2015 Greek bailout referendum

2015 Greek bailout referendum

5 July 2015
Should the agreement plan submitted by the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund to the Eurogroup of 25 June 2015, and comprised of two parts which make up their joint proposal, be accepted? The first document is titled "Reforms For The Completion Of The Current Program And Beyond" and the second "Preliminary Debt Sustainability Analysis."
Outcome	Tsipras government agrees to the bailout agreement with European authorities against the referendum results Finance minister Yanis Varoufakis resigns
Results
Choice Votes % Yes 2,245,537 38.69% No 3,558,450 61.31% Valid votes 5,803,987 94.20% Invalid or blank votes 357,153 5.80% Total votes 6,161,140 100.00% Registered voters/turnout 9,858,508 62.5%
Results by regional units   >50–55% No   >55–60% No   >60–65% No   >65–70% No   >70–75% No
Official website Official referendum announcements (in Greek) The unified proposal (in Greek) Voting ballot (in Greek)

This article is part of a series about Alexis Tsipras
Political offices President of Syriza (2008–2023) Leader of the Opposition (2012–15; 2019–2023) Prime Minister of Greece (2015; 2015–19) Leader of the Opposition First term First Shadow Cabinet Thessaloniki Programme 2014–15 presidential election Second term Second Shadow Cabinet 2020 presidential election 2021 Greek protests 2022 Syriza leadership election Prime Minister of Greece First term Government formation First cabinet 2014–2015 presidential election Relaunch of ERT 2015 bailout referendum Tenth austerity package Eleventh austerity package Third Memorandum Second term Second cabinet 2015 European migrant crisis Twelfth austerity package Cohabitation Agreement Thirteenth austerity package Turkish military asylum incident Prespa agreement Kleisthenis I 2018 Attica wildfires Elections 2015 (January) 2015 (September)
v t e

A referendum to decide whether Greece should accept the bailout conditions in the country's government-debt crisis proposed jointly by the European Commission (EC), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB) on 25 June 2015 took place on 5 July 2015.^[1] The referendum was announced by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in the early morning of 27 June 2015 and ratified the following day by the Parliament and the President. It was the first referendum to be held since the republic referendum of 1974 and the only one in modern Greek history not to concern the form of government.

As a result of the referendum, the bailout conditions were rejected by a majority of over 61% to 39%, with the "No" vote winning in all of Greece's regions. The referendum results also forced the immediate resignation of New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras as party president because of the perceived negative result of the "Yes" choice, to which the conservative party and Samaras had committed themselves.^[2] Although winning the referendum, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis also resigned and was replaced on 6 July by Euclid Tsakalotos.

Despite the result of the referendum, the government of Tsipras reached an agreement on 13 July 2015 with the European authorities for a three-year-bailout with even harsher austerity conditions than the ones already rejected by voters. This represented a "drastic turnaround" for Prime Minister Tsipras' position,^[3] as he had been elected in an anti-austerity platform. Former Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis characterised the harshness of the deal as a new Treaty of Versailles and "Greece's Terms of Surrender".^[4] In July and August, Tsipras was able to get the new austerity packages and the entire bailout agreement approved by the Parliament, but had to rely on the pro-European Union opposition parties as around 40 MPs of the major ruling party abstained or voted against the measures.^[5][6] This triggered the September 2015 snap election, where Tsipras was re-elected, albeit with an historical low turnout. The second Tsipras government was marked by an intense austerity policy in the context of the third bailout to Greece.

Greece officially exited from the bailout programs in August 2018 (three years after the referendum) and the Tsipras government announced some social cohesion measures such as increases in pensions and aid packages for low-income groups.^[7] The economy has also seen growth, albeit at a slow pace.^[8] However, these developments have not diminished criticism levelled at the Syriza government for its U-turn and the huge economic and social cost of austerity policies it imposed.