With banks closed for a fifth day on Friday and capital controls in place, Athens is mobilizing for the "No" votes.
Minister for Productive Reconstruction, Environment and Energy Panagiotis Lafazanis, said that the July 5 referendum is an "experiment" to put pressure on Greece's creditors. "It's the best we can do.... The government is facing a cruel dilemma: either accept our creditors' proposals or call a referendum," Lafazanis said Thursday during an interview interview with Parapolitica FM.
Greece's deputy foreign minister Euclid Tsakalotos told CNN's Christiane Amanpour that Greeks should vote 'No' in Sunday's referendum, but a 'Yes' means the government "will have been defeated."
Tsakalotos, an Oxford-educated economist who has has replaced the controversial finance minister Varoufakis as head of Greece's team of negotiators, believes the controversial referendum could provide a way out of the crisis. He said that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras could not bring the deal creditors proposed to parliament because SYRIZA MPs would vote against it, therefore the government would have fallen.
He also sharply criticized the policy of austerity enacted in Greece over the last five years and the extended negotiations with international creditors.
Yanis Varoufakis said there's a "100% chance" Athens will reach an agreement with its international creditors after a bailout referendum due on Sunday.
"An agreement will be reached whether a 'Yes' or 'No' comes up through the ballot box," Varoufakis told BBC News in an interview on Thursday.
Even though Tsipras promised to protect Greeks' deposits, pensions, and wages Varoufakis gave an evasive answer on how the government would be able to keep up with its promises if Greece's creditors close the financial spigot.
WHAT WILL A 'YES' VOTE MEAN?
For Tsipras, if voters back a bailout plan that he has scorned, his government is likely to fall, leading to new elections by September, even if other options are also possible, such as PM Tsipras staying in power and accepting the deal with Greece's creditors.
After PM Tsipras steps down, moderate Syriza MPs could join other moderate parties (PASOK, Potami and ND) into a national-unity government. The new government would re-engage with the Institutions to sign an agreement as per the mandate given by the referendum. Snap elections would remain a possibility in this scenario, but probably not until after the summer.
European leaders have ruled out further negotiations with Greece ahead of Sunday's referendum.
According to Reuters even if negotiations do restart after the referendum, Germany and others made clear that any talks on a new program would have to start from scratch with different conditions.