Hasan Mroue / AFP - Getty Images

Cypriot protestors outside the parliament in the capital, Nicosia, on Tuesday.

Banks in Cyprus will remain closed until Tuesday as the country tries to avert financial meltdown after rejecting the terms of a controversial bailout, turning instead to Russia for help.

An official said banks, which been shut for days amid fears of a run on savings, will stay closed on Thursday and Friday, CNBC and Reuters reported. Monday is a public holiday.

Earlier, Germany said the banks were effectively insolvent and might never open at all unless Cypriot political leaders accepted a bailout deal.

Thousands of Cypriots withdrew savings after the unexpected European Union announcement that it would provide $12.9 billion in exchange for up to 10 per cent of the value of all bank deposits – a move that would have thrown the Mediterranean island a lifeline but hundreds of thousands of citizens out of pocket.

Germany's finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble said major Cypriot banks were "insolvent if there are no emergency funds,” according to a BBC report, meaning savers might lose all their money if no deal was reached.

Greek media reports suggested the Cyprus Popular Bank had been sold to Russian investors, but the Cypriot government denied such a deal, Reuters said.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the ball was now in Cyprus' court. "I regret the vote of the parliament yesterday," she told reporters. "But of course we respect it and will now look to see what proposals Cyprus makes.

"From a political point of view, I say that Cyprus needs a sustainable banking sector. Today's banking sector is not sustainable," she added.

Alexander Nemenov / AFP - Getty Images

Cypriot Finance Minister Michael Sarris outside the Russian Finance Ministry in Moscow on Wednesday.

Even before the deal was rejected, Cypriot Finance Minister Michalis Sarris was already in Moscow working on an alternative plan to extend loans by using the island’s natural resources as a guarantee, according to English-language Cyprus Mail newspaper.

The crisis leaves the 17-nation Euro currency zone in uncharted territory: Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy have all accepted austerity cuts in return for aid.

Cyprus’ parliament rejected the deal late Tuesday when 36 lawmakers voted unanimously against it and the ruling party abstained, Reuters reported. Outside the parliament, hundreds demonstrated, chanting: "They're drinking our blood."

"The voice of the people was heard," jubilant 65-year-old retiree Andreas Miltiadou told Reuters after the vote.

Ivan Tchakarov, chief economist at Renaissance Capital, told CNBC that Russia, which was enraged by the unexpected European deal, could step in to save Cyprus from total financial collapse.

"This situation presents a fantastic opportunity for Russia and even President Putin to take moral high ground and to extend another loan to Cyprus and to become a savior of Europe," he told CNBC in Moscow.

"At the end of the day we're only talking about an additional seven to eight billion dollars of additional money that is needed to have a complete package for Cyprus, this is small change for Russia.”

Russian citizens account for the majority of the billions of euros held in Cypriot banks by foreign depositors.

Russia wasn’t the only critic of the deal, which was greeted with widespread dismay among global money markets. In an editorial, Bloomberg said it was the “worst” decision of the entire regional financial crisis, while the Economist panned it as "unfair, short-sighted and self-defeating."

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Yorgos Karahalis / Reuters

Demonstrators raise their arms in protest as Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades's convoy drives to the parliament in Nicosia, Monday.

LONDON — Banks in Cyprus will remain closed until Thursday to prevent panic withdrawals in the wake of a surprise bailout plan that has sent money markets into a tailspin, the country's government announced Monday.

Ministers met Monday to revise a plan to seize up to 10 per cent from bank accounts held on the Mediterranean island — the price of a deal, brokered by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Cypriots and foreign investors emptied ATMs following Saturday’s unexpected 10 billion euro ($13 billion) deal under which savers must surrender up to 10 percent of bank deposits. Banks in Cyprus were due to remain closed because of a public holiday Monday.

A debate on the measure has been delayed until Tuesday. Meanwhile, the country’s banks, already shut on Monday for a bank holiday, will remain closed on Tuesday and Wednesday to avert any panic.

Adding to the uncertainty, Greek media reports on Monday suggested Russian energy giant Gazprom might offer Cyprus an alternative to the bailout. 

Russian citizens account for the majority of the billions of euros held in Cypriot banks by foreign depositors, and Moscow has already given the Mediterranean country a sovereign loan to ease its financial crisis.

Russia’s president Vladimir Putin criticized the bailout as "unfair, unprofessional and dangerous," Reuters said, citing a spokesman.

The Economist also criticized the deal, describing it as "unfair, short-sighted and self-defeating."

Financial markets in Europe fell sharply in early trading Monday following the surprise announcement of a levy on bank accounts in Cyprus as part of a financial bailout.

Markets in Italy and Spain — countries regarded at the highest risk of further financial crisis – saw some of the biggest share falls, particularly in the banking sector.

Katia Christodoulou / EPA

A woman unsuccessfully attempts to withdraw from a Cypriot bank ATM in Greece on Sunday.

"It's a Cyprus shock,” Ken Hasegawa, a commodity sales manager at Newedge in Tokyo, told Reuters.

The bailout caused dismay in Cyprus. "They shouldn’t touch the deposits. They’re just killing the people," 58-year-old Miltiades Papamiltiades, an unemployed former construction worker, told the English-language  Cyprus Mail news site. "No one will ever deposit money again into the banks on the island. It is the end of our economy," he added.

Of the $90 billion deposits held in Cyprus banks, a little under half is held by non-residents, mostly Russian.

Alex Spillius, of the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph, reported that Cyprus in recent years had become, like off-shore haven Monaco, "something of a sunny place for shady people." He wrote:

"By 2011, the IMF reported that the assets of Cypriot banks were equivalent to 835 per cent of annual national income. Some of that was down to investment by foreign-owned banks, but most was Cypriot.

This imbalance might have been sustainable had the country’s two largest banks not made loans to the Greek government worth 160 per cent of Cypriot GDP. It has never been clear whether that risk was taken out of ethnic solidarity, or from a presumption that the Greeks knew what they were doing. But in any event, it was disastrous."

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Lluis Gene / AFP - Getty Images

Current President of Catalonia and leader of the CiU (Catalan Convergence and Unity) party Artur Mas casts his ballot for regional elections in Barcelona on Sunday.

UPDATED at 7:50 p.m. ET: BARCELONA, Spain -- Separatists in Spain's Catalonia won regional elections on Sunday but failed to get the resounding mandate they need to push convincingly for a referendum on independence. 

Catalan President Artur Mas, who has implemented unpopular spending cuts in an economic crisis, had called an early election to test support for his new drive for independence for Catalonia, a wealthy region in northeastern Spain.

Voters handed almost two thirds of the 135-seat local parliament to four different Catalan separatist parties that all want to hold a referendum on secession from Spain.

But they punished the main separatist group, Mas's Convergence and Union alliance, or CiU, cutting back its seats to 50 from 62. That will make it difficult for Mas to lead a united drive to hold a referendum in defiance of the constitution and the central government in Madrid.

"Mas clearly made a mistake. He promoted a separatist agenda and the people have told him they want other people to carry out his agenda," said Jose Ignacio Torreblanca, head of the European Council on Foreign Relations' Madrid office.

The result will come as a relief for Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who is battling a deep recession and 25 percent unemployment while he struggles to cut high borrowing costs by convincing investors of Spain's fiscal and political stability.

Mas, surrounded by supporters chanting "independence, independence", said he would still try to carry out the referendum but added that, "it is more complex, but there is no need to give up on the process."

Resurgent Catalan separatism had become a major headache for Rajoy, threatening to provoke a constitutional crisis over the legality of a referendum just as he is trying to concentrate on a possible international bailout for troubled Spain.

Frustration over the Spanish tax system, under which Catalonia shares some of its tax revenue with the rest of the country, has revived a long-dormant secessionist spirit in Catalonia. Catalans believe if they could invest more of their taxes at home their economy would prosper.

Mas had tried to ride the separatist wave after hundreds of thousands demonstrated in the streets in September, demanding independence for their region, which has its own language and sees itself as distinct from the rest of Spain.

In a speech to supporters on Sunday night, Mas recognised that he had lost ground and though CiU is still the largest group in Catalan's parliament, he said would need the support of another party to govern and to continue pushing through tough economic measures.

"We've fallen well short of the majority we had. We've been ruling for two years under very tough circumstances," he said.

Traditional separatists the Republican Left, or ERC, won the second biggest presence in the Catalan parliament, with 21 seats. The Socialists took 20 seats. And Rajoy's centre-right People's Party won 19.

Three other parties, including two that want a referendum on independence, split the remaining 25 seats. ECFR's Torreblanca said the Catalan elections were similar to those around Europe in that economic woes have benefited marginal political groups, while larger, traditional parties have lost ground.

Mas's bet on separatism may have helped out the big winner of Sunday's election, the Republican Left, which more than doubled its seats in the Catalan parliament to 21 from 10, 

Emilio Morenatti / AP

Supporters of center-right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU) leader, Artur Mas, wave their pro-independence "estelada" flags during the last day of campaigning in a meeting in Barcelona, Spain, Friday.

"He talked about it so much that he ended up helping the only party that has always been for independence, which is the Republican Left," said political analyst Ismael Crespo at the Ortega y Gasset research institute.

A legal referendum would require a change to the constitution, and Spain's main parties in the national parliament, the Socialists and Rajoy's People's Party, have shown no appetite for that.

Mas's CiU had traditionally been a pro-business moderate nationalist party that fought for more autonomy and self-governance for Catalonia without breaking away from Spain.

Mas broke with that tradition in September when he made a big bet on a referendum.

Catalonia, with 7.5 million people, is more populous than Denmark. Its economy is almost as big as Portugal's and it generates one fifth of Spanish gross domestic product.

After a decade of overspending during Spain's real estate boom, Catalonia and most of the country's other regions are struggling to pay state workers and meet debt payments. Unemployment has soared and spending on hospitals and schools has been cut.

Mas was one of the first Spanish leaders to embark on harsh austerity measures after Catalonia's public deficit soared and the regional government was shunned by debt markets.

Josep Freixas, 37 and unemployed, voted for CiU but recognised the party had lost seats "because people have been really affected by the spending cuts and by the crisis."

At CiU headquarters on Sunday night Freixas carried a rolled up pro-independence flag - a single star against yellow and red stripes - that has become a symbol of the separatist movement.

Turnout was very high in the election, 68 percent, 10 percentage points higher than in the previous vote two years ago.

Many Catalans are angry that Rajoy has refused to negotiate a new tax deal with their largely self-governing region. Annually, an estimated 16 billion euros ($21 billion) in taxes paid in Catalonia, about 8 percent of its economic output, is not returned to the region.

Home to car factories and banks and birthplace of surrealist painter Salvador Dali and architect Antoni Gaudi, the region also has one of the world's most successful football clubs, FC Barcelona.

Wary that separatism could spread to the Basque Country and beyond, Rajoy said this week that the Catalan election was more important than general elections. 

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Hellenic Republic Asset Development

The Afantou property consists of two neighbouring beachfront land plots located in the Afantou area of the island of Rhodes. The Rhodes International Airport, the city of Rhodes and the Rhodes Hospital are only 20 km away. Both plots are very close to the Rhodes-Lindos Highway, the major road artery of the island.

Got some cash to spend? How about a piece of the Greek islands of Rhodes or Corfu? Or a royal palace, a marina, or even a consulate building?

As Greece is struggling to appease international lenders and live up to the conditions of its bailout, the debt-choked nation is speeding up the sale of state assets by expanding its privatization program.

Hellenic Republic Asset Development

International Broadcasting Center (IBC – Golden Hall) in Athens, Greece.

Greece’s state fund (Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund or HRADF) now has more than 70,000 state-owned properties on offer for investors and it aims to generate 19 billion euro ($24.5 billion) by 2015 via the sales.

The state’s properties include a 119,800 square-meter peninsula with a palace hotel complex and a marina, a 450,000 square-meter area in Rhodes with an 18-hole golf course and four miles of beach, a coastline in Corfu, an airport area in Athens and the 2004 Athens Olympics broadcast center.

CNBC: World’s biggest debtor nations

Apart from land areas, Greece is also offering its government buildings. Greece's ministries of justice, health, education and culture are seeking to rent out some of their buildings, and although the country is coping with rampant tax evasion, 13 of its tax offices are on offer for privatization as well.

CNBC: Which country has the lowest debt in the euro zone?

But Sam Zell, U.S. real estate mogul and chairman of Equity Group Investments, told CNCB that a similar retail property would cost “dramatically less” in the United States and added that he was not familiar with the Greek commercial real estate market.

Privatization wobbles
Greece’s plans to launch a privatization program have been postponed several times because of the country's political uncertainty, but a source at the state fund told CNBC it is ready to make up for this “wasted time.”

CNBC: Spain finance minister’s ‘no bailout’ remark sparks laughter

So far the privatization fund has raised less than a tenth of the targeted amount. Investors have not been rushing to lease the state’s assets because of the “fog around the Greek economy” and worries the assets could be devalued further if Greece were to exit the euro zone.

Lamda CEO Athanassiou described the program as Greece’s last chance to be a successful country.

Complete World news coverage on NBCNews.com

He also noted that the Greek government has not exploited the full potential of its tourism and new energy industries.

“There are so many resources and opportunities in Greece. It's not a matter of a poor performing private sector or a lack of resources, but how the state is operating,” he said.

Read this story on CNBC.com 

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Orestis Panagiotou/EPA

Tourists visit the archaeological site immediately beneath the south side of the Athens Acropolis where a 42-year-old bank employee reportedly committed suicide Thursday.

ATHENS - A Greek bank worker plunged to his death from the Acropolis on Thursday, in what police said could be the latest in a growing number of suicides caused by economic suffering in the debt-ridden nation. 

The man was in his 40s and worked at Greece's troubled state-owned agricultural lender, ATEbank. He took a break shortly after starting work in the morning but never returned, police said. 

"Guards and tourists saw him at the spot before the jump," a police official said on condition of anonymity. 

"Others heard a loud scream and saw him lying on the ground. It could be suicide, but there's no note." The official said the man did not appear to have any financial problems. 

A report on Greek news site Ta Nea [link in Greek] said police were still trying to determine whether the death was an accident or suicide.

The incident happened at around 9 a.m., as tourists began arriving at Greece's most famous attraction, a 150-metre high, flat-topped rock which is the location of the 5th century BC Parthenon temple. 

In debt or jobless, many Italians choose suicide

The growing rate of suicide in Greece has come to symbolize the human toll of the country's unabated debt crisis, as repeated bouts of austerity drive Greeks to despair. 

The country's government, which took office after a June 17 election, says the suffering has become intolerable and it will ask the European Union at a two-day summit starting on Thursday to ease the punishing terms imposed in exchange for an international bailout.

Conservative Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is under huge public pressure to ease the burden of the IMF-EU bailout as he faces an opposition committed to tearing it up, which made strong gains in the election. 

'Martyr for Greece': Retiree's suicide sparks violent protests

Unable to attend the summit because of eye surgery at the weekend, Samaras sent a letter to EU leaders asking for a "different approach", a government spokesman said on Wednesday. 

He is unlikely to win much leeway, with euro zone paymaster Germany fiercely opposed to any let-up in the austerity. 

The suicide rate in Greece has shot up through five years of recession and two years of steep cuts to wages, pensions and jobs in exchange for two multi-billion-euro bailouts since 2010. 

Critics say the austerity has helped condemn the lifeless Greek economy to ever deeper recession, shuttering businesses and driving unemployment to almost 23 percent. 

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AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis

Greece's newly sworn-in Prime Minister Antonis Samaras gestures to supporters after taking over from caretaker Prime Minister Panayiotis Pikramenos at Maximos Mansion in Athens.

ATHENS - A conservative-led Greek government has been agreed and will form a team to "renegotiate" the international bailout deal that would save the country from bankruptcy, the leader of one of the coalition parties said Wednesday.

Socialist PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos said his party would enter a three-way alliance with the larger conservative New Democracy and that cabinet posts would be decided by Wednesday evening.

He said the key issue would be to form a team to renegotiate the $164.79 billion bailout deal from the European Union and International Monetary Fund.

Greece avoids 'Drachmageddon' but Europe debt crisis remains

"Greece has a government and this is the message that the outgoing finance minister [George] Zanias will take to the Eurogroup," Venizelos told reporters.

Reuters said Antonis Samaras would meet President Karolos Papoulias later on Wednesday to announce the coalition deal, after which he expected to be sworn in as prime minister.

The opposition radical leftist bloc SYRIZA came second in the election and strongly opposes the bailout. A graph illustrating the results was published on the BBC website.

A Greek exit from the euro joint currency zone is still viewed as a possibility, despite a narrow majority for parties who are broadly in favor of a bailout, despite the inevitable tough austerity measures.

The Daily Telegraph reported that although public sector wages and pensions have been cut by 25-30 per cent since the country’s economic crisis took hold, thousands of redundancies have not taken place as promised, a privatization program has barely got off the ground and tax evasion remains endemic.

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Greece appeared to have avoided crashing out of the euro currency zone early Monday after political parties in favor of an international bailout deal won a slim election majority – but the region’s debt crisis showed no sign of abating.

Antonis Samaras, leader of the conservative New Democracy party, said he was confident of forming a coalition as he announced talks with leaders of all parties "that believe in Greece's European orientation and the euro."

Foreign leaders reacted positively to the result, viewed as crucial in holding the joint currency together, and there was a brief rally on Europe’s money markets. 

Arriving at the G20 summit meeting in Mexico, Italy’s Prime Minister, Mario Monti, said: “This allows us to have a more serene vision for the future of the European Union and for the eurozone.”

However, fresh worries over debt problems in Spain and Italy wiped out the market gains. Spanish 10-year government bond yields rose to 7.14 percent, pushing the nation's implied borrowing costs to their highest during the euro's lifetime. Italian 10-year bond yields also rose to 6.08 percent. Seven percent is widely seen as an unsustainably high cost of borrowing.

Citigroup analyst Jurgen Michels said on Monday that, even after the election result, the probability of Greece leaving the euro over the next 12 to 18 months remained at between 50 and 75 per cent, according to Business Insider.

Struggling Greece remains deeply divided over whether to implement a harsh austerity package, the price for receiving a total of $300 billion in bailout money from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to save its near-bankrupt economy. 

Right-winger re-elected despite assault trial
The radical left, anti-austerity SYRIZA bloc won 27 per cent of the vote – only 2.7 percentage points less than New Democracy, while the ultra-right wing Golden Dawn party also enjoyed success despite its spokesman, Ilias Kasidiaris, facing trial for assault after slapping a female rival during a live television debate.

Andreas Solaro / AFP - Getty Images

Ilias Kasidiaris, member of Greek Parliament and spokesman of extreme-right ultra nationalist party Golden Dawn looks on during a pre-election rally in Athens on Friday.

Kasidiaris was re-elected in Sunday’s poll, according to Bojan Pancevski‏, a reporter for Britain's Sunday Times.

"My biggest fear is of a social explosion," a senior adviser to Samaras told Reuters on Monday. "If there is no change in the policy mix, we're going to have a social explosion even if you bring Jesus Christ to govern this country." 

Despite pro-bailout parties winning a majority in parliament, actual votes for Greece's anti-bailout parties added up to 52 percent.

Samaras now faces the awkward task of convincing the center-left PASOK movement to join a coalition charged with implementing highly unpopular spending cuts and privatizations, while the economy nosedives. 

The streets of central Athens are scarred after repeated waves of protests, some hospitals are running short of vital medicines, thousands of businesses have closed, beggars and rough sleepers are multiplying and suicides are rising. 

Under the terms of the international bailout, the new government must fire up to 150,000 civil servants, slash spending by 11 billion euros this month, sell off a swath of state-owned companies, improve tax collection and open closed professions to competition. 

A PASOK-New Democracy coalition would be guaranteed a parliamentary majority thanks to a quirk of Greek electoral law which gives the winning party a bonus of 50 extra seats. But that will not win the argument on Greece's streets. 

The Greek economy is expected to shrink by 5 percent this year after contracting 7 percent last year and unemployment is running at almost 23 percent. Many economists believe that the harsh austerity measures will only make matters worse in the short term. 

'Fight' goes on for leftists
PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos has previously said he would only formally join a coalition if SYRIZA did so as well, something which is politically impossible, given the radical left bloc's unstinting opposition to the austerity measures. 

Greek analysts noted that SYRIZA's charismatic 37-year-old leader, former student communist Alexis Tsipras, conceded defeat quickly in a phone call to Samaras, apparently relieved he was free of the pressure to form a government and make compromises. 

"From Monday we will continue the fight," Tsipras told cheering supporters in an open-air square outside Athens university. "...the next government after this one will be a left government." 

"We will fight to topple these policies," the youthful crowd chanted back as loudspeakers played World War Two Greek Communist resistance songs. 

Filippos Nikolopoulos, a sociology professor at Crete University and SYRIZA supporter, said that Tsipras's fans were jubilant because they had won new force and authority by increasing their share of the vote so much on Sunday. 

"We want Europe, we want to cooperate," he said. "But we do not want to be subjugated by (German Chancellor) Mrs. Merkel." 

Stathis Stavropoulos, a newspaper cartoonist famous for his drawings depicting German officials preaching austerity at Greece as Nazi taskmasters, said the new conservative government would have the people of Greece against it from the outset. 

"Our dream of European Union was very different," he told Reuters. "It was a union of countries and peoples, not a union to serve banks and not a Fourth German Reich." 

Financial markets had feared a victory for SYRIZA, and New Democracy’s win prompted a surge in shares in early trading on Monday.

"It's a temporary rally but we're seeing broad gains because the global situation has changed now that the prospect of a 'Drachmageddon' has disappeared," said Fumiyuki Nakanishi, general manager of investment and research at SMBC Friend Securities in Tokyo.

Reuters and msnbc.com's Alastair Jamieson contributed to this report.

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Pascal Rossignol / Reuters

New Democracy supporters hold flares as they celebrate in front of the Parliament in central Athens on Sunday.

Updated at 4:49 p.m. ET: ATHENS - The pro-bailout New Democracy party came in first Sunday in Greece's national election, and its leader proposed forming a pro-euro coalition government. The result eased fears of an imminent Greek exit from Europe's joint currency.

"The Greek people voted today to stay on the European course and remain in the euro zone... there will be no more adventures, Greece's place in Europe will not be put in doubt," New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras said.

He said voters chose "policies that will bring jobs, growth, justice and security."

French socialists win absolute parliament majority

His party beat the anti-bailout Syriza party, which wanted to cancel Greece's international bailouts.

Yannis Behrakis / REUTERS

A Greek orthodox priest holds his ballot paper as he exits a voting booth at an Athens primary school used as a polling station on Sunday.

Syriza chief Alexis Tsipras conceded the election but vowed to continue its fight against the punishing terms of an EU/IMF bailout saving the country from bankruptcy.

"From Monday, we will continue the fight," Tsipras told supporters. "A new day for Greece has already dawned.

With 82.5 percent of the vote counted, official results showed the conservative New Democracy winning 30 percent and 130 of the 300 seats in Parliament. The radical anti-bailout Syriza party had 26.6 percent and 71 seats and the pro-bailout Socialist PASOK party came in third with 12.5 percent of the vote and 33 seats.

The anti-immigrant nationalist Golden Dawn party had 6.9 percent and 18 seats, while the Democratic left won 6.1 percent and 18 seats.

Because of a 50-seat bonus given to the party which comes first, that result would give New Democracy and PASOK 161 seats in the 300-seat parliament, in an alliance committed to a 130 billion euro ($164 billion) EU/IMF bailout keeping the country from bankruptcy.

Greek vote only buys some time in widening euro crisis

Sunday's vote was seen as crucial for Europe and the world, since it could determine whether Greece was forced to leave the joint euro currency, a move that could have potentially catastrophic consequences for other ailing European nations and the global economy. As central banks stood ready to intervene in case of financial turmoil, Greece held its second national election in six weeks after an inconclusive ballot on May 6.

The Eurozone's finance ministers said the outcome should allow for the formation of a government that will carry the support of the electorate to bring Greece back on a path of sustainable growth.

"The Eurogroup acknowledges the considerable efforts already made by the Greek citizens and is convinced that continued fiscal and structural reforms are Greece's best guarantee to overcome the current economic and social challenges and for a more prosperous future of Greece in the euro area," the group said in a statement.

"We congratulate the Greek people on conducting their election in this difficult time," the White House said in a statement. "We hope this election will lead quickly to the formation of a new government that can make timely progress on the economic challenges facing the Greek people."

Greece has been dependent on rescue loans since May 2010, after sky-high borrowing rates left it locked out of the international markets following years of profligate spending and falsifying financial data. The spending cuts made in return have left the country mired in a fifth year of recession, with unemployment spiraling to above 22 percent and tens of thousands of businesses shutting down.

Europe may be able to muddle through but the risk is rising. "There could be a Lehman's moment if things are not properly handled," Robert Zoellick, the outgoing head of the World Bank, told Britain's Observer newspaper.

The bankruptcy of U.S. bank Lehman Brothers in September 2008 triggered a global financial slump that indebted western nations are still struggling to recover from. 

'Most important election in history'
The ongoing uncertainty was a prime concern for Greek psychologist Sofia Arvanici, who spoke to NBC News at a polling station in a northern suburb of Athens. 

"This is Greece's most important election in history," the 36-year-old said. "We don't know whether we will have a government tomorrow, but we can't have more instability."

Bartering takes hold in austerity-wracked Greece

The European Union and International Monetary Fund have insisted that the conditions of the 130 billion euro bailout accord agreed in March must be accepted fully by a new government or funds will be cut off, driving Greece into bankruptcy.

Opinion polls show Greeks, weary after five years of deep recession, overwhelmingly favor remaining in the euro. But there is bitter anger over the repeated rounds of tax hikes, slashed spending and sharp cuts in wages.

"I voted with a heavy heart for a pro-bailout party because I want the country to stay in the euro, with the help of our European partners. I don't think the failed recipes of the left would get us out of this mess," Stratos Economou, 49, who runs a bakery shop in Athens, told Reuters. 

Germans on edge as key Greek vote nears

Zoellick and other policy makers insist that the austerity Greece is living with is preferable to the alternative. 

The Observer said the Zoellick would tell a G-20 summit that the euro crisis could hit developing nations hard, although clearly the effects would be felt further afield.  

"Uncertainty in markets is now starting to increase costs for developing countries," he told the newspaper. "The ripple effects are making everybody's life harder." 

Watch World News videos on msnbc.com

The G-20, which brings together finance ministers and central bank governors from 19 major economies and the European Union, will start a meeting in Mexico on Monday.  The gathering in the Pacific resort of Los Cabos promised to be overshadowed by the elections in Greece and mounting worries about Spain and Italy.

The fate of the euro as well as the European Union itself was top of mind for finance director Kostas Theoharis, 40, as he cast his vote near Athens. 

"The main scenario is whether the euro will exist. This is the question that needs answered rather than whether Greece will be part of the euro," he told NBC News at an Athens polling station with his son Alex, 6.  "I fail to see how Greece could leave the euro without breaking up Europe. I understand that this is a financial problem but it needs a political solution." 

NBC News' Yuka Tachibana, msnbc.com's F. Brinley Bruton and Reuters contributed to this report. 

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