Greek Eurocrats try to go home to vote — for a price

They’re scrambling to take part in Sunday’s referendum but find out it won’t be easy.

More than 2,800 kilometers from Athens, Greek officials working for EU institutions in Brussels say they feel powerless as their country hurdles toward a make-or-break referendum Sunday.

They need to return to Greece to vote — and many won’t be able to get there. 

A Greek government website on the referendum says that voting must be done in Greece, and in person. So the only option for Greek expats is to travel there this weekend if they want to cast a ballot. Airline tickets are hard to come by and expensive, with some costing more than €700.

“It will be the most important day in Greece’s history,” said a Greek official in the European Commission, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “And none of us will be able to vote.”

While voting in national Greek elections is mandatory, there is an exception for referendums. But many officials here are eager to vote anyway, if they can find a way.

Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s chief spokesperson Margaritis Schinas, a Greek national and former member of the European Parliament, told POLITICO that he’s scrambling to get home for the vote.

“I shall certainly go,” Schinas said, adding that he is “exploring exact timing and transport alternatives given my responsibilities in/around the press room and the president’s schedule.”

Many Greek officials reported having trouble finding airline tickets to Greece on Wednesday. One-way tickets to Athens were priced at €400 and all Ryanair flights from Brussels to Athens from Wednesday through Sunday were sold out. The airline is now accepting cash payments from Greeks who can’t use their national bank credit cards.

“It will be very difficult because it’s the tourist season and everything is full,” said Beatrix Delfaux, owner of Travel Gallery, an agency based in Brussels that specializes in booking tickets for dignitaries.

Many Greeks are making a special effort to get home for the vote. They see the referendum as more than just a popular verdict on a complicated bailout package. It’s about preserving the European ideal. About 3,000 Greeks work for the EU institutions in Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg.

Brussels attorney Spyros Pappas said he will leave Friday for nearly 72 hours of travel by car and boat to Greece with his wife Frady. The trip will cost him more than €1,000 but he said he feels he has an obligation to vote.

“From an emotional point of view, of course I’m very much embarrassed, I am a European but I’m also a Greek, this is not a comfortable situation for me,” Pappas said. “I feel ashamed. I have been in Europe and thanks to Europe, I have developed in both the public and the private sector.”

Others were not able to find a travel solution.

Ioannis Zografos, a managing producer of the European People’s Party TV station, almost booked a one-way trip to Athens for €400 on budget airline Vueling Wednesday morning but stopped short when he realized he would have to tack on an additional €500 to €600 to get to Strasbourg for the European Parliament plenary by next Tuesday.

“It’s completely insane,” Zografos said. “I have less than one week [to book a trip]. Unfortunately I will not be able to vote. [I feel] very bad, very bad, honestly very bad.”

Eva Kaili, a Greek MEP from the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, complained that Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has been “manipulating” the Greeks by giving them little time to get prepared for the referendum vote.

“The Greeks have now limited time to find out about the referendum and no time nor money to go to their home country,” said Kaili, who was already in Greece to meet constituents and has decided to stay there to promote the Yes campaign.

Others unable to make the trip are settling for speaking out in Brussels.

On Tuesday, hours before Greece went into default, a group of 500 Greek citizens gathered on Place du Luxembourg in front of the European Parliament to promote the Yes campaign. A few of them carried banners stating, “Vote Yes for Europe.”

For now their thoughts are focused on family and friends in their native country, and some have already begun preparations in case they need to send money or supplies.

“I feel like a husband waiting for his wife to give birth in the labor room,” said a Greek official working in the Commission. ’“We just can’t do anything.”

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