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Next Sunday, Greece will be facing a fateful decision. Its citizens will have to make their civilizational and geopolitical choice. Here is the analysis of Paschos Mandravelis, a Kathimerini columnist:

June 27 is a historic day for Greece. It is likely to prove fairly daunting as well, but that makes no dent into its historic nature. On this day, after five months of vain procrastination (which only the government coalition partners preferred to qualify as ‘negotiations’), Mr. Alexis Tsipras has decided to give up on his historic responsibilities and chuck the burden of his failure over to the Greek people. He has decided to call a referendum, which will be the first one since 1974, at extremely short notice (one week!), during which banks are likely to be closed, the partners will be cross and government coffers – empty.

Nevertheless, 27 June is still a historic day, stamped by the prime minister’s declaration. One might expect that the gravity of the decision would have at least made the declaration responsibly and carefully thought through. One might hope that a decision, which entails a hefty risk of plunging the country into hell, should have attached to it sufficient arguments, that the declaration itself will make the case for the decision and will contain something that future generations ought to remember, whether as a dark stain or otherwise.

Vain hopes! Nothing profound has been rolled out. What we were served instead was unkempt platitudes with a pinch of right-wing populism, such as those often heard in undergraduate auditoriums: "In a context of an ultimatum blackmailing us into a cruel and degrading austerity with no end or prospects to get back on our feet in social or economic terms, I urge you to decide in such a sovereign and proud way as the history of the Greeks commands."

But the haste in making this proclamation is betrayed by what Tsipras has added on top of that: "I commit myself personally to respect the outcome of your democratic choice, whatever it might be." What does our prime minister mean? That he is calling on the Greeks to vote in their advisory capacity? That the PM could just as well not have respected the referendum outcome, ‘whatever it might be’? That choice is up to him, but in the goodness of his heart he is doing a favour to the Greek people by taking note of its voice?

Of course, he does not mean any of the above. The referendum was tossed as a nuclear bomb without any preparation. The same as the declaration itself. The country is strung along towards disaster by dint of hand-over-fist decisions – just like all the ‘negotiations’ of the last few months have been conducted without so much as thinking the matters through in advance. The Greek people will have to decide on the future of the next generations within a single (1) week! But they won't even be able to read the question, let alone debate on it.