Over 260,000 Austrians sign petition on EU exit

More than 260,000 people in Austria have signed a petition urging the Austrian government to leave the European Union (EU).

According to reports on Thursday, as many as 261,159 Austrians signed the petition. The number in total represents 4.12 percent of the country's electorate.

Since under the country's regulations the threshold for calling a debate on a potential referendum is 100,000 people, the Austrian parliament must discuss a referendum on leaving the EU.

The call for leaving the EU was most popular in the regions of Lower Austria and in Carinthia where 5.18 percent and 4.85 percent of potential voters, respectively, signed the petition.

The organizer of the petition was a 66-year-old retired translator named Inge Rauscher. He called the petition “a great result” and linked its success partially to the Greek crisis.

Rauscher composed a similar petition in 2000 when 3.35 percent of the electorate signed it.

Greece missed a June 30 deadline to repay €1.6 billion (USD 1.79 billion) it owes to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), becoming the first developed country to officially default on a loan to the IMF after a breakdown in talks with the so-called troika of international lenders – the IMF, the European Central Bank, and the European Commission.

Athens has been struggling to borrow on international markets over the past few years. It has presented a list of reforms needed to restart bailout loan payments, but the creditors have described Greece's proposals as insufficient and called for tougher austerity measures.

On June 27, the Greek parliament passed a bill approving Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' motion to hold the referendum on whether the government should agree to the lenders' demands in return for bailout funds to the debt-ridden country.

Tsipras has called for a 'no' vote in the country’s referendum on July 5 on the terms of a bailout deal with Athens’ international creditors.

In 2010 and 2012, Greece received two bailout packages worth a total of €240 billion (USD 272 billion) from its creditors following the 2009 economic crisis.

IA/SS

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