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Despite the expectations of major political events, the record long meeting of the Greek cabinet ended at 3:00 am with the decision to support the prime minister’s initiative to hold a referendum in the country. After it, the government spokesman Ilias Mossialos announced that the referendum would be held as soon as possible, immediately after determining the basic parameters of the new bailout to Greece. Ministers have appointed a committee to undertake the task of determining the date and formulate the referendum question. According to the decision, the goal is Greek citizens to decide on the agreement until the end of the year.

According to sources, George Papandreou was adamant at the meeting about the "roadmap" which he had presented a day earlier before the PASOK parliamentary group. In his speech, he protested the "interests", bankers and media and "responded" to the members of his party by refusing to hold early elections or to form a joint government with other parties. Although all ministers voted for a referendum finally, some of them had opposed it during the debate and criticized Papandreou's proposal.

"It is not possible to call a referendum on an issue that will bind the country for the next 30 years," said minister of health Andreas Loverdos and reserved the right to be clearer when he sees the content of the question. Minister of education Anna Diamantopoulou expressed her reservations about a referendum at that time but showed that she would not oppose the initiative.

The fate of the Greek cabinet however is still on the edge of the blade because it is not likely to survive after the confidence vote on Friday. Currently, PASOK has 152 deputies, the young deputy Eva Kaili will not vote “for” because she is against the call of referendum and it is more than clear that the government majority cannot rely only on the potential positive vote by the independent deputy Elsa Papadimitriou. It was disaffiliated with New Democracy last year, because she supported the ratification of the memorandum of economic assistance, but despite the expectations that she would join the Democratic Alliance of Dora Bakogiannis, she remained in parliament as an independent deputy.

The vote of four other members of PASOK, who called for the establishment of a government of national salvation or unity, and thus have virtually withdrawn their confidence from the government of George Papandreou, is not certain either.

The fact that the vice-president of the government and minister of finance Evangelos Venizelos does not agree with a referendum appears to support the actions of all who want to differentiate. And the moves of the so-called "Group of the 3" ministers Anna Diamantopoulou, Andreas Loverdos and Yannis Ragousis concerning the PASOK leadership after George Papandreou are more active, although all three support the premiere in words. The results of his today's attendance of the G20 summit in Cannes will also influence the outcome of the vote.

In Europe, they continue to believe that the Greek prime minister is "playing cards" with Greece remaining part of the euro zone and the European Union. The leaders of France and Germany have called him in Cannes not to attend the summit of G20 leaders but to "give explanations", "to learn his intentions" and "to bind, if possible with specific deadlines for the implementation of the new loan agreement to Greece," according to sources from both countries. In his address of anger last night, French president Nicolas Sarkozy has left no doubts about the humiliating nature of today's conversations, states real.gr correspondent in Brussels. Similar were the statements by the leaders of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi and Belgium, Yves Leterme, who blamed the Greek prime minister on the total destabilization of the European economy.

According to real.gr, sources from the European Commission have stated that there was nothing to negotiate with the Greek authorities. Anything possible had been done already. In the past two years, they had supported Greece in harsh conditions and to the detriment of their political credibility and now were facing an unprecedented fraud. It was not possible Greek people to be invited to decide whether to return the money European taxpayers were giving since May 2010 or not. Even traditional friends of Greece like Jean-Claude Juncker do not hesitate to make a choice between the collapse of the euro and the isolation of Greece, said the correspondent. Officers of the European Commission, who closely follow the development of the Greek problem, are convinced that "the game is over" and that now the boundaries of European solidarity are under question.

At the same time, two large French editions appeared in kiosks with Greek words on their front page. The title of the lead article in Liberation is "Chaos", in La Tribune - "Collapse". The article in the German newspaper Der Spiegel, which welcomed the Greek prime minister's initiative to hold a referendum, has caused equally strong impressions and confusion.