Greek referendum idea was ‘bizarre’, says prime minister

Prime minister Mark Rutte on Friday welcomed Greece’s decision not to go ahead with a referendum on the latest eurozone rescue package.


‘It was a bizarre proposal,’ Rutte said after the weekly cabinet meeting.
Greece announced earlier on Friday that the referendum would not take place.
Rutte said he had lots of telephone contact with other EU leaders, including Greek leader George Papandreou, about the referendum this week. ‘The diplomatic pressure on Greece was considerable,’ Rutte said.
Asked by the NRC if he thought it regrettable that the Netherlands had not been invited to the ongoing G20 summit, Rutte said: ‘I have regrets about many things in life. We are not there. But what I have seen so far is no different to what our position would have been.’

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