Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras scored a decisive victory yesterday when the Greek public overwhelmingly voted "no" in a referendum to demands by international creditors for more austerity measures. The 61% to 39% result was much higher than anyone expected as polls had indicated just a few percentage points difference going into the referendum.
With the vote, Greece is now in uncharted territory as austerity measures has been demanded by their creditors in exchange for a bailout of its bankrupt economy. Without the measures, there's no bailout. PM Tsipras' demand for a better deal from the creditors has been rejected before and that was why he went to the Greek public. The man's refusal to sign a bad deal for his country had led to this and you know what; I totally understand why he did it.
The simple fact is that after 5 years of austerity measures, the Greek economy is now worse than ever. PM Tsipras did not create this mess, he inherited it, and his first priority is to the country of Greece and the Greek people. He refuse to sign the deal given to him because it calls for measures that has proven to be unsuccessful and he do not wish to continue with a failed strategy.
Mind you, no one can say Greece hadn't tried the medicine given to them. They tried for 5 years and the condition of their economy had gotten worse and worse. Does it comes as any surprise to anyone that they now want to try something else?
So this may be uncharted territory but I can totally understand why the Greek public voted as they did. If I was Greek, I would have probably voted the same way,
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