A protester holds signs during an anti-austerity demonstration in support of the Greek government in Syntagma Square in Athens, Greece, on Monday, June 29, 2015. European leaders intervened in Greece's referendum campaign by framing Sunday's vote as an up-or-down decision on whether to quit the euro and the wider European Union. Photographer: Kostas Tsironis/BloombergKostas Tsironis/Bloomberg
Referendums have their uses in healthy democracies, as Canadians can attest. Greece's fledgling civilian government held one in 1974. The politicians refrained from taking sides and left the debates to ordinary citizens. Four decades on, Greeks face another plebiscite. This time, it's a cynical political ploy.
Greeks living through a dreadful recession, soaring unemployment, slashed benefits and deteriorating living standards are being asked to reject or support further harsh austerity measures in exchange for more bailout cash. The government has shuttered all the banks and the stock market for a week and imposed tight controls on capital.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras hopes a convincing "No" vote Sunday will give him more clout in debt-restructuring negotiations with the official creditors – the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Mr. Tsipras is gambling, as he has from the beginning, that the Europeans will do whatever it takes to keep the euro zone intact.
But the money runs out Tuesday, when Greece will miss a €1.6-billion payment to the IMF. And it's not clear there will be a bailout plan left on the table by the time people go to the polls. For that matter, officials aren't even sure they can come up with the money required to print and distribute millions of ballots.
European leaders have made it clear that what's really at stake is whether the embattled country stays in the euro zone or sails off on its own into uncharted waters.
Mr. Tsipras promised the impossible in the election campaign: an end to imposed budget cuts and tax hikes, while retaining the benefits of keeping the euro.
The government may lose the vote. Polls show a majority back the euro and about half support more concessions. Maybe that's what Mr. Tsipras wants, because it would give him the cover to break his promise.
But many economists argue that Grexit from the euro zone is inevitable and that the country would be better off defaulting on debt it can never repay and returning to its own currency, which it could devalue. Either way, Greeks face a difficult future. Pushing an angry electorate into a hasty Greferendum with no time for an airing of the complex issues at stake is no way to make such a choice.