MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Sunday, over 61 percent of Greek voters rejected creditors-proposed demands, including tax hikes and pension cuts in exchange for a new financial aid package for the country.
"Of course, this gesture [the referendum] is very risky. The establishment will multiply the intimidations, the specter of a Grexit will become more threatening than ever," French philosopher Catherine Malabou said.
Malabou, a professor in the Philosophy Department of the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy (CRMEP) at Kingston University, added, that the situation in Greece is political and not economic.
"Economy, through the mediation of debt, is fundamentally a blackmailing pretext. The state of humiliation, poverty, precariousness, deprivation of sovereignty, in which Greece has been thrown into, is the result of a political decision," she stated.
Thanos Pallis, Associate Professor at the Department of Shipping, Trade and Transport, of the University of the Aegean, Greece, believes there are two possible consequence to Sunday's vote.
"One, is the acceptance of [creditors'] terms that will be associated with austerity measures…The other one is an accidental exit from the Eurozone, under the pressure of empty ATMs and the need for the economy to leave the intensive care room," he claimed.
Pallis expressed hope that either path would not have disastrous consequences for Greece.
Trying to contemplate an EU reaction to the results of the Greek vote, Stratos Papadimitriou of the University of Piraeus Research Center, Greece, said that "they should realize that the majority of Greek people want to be in the Eurozone," adding that the EU leaders are disappointed that five years of austerity measures brought no desired results.
According to Wendy Brown of the University of California, Berkeley, Greeks have "set a new course for saying no to hideous neoliberal choices-not only for Europe but for the rest of the world."
"Building confidence, building measures and behaving like true partners is the right thing to do and I am sure these policies will prevail and Greece will remain in the Eurozone," Papadimitriou asserted.
"Yes, Greece's hand is strengthened by the outcome of the referendum but it is still a weak hand in the European game," Brown said.
The refusal of Greece to pay down its debt to international creditors fueled further speculations that Greece would end up leaving the euro.
While the Greek government has welcomed Sunday's referendum results as a triumph for democracy, Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Monday that the outcome of the vote was "regrettable," adding that it was not boding well for the country’s future.
