Memes Are The Weapon Of Choice Ahead Of Greece's Bailout Vote

When your nation has a big decision to make, turn to Photoshop.

1. This weekend, Greece will vote in a nation-defining referendum on whether to accept further austerity measures demanded by the EU. Because this is 2015, the Greeks have turned to memes to make their point.

2. Here, anti-austerity pro-government supporters have reimagined Athens' Parthenon as the word "Oxi" — Greek for "No." This is one of many images that's all over Greek Facebook.

3. Meanwhile opponents of the prime minister who support a Yes vote — "Nai" in Greek — have other views.

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4. Yes supporters want to emphasize that a No vote will leave Greece on its own rather than a key part of the EU.

5. One No supporter has proposed a new design for the euro coin.

6. And this person has reimagined Alex Tsipras in the place of an old Greek revolutionary hero on the old drachma currency.

7. This picture of hands wrapping themselves around Greece is also proving popular.

8. While some viral images are just mocking the entire situation, showing the EU turning up late with a frappe coffee. The text reads: "I'm coming dickheads... It was just a joke."

9. This post mocks Greeks complaining how they can only withdraw 60 euros ($67) a day due to capital controls imposed by the government.

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"All this time you're all complaining about how broke you are so why the hell are you going to the ATM?"

10. Here someone is campaigning against the prime minister using a bad photoshop of a crisp packet.

11. Some anti-EU No voters are creating memes suggesting they don't need the EU because Russia will hold them tight. Like a bear.

12. Greece's Yes-voting pro-EU meme creators tend to make slightly more professional images and use English.

13. There's a very strong anti-German tone in the images created by some No voters.

14. Any chance to attack Germany and Angela Merkel is taken.

15. Including somewhat bizarre quotes about Winston Churchill supposedly urging the bombing of Germany every 50 years.

16. This image mocks Tsipras' Syriza party for promising free money.

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17. While this attack on Syriza reads, "WE'RE COMMITTED... it'll rain money again (once we buy paper and ink again)."

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18. This anti-austerity meme reimagining Banksy's work is proving popular.

19. Then Minions are involved, because every sovereign debt crisis should involve Minions.

20. There's the inevitable version of this poster.

21. Occasional images in which Tsipras goes down with the Titanic also keep popping up.

22. There's also this one where Tsipras is caught with his pants down by Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the EU.

23. Well, there's so much going on here, it's hard to figure it out.

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24. Essentially, this image of the prime minister as Jim Carrey captioned "let's destroy everything" pretty much sums up the Greek internet at the moment.

The referendum is on Sunday. The memes are likely to continue.

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