Protesters chanting slogans in front of the Greek parliament  in central Athens, yesterday  Some 17,000 people took to the streets of Athens and Thessalonique to say “No” to the latest offer of a bailout deal, accusing Greece’s international creditors of blackmail.

Reuters
Paris

European Central Bank executive board member Benoit Coeure said yesterday it was now possible that Greece may end up exiting the eurozone although this was not what the ECB wanted.
It was the most direct admission yet by a top ECB policymaker that a “Grexit” could happen after Athens decided to interrupt talks on an aid-for-reforms package and call a referendum for July 5.
“A Greek exit from the eurozone, so far a theoretical issue, can unfortunately not be excluded any more,” Coeure told French financial daily Les Echos.
Coeure said that if Greeks vote “Yes” in the referendum, he “has no doubt” eurozone authorities will find ways to meet commitments towards Greece.
If the “No” vote wins, “it would be very difficult to resume political dialogue,” he said.
Coeure said the market reaction to the Greek referendum has been relatively mild but that the central bank was monitoring the situation closely and would use all available instruments, or even new ones, if
needed.   
Thousands of Greeks rallied yesterday behind a “No” vote in the July 5 referendum.
With Greece set to default on a 1.6mn-euro loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund today, at least 20,000 defiant supporters of Alexis Tsipras’ left-wing government packed the main avenue in front of parliament, rallying behind his call to reject the package and more austerity.
Greece’s European partners have said this could see the country slide from the 19-nation eurozone, with unforeseeable consequences for Athens and for Europe’s grand project to bind its nations into an unbreakable union by means of a common currency.
Tsipras is telling Greeks a “No” vote does not necessarily mean a euro exit. But economists, and Greece’s European partners, say he is understating the danger.
Many banners declared simply “No!”. Others said, “Our lives do not belong to the lenders” and “Don’t back down”.
Tsipras, 40, stunned European leaders in the early hours of Saturday by rejecting the demands of lenders in the European Union and International Monetary Fund, and saying he would put them to the people.
The creditors wanted Greece to cut further outgoings and raise taxes in ways that Tsipras has long argued would deepen one of the worst economic crises of modern times, in a country where a quarter of the workforce is already unemployed. Pensions and wages have been hammered.



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