French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday that they respect the outcome of the weekend's Greek referendum opposing more austerity and are open to negotiations, a day before Greece's prime minister heads to Brussels to lay out his newest plans for other eurozone leaders, according to dpa. Hollande stressed the "urgency" of finding a solution to the economic impasse, while Merkel said it is up to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to make proposals about how to lead the Greek economy forward. "The situation has to be solved," Merkel said, adding that the last offer made to Greece before it opted for a controversial referendum was "generous." "It's up to Tsipras to put forward a serious and credible proposal that translates into a long and lasting programme," Hollande said. Tsipras spoke with both Hollande and Merkel before the German and French leaders met in Paris. The two leaders spoke one day after the referendum that saw 61 per cent of voters in the country cast a ballot against the terms of a 110-billion-euro (122-billion-dollar) bailout package negotiated in 2010. A second package, totaling 172.6 billion euros, followed on February 21, 2012. Tsipras had repeatedly said that the results of the referendum were not a vote on whether to remain in the eurozone. Instead, he said he has secured support for his negotiating position. On Monday, all key Greek political parties - save the Communisty Party and the far-right Golden Dawn party - said they backed his negotiating stance as he headed to the special eurozone summit. "The prime minister will go to Brussels to negotiate on behalf of all the Greek people," Defence Minister Panos Kammenos said in a televised address. Tsipras had promised to submit new ideas on how to break the deadlock surrounding Greece at the extraordinary summit of eurozone leaders. The summit will be preceded by a meeting of eurozone finance ministers, to be attended by Greece's newly named finance minister, Euclides Tsakalotos. The 55-year-old Oxford-educated economist on Monday replaced Yanis Varoufakis, who stepped down in the wake of Sunday's anti-austerity referendum. Tsakalotos, who is seen as soft-spoken in comparison to his feisty predecessor, had already served as coordinator of the Greek negotiating team after the sidelining of Varoufakis in April. "The referendum of July 5 will stay in history as a unique moment when a small European nation rose up against debt-bondage," Varoufakis wrote on his blog as he announced he was quitting his post in order to facilitate negotiations with the country's international creditors. "I was made aware of a certain preference by some Eurogroup participants, and assorted 'partners,' for my ... 'absence' from its meetings; an idea that the prime minister judged to be potentially helpful to him in reaching an agreement. For this reason I am leaving the Ministry of Finance today," Varoufakis wrote. His departure was seen as a sign of Athens' willingness to resume negotiations with the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund with a clean slate. Wolfango Piccoli, managing director of analysts Teneo Intelligence, said Tsipras had made a "constructive start," pointing to his "moderate victory speech and now Varoufakis has been pushed out." "The next and bigger challenge for Tsipras will be to convince Berlin that he can be trusted and that he can deliver," Piccoli told dpa. In Germany, government spokesman Steffen Seibert ruled out a debt restructuring for Greece. "In the light of yesterday's decision by the Greek people, there are currently no conditions to enter negotiations for a new aid programme," he sad. Greek banks are fast running out of money despite been propped up for months by funds provided to the nation's central bank through the ECB's Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) scheme. Reports said that banks in Greece would remain closed through Wednesday. On Monday, the European Central Bank said it will maintain the ELA provisions to Greece at around 90 billion euros (100 billion dollars) - the same level that was agreed on June 26, prior to Sunday's anti-austerity referendum. "The governing council is closely monitoring the situation in financial markets and the potential implications for the monetary policy stance and for the balance of risks to price stability in the euro area," the ECB said in a statement issued after a meeting in Frankfurt. Greece is due to repay 3.5 billion euros in loans to the ECB on July 20. Analysts say defaulting on the payment would almost certainly result in the ECB ending its ELA programme, consequently bankrupting Greece's banking sector and possibly leading the nation to crash out of the euro. IMF chief Christine Lagarde, for her part, said the institution was "ready to assist Greece if requested to do so," having "taken note" of the results of Sunday's referendum.
