What’s the Eurocrats’ real fear? Greece quits and thrives

‘Every time Eurocrats declare that the economic crisis is over, it comes back with a vengeance. For six years, the Brussels elites have been periodically assuring us that the Eurozone has shaken off the bug; yet, like some chronic condition, it keeps returning. Usually in Greece.

Yesterday, Greeks voted for a party that, though it says it wants to keep the euro, rejects the conditions that the other members have set. In particular, it insists on a big debt cancellation.

The EU has made clear that it will not write off any more Greek debt. Doing so would, it fears, encourage other struggling Eurozone states to default, and so cause the project to unravel. But Syriza, the party that won yesterday’s general election, is equally uncompromising. Its leader, the telegenic Alexis Tsipras, tells voters that he will cancel the austerity and repayment programme ‘on my first day in office’.’

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