Greek Debt Crisis Intensifies as Extension Request Is Denied

By JAMES KANTER and JIM YARDLEY JUNE 27, 2015

Greece is rapidly running out of money and has been negotiating over a remaining installment of 7.2 billion euros, or about $8 billion, so that Athens can avoid defaulting on some of its debt, including a payment of €1.6 billion due on Tuesday to the International Monetary Fund.

• Greece’s creditors have been demanding cuts in pension payments and new taxes to give them assurance that Athens will be able to repay its debts in the long run. They have grown increasingly skeptical that Mr. Tsipras is willing to make the hard decisions they feel are necessary to put his government on more stable financial footing.

  Mr. Tsipras, who was elected this year on a platform of challenging the austerity policies that have defined the European response to seven years of economic trouble, has resisted some of the demands for additional cuts and accused the creditors — the eurozone countries, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund — of humiliating the Greek people and imposing excessive hardship.

  Uncertainties now abound in Brussels, Athens and the other European capitals, where leaders were weighing the costs of making last-minute concessions to Greece or possibly risk Greece becoming the first country to abandon the euro currency.

  Among the most pressing issues is the health of the Greek banking system — and in particular whether the European Central Bank will continue to prop it up in the face of huge withdrawals.

  The E.C.B. said in a statement that its governing council would meet to discuss Greece “in due course.” The central bank has tried to avoid taking any steps that would push Greece out of the eurozone. But the bank’s rules would make it more difficult for it to continue to support Greek banks without the prospect of an agreement with creditors.

  http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/22/business/international/greece-crisis-portraits.html

  The leader of Greece’s junior coalition partner Independent Greeks, Panos Kammenos, described the creditors’ behavior toward Greece as “absolute fascism,” saying their aim was to subjugate the Greek people.

  “They are asking us to annihilate Greece,” he said in a speech interrupted by sobs.

  Olga Kefalogianni, a lawmaker with the opposition New Democracy Party, said staging a referendum on such short notice made little sense, especially since many voters had not yet been able to examine the specifics of the creditors’ last proposal.

  Now the question is whether Mr. Tsipras and other European leaders can still negotiate as the clocks tick despite the deep distrust that has developed.

  Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek finance minister, attended the initial Eurogroup meeting on Saturday, but the Eurogroup leader, Mr. Dijsselbloem, said a second session “will be without the Greek colleague,” declining to even use his name. Mr. Dijsselbloem said at a later news conference that Mr. Varoufakis left “on his own account” before the meeting had ended.

  In his own news conference, Mr. Varoufakis insisted that the Athens government was still seeking some form of accommodation with creditors.

  But Mr. Dijsselbloem suggested only minutes earlier that further talks would be fruitless because the credibility of the Greek government had collapsed.

  In a later news conference, Mr. Dijsselbloem said the “door is open” to further talks.

  James Kanter reported from Brussels and Jim Yardley from Athens. Niki Kitsantonis and Dimitris Bounias contributed from Athens and Jack Ewing from New York.