After a meeting of the 19 Eurozone finance ministers in Riga on Friday, four key fundamentals are patently clear: The Greek government will run out of money soon; the finance ministers are running out of patience with Greece; the promises made by the Athens government have run their course; and unless this impasses is solved by the end of this month, the Greeks may be out of the Eurozone.
Since the election of the populist left-wing government of Alexis Tsipras exactly three months ago on a platform of reforming the terms and conditions for continued support from the International Monetary Fund, the European Union and the European Central Bank to the tune of €240 billion (Dh955 billion), Athens has vacillated and failed to provide any realistic plan to show that it should get reduced or altered repayment terms.
That there seems to be a change in attitude among the Eurozone finance ministers is obvious in that they spent just an hour discussing the Greeks’ budgetary crisis, with the Dutch finance minister musing later that it is perhaps time that the group looks at life after Athens leaves the euro. And that the ministers also refused to look at the Greek government’s projections shows that they have had enough of empty promises, bogus spreadsheets and political posturing from the Tsipras administration.
On May 12, Athens has to hand over a cheque for €750 million to the IMF. Its banks have seen a run on deposits, it has ordered every state and municipal entity to transfer any spare funds into a single account, and the nation’s public servants and welfare recipients have to be paid at the end of the month. In other words, the next two weeks are make or break.
That there could have been a solution to this crisis found by now is not in doubt — and that can still happen. Yes, the debt repayments could have been rescheduled if Athens played ball and acted contritely. It hasn’t. Instead it has turned up the rhetoric, tuned out to reality and taken to threats of another snap election. That’s the Greek tragedy.
