Greece and the Eurozone

‘Go ahead, Angela, make my day’

Published on 30 January 2015 at 11:54

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Greece’s decision to vote in Alexis Tsipras’s leftist Syriza party could have one of three consequences for the eurozone, writes The Economist: “the good, the disastrous, and a compromise to kick the can down the road”. Quoting a line from Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry character, the British weekly newspaper sees Syriza’s victory as a chance to renegotiate Greek debt, but only if Tsipras can be persuaded to “junk his crazy socialism”. Calling for debt forgiveness while splurging financially would spell further problems across Europe, the newspaper writes. Above all, it cautions the need for pragmatism on all sides, especially for German Chancellor Angela Merkel —

If Mrs Merkel continues to oppose all efforts to kick-start growth and banish deflation in the euro zone, she will condemn Europe to a lost decade even more debilitating than Japan’s in the 1990s. That would surely trigger a bigger populist backlash than Greece’s, right across Europe.

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