders are not convinced by Syriza's tax income projections.
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