Greece's former premiers cast their vote in historic referendum

Gazzetta team
Greece's former premiers cast their vote in historic referendum
Greece's former prime ministers also headed for the polls on Sunday, to cast their vote in the historic referendum that will decide the country's future and its relations with the EU and eurozone.

Veteran conservative statesman and honorary New Democracy president Constantine Mitsotakis, just three-odd years shy of his 100th birthday, urged Greeks to vote with wisdom and responsibility from the Halepa primary school in Hania where he is registered to vote.

"What I want to say to the Greek people is to vote with wisdom and responsibility. And to say that, whatever the result of the vote may be, tomorrow is the start of a new era. Challenges and dangers await us. The days to come will be very difficult.

Greece democracy will resolve all the impasses. On one thing alone must we politicians agree from now. That we will protect the unity of the Greek people. Our people must not be divided and do not want to be divided. This is our great debt," he said.

Former ND leader and prime minister Costas Karamanlis, whose administration has been blamed by many for the financial excesses that made Greece the 'weakest link' in Europe, voted in Thessaloniki's Agios Eleftherios district shortly after 8:00 in the morning, receiving a warm welcome has he arrived at the polling station but making no statements.

His successor in the premier's office and the original architect of Greece's largely failed bailout programme, former PASOK leader and later prime minister George Papandreou, voted in the north Athens suburb of Nea Erithrea.

Now head of the 'Kinima' party that failed to get into Parliament, Papandreou stressed that the country must proceed united from Monday for the great changes that need to be made, in order for Greece to remain in the 'inner core' of the euro.