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| MPs canvas vociferous voters in Corinthia, weather vane of Greek politics | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| No one is going tell Niko Papadopoulos how to vote in Sunday’s referendum. | No one is going tell Niko Papadopoulos how to vote in Sunday’s referendum. |
| A no vote to the last terms offered by Greece’s lenders would be a catastrophe, said the owner of Archaia Nemea’s sole, tiny supermarket. “Let them cut my pension. I want to stay in Europe.” | |
| Nestling amid spectacularly beautiful countryside in the northern Peloponnese, Archaia Nemea lives off agriculture, particularly wine-growing. But it also has a budding tourist industry, thanks to the efforts of an American professor, Stephen Miller, who made it his life’s work to excavate the nearby site of the ancient Nemean games, which once rivalled those of Olympus. | Nestling amid spectacularly beautiful countryside in the northern Peloponnese, Archaia Nemea lives off agriculture, particularly wine-growing. But it also has a budding tourist industry, thanks to the efforts of an American professor, Stephen Miller, who made it his life’s work to excavate the nearby site of the ancient Nemean games, which once rivalled those of Olympus. |
| In the village’s only bar, Christos, whose father discovered the ancient stadium’s starting line, thought the referendum had nothing to do with the single currency, let alone the EU. “Nowhere on the ballot paper does it say anything about leaving the euro and going back to the drachma,” he said. | In the village’s only bar, Christos, whose father discovered the ancient stadium’s starting line, thought the referendum had nothing to do with the single currency, let alone the EU. “Nowhere on the ballot paper does it say anything about leaving the euro and going back to the drachma,” he said. |
| Christos – he would not give his surname – was going to vote in his interests. The creditors’ proposals were packed with bad news for farmers like him: higher social security contributions; a 26% – Christos thought the figure was 36% – income-tax band that began with the first euro of net earnings and full advance payment of the next year’s estimated tax. | |
| Archaia Nemea is in the multi-seat constituency of Corinthia, the weather vane of Greek politics. | Archaia Nemea is in the multi-seat constituency of Corinthia, the weather vane of Greek politics. |
| “Since 1974 [when democracy was restored], in all but one election, the party that came first in Corinthia was first in the country,” said Christos Dimas, of the right-wing New Democracy (ND) party. The 35-year-old Dimas, a former business consultant, held his seat in January’s general election. Syriza won the remaining three. | |
| Related: How long can Greece survive without support from its creditors? | Related: How long can Greece survive without support from its creditors? |
| Like most opposition MPs, Dimas is seething over the decision of the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, to call a snap referendum. He reels off a string of objections: the constitution says you can hold a referendum on anything except a budgetary issue; the question is about an offer that has already been withdrawn, and there should have been two ballot papers to give equal weight to each response. Instead, there was one – and the No was above the Yes. | Like most opposition MPs, Dimas is seething over the decision of the prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, to call a snap referendum. He reels off a string of objections: the constitution says you can hold a referendum on anything except a budgetary issue; the question is about an offer that has already been withdrawn, and there should have been two ballot papers to give equal weight to each response. Instead, there was one – and the No was above the Yes. |
| “They said they were going to do it alphabetically,” he said. That suggested nai (yes) would go before oxi (no). But when the ballot paper was published, it had Den egrino (I do not approve) ahead of Egrino (I approve). | |
| The biggest problem for the yes campaign, though, was to explain in a few days “that the issue is not whether you want the measures – no one wants them – but whether you want to stay in the EU”. | |
| Dimas had done some door-to-door campaigning, or rather cafe-to-cafe, in the villages and Corinth, his constituency’s biggest town. But ND had not even had time to print posters. | |
| “We have serious organisational problems,” he said. But were the parties supporting a yes vote not pooling their resources? | |
| “There isn’t any formal cooperation,” said Dimas. “But there are talks between the three main opposition parties.” It did not sound promising. | “There isn’t any formal cooperation,” said Dimas. “But there are talks between the three main opposition parties.” It did not sound promising. |
| Related: Greek debt crisis: Yanis Varoufakis says he'll resign if Greece votes Yes - live updates | Related: Greek debt crisis: Yanis Varoufakis says he'll resign if Greece votes Yes - live updates |
| It was different at Syriza headquarters in Corinth, where Maria Theleriti, a local authority official before she became an MP, said her party had a four-point strategy. | It was different at Syriza headquarters in Corinth, where Maria Theleriti, a local authority official before she became an MP, said her party had a four-point strategy. |
| “We have produced a flyer with the disadvantages of a yes and the advantages of a no. We have done interviews on TV and radio. We are making visits to the towns and villages, talking to people and gathering opinions that we then bring back here to discuss,” she said. | |
| Then, of course, there was social media. “But that isn’t as important as making personal contact with voters because in the villages they don’t have any involvement with social media.” | Then, of course, there was social media. “But that isn’t as important as making personal contact with voters because in the villages they don’t have any involvement with social media.” |
| “We consider this referendum to be part of the negotiations,” said her fellow MP for Corinthia, Georgios Psychogios. “They can ignore a government, but they can’t ignore an entire society. We want to stay in the EU, but on better terms and with dignity, not like dogs on the run from the Germans and the other northerners.” | “We consider this referendum to be part of the negotiations,” said her fellow MP for Corinthia, Georgios Psychogios. “They can ignore a government, but they can’t ignore an entire society. We want to stay in the EU, but on better terms and with dignity, not like dogs on the run from the Germans and the other northerners.” |
| That view ran into stiff resistance when Theleriti hit the streets of Loutraki, a resort that caters mostly to weekenders from Athens. | That view ran into stiff resistance when Theleriti hit the streets of Loutraki, a resort that caters mostly to weekenders from Athens. |
| “If we vote no, we’ll go back to the drachma,” protested a man in the Svetlana coffee bar, prompting a vigorous response from Theleriti’s band of about a dozen helpers. Across the road, a queue of 27 people had formed at the National Bank’s ATM. | |
| Related: Greek pensioners queue at dawn as banks allow a €120 withdrawal | Related: Greek pensioners queue at dawn as banks allow a €120 withdrawal |
| With the exception of Theleriti’s bearded, long-haired young parliamentary assistant, none of the Syriza activists looked like the kind of people who usually support the radical left. | With the exception of Theleriti’s bearded, long-haired young parliamentary assistant, none of the Syriza activists looked like the kind of people who usually support the radical left. |
| They included an accountant, a beautician, a retired bank worker and a shopkeeper, Thanasis Spanos, who said he had two children. “They are both graduates. One is a waiter. The other is a waitress. And we thank God they have jobs.” | They included an accountant, a beautician, a retired bank worker and a shopkeeper, Thanasis Spanos, who said he had two children. “They are both graduates. One is a waiter. The other is a waitress. And we thank God they have jobs.” |
| Theo Mavraganis, a party worker from out of town, thought it was understandable. “Since 2010, the middle class has been collapsing. I know of people who voted for ND who now vote for us,” he said as a woman in her late thirties came to listen to Theleriti speak. | Theo Mavraganis, a party worker from out of town, thought it was understandable. “Since 2010, the middle class has been collapsing. I know of people who voted for ND who now vote for us,” he said as a woman in her late thirties came to listen to Theleriti speak. |
| After his own meet-the-voters exercise, Christos Dimas said he would “dare to say that most were leaning towards a yes. | |
| But Stephen Miller, the archaeologist, who still lives for most of the year in Archaia Nemea, has another method of predicting the outcome, which, he said, has worked at every election since he arrived in the 1970s: go to Nikos Saisanas’s bar and ask the balance of opinion. | |
| “Twenty per cent of his customers are on the right. Twenty per cent are on the left. And the others I call ‘wherever the wind blows’,” he said. | |
| So what result does the professor’s method yield? | So what result does the professor’s method yield? |
| “Eight to twenty,” said the bar’s Falstaffian owner emphatically, “for a no.” |