Sir,
No doubt, “if Greece does fall out of the euro, it will also fall out of Europe”, as Philip Stephens writes (“Europe faces more than a Greek tragedy”, April 10). No doubt, “the failure of the euro would mark the failure of Europe”. But there is no link between the two statements, namely that Greece falling out of the euro marks the failure of the euro. This would be the case should it happen for economic reasons: too high the cost, too vague the reforms, too big the risk. As a consequence the euro would not be perceived any more as a monetary union, but as a fixed exchange rate area, the markets would soon attack the weakest countries, the spread would rise, sooner or later there would be a second Greece.

But the facts tell a different story. Greece has done all it could to be considered politically different from its European partners: refusing to make serious commitments, trying to play the south against the north, Jean-Claude Juncker against Jeroen Dijsselbloem, Wolfgang Schäuble against Angela Merkel, threatening to let Isis terrorists in, claiming war damages from Germany amounting to 10 per cent of its gross domestic product; and now trying to substitute an alliance with Moscow as an alternative to Brussels. Meanwhile, in Brussels, its European partners are also putting their hopes on political measures: the ousting of Yanis Varoufakis, the moderate To Potami replacing the leftwing of Syriza, new elections.

This is no more a bailout, this is nation-building, and nation-building is definitely not what Europe is about: there is no Vietnam, no Iraq, no Afghanistan in Europe. Alexis Tsipras’s government has been democratically elected, and a country can democratically decide that it wants to speak a different political language. A language that Mr Schäuble has candidly admitted he does not understand. There is no reason why Greece falling out of the euro for democratic reasons should mark the end of the euro and of Europe. One might even claim the opposite, that not accepting a country’s democratic will would be the end of what Europe professes to be.

ARTICOLI CORRELATI
Europe faces more than a Greek tragedy
di Philip Stephens – Financial Times, 10 aprile 2015

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