Thousands of people gathered in front of Athens’ Panathinaikos stadium in central Athens for  a “yes’ rally ahead of Sunday’s referendum, and only a few blocks from where thousands of supporters gathered for the “no” rally in front of Parliament. The U-shaped all-marbled stadium served as the first venue for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896

Greek PM Alexis Tsipras was scheduled to address the “no” rally, a more-or-less expected development given that he called the snap plebiscite and has repeated called for a “no” vote, in no less than three nationally televised appearances. Moreover, Tsipras is also staking his nearly six-month-old government’s future on the outcome of Sunday’s referendum.

Besides his radical left SYRIZA party, other political parties backing the “no” are the latter’s junior coalition partner, the populist-rightist Independent Greeks (AN.EL) party, the ultra-nationalist Golden Dawn (Chryssi Avgi) and the out-of-parliament but very vocal Antarsya, a rabidly anti-capitalist and internationalist bloc.

Tsipras was headed on foot from his prime ministerial office to address the rally.