Breaking news in Greece: Antonis Samaras sent a letter to Lagarde, Barroso, Draghi and Juncker outlining his general agreement to the bailout plan but including a paragraph about how he will be changing the policy mix to stimulate the economy if elected in February.
Is this letter an agreement when so much is still in doubt? Germany went ahead and expressed its initial satisfaction that the head of New Democracy explicitly pledged his support of the bailout agreement in a signed letter to the lending parties.
Whatever the case may be, he is unnecessarily taking up too much of the world community’s time and good will. The European fiscal crisis must be reigned in because of the domino effect for world markets. It’s already becoming clear that the entire Eurozone is faced with unwilling buyers of their bonds and that new reality is sending shock waves through the markets and national governments.
Today’s failure by Germany to sell their bonds — 3.644 billion were only sold– is proof that the system is quickly unravelling. Even at this late hour, this incident will hopefully serve as a wake-up call to the eurogroup. As with all systems, this was a tipping point and should be seen as such.
Nonetheless, Samaras is putting himself and his country in an even more precarious position. Greece may end up being the perfect scapegoat for a show of decisiveness and forcefulness at the highest EU levels. Too small to matter, uncooperative, too big a headache, an easy pawn to sacrifice if need be for a successful conclusion to the endgame. Then again the wider crisis may be a lucky break for Greece since immediate action is now inevitable.
Everyone is attracted to the tale of David and Goliath, but this is not the story of the moment. It is one of shortsightedness, ego and personal insecurities in the garb of a national strategy to demonstrate pride and patriotism. This issue needs to be resolved as soon as possible so that protracted insecurity will subside both inside Greece and abroad.
Sophia Kalantzakos 