Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker in press conference after EU summit on Greece.Demotix/Sander de Wilde. All rights reserved. In an openDemocracy article a few weeks ago I argued there would be no agreement between the Greek government and the Troika. I took this position because it was (and is) obvious that the most powerful actor within the Troika, the German government, would not agree to any substantial alteration of the austerity program imposed on previous Greek governments.
As a result the Syriza government would have no choice but to abandon the euro zone and introduce a national currency. I was correct in my assessment of the inflexibility of the German government and its clients in the eurozone (e.g., Baltic countries and Finland) and the broader European Union (most obviously Poland).
Due to naivety and/or the triumph of hope over experience, I never entertained the possibility that the Syriza government would capitulate to the Troika. The capitulation arrived all the more unanticipated because the Syriza government surrendered to EU demands more draconian and more of an insult to national sovereignty than those rejected by 61% of Greek voters in the referendum on 5 July.
