The Fate of Greece: Decision Time for Tsipras and Merkel

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/greece-tsipras-and-merkel-must-make-a-decision-a-1043109.html



Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras has gambled away all support in Brussels. Now, he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have to make a momentous decision. Meanwhile, Greece's creditors are divided about how to proceed.

The Fate of Greece: Decision Time for Tsipras and Merkel
July 10, 2015 – 06:11 PM



It is a document that shouldn't even exist. But it does, and is kept hidden behind the gray door of a safe with a black combination lock. The paper, around 1,000 pages thick, is stored in the presidential offices of the European Commission in Brussels and contains plans for a situation unforeseen in European Union treaties: the insolvency of a euro-zone member state and its exit from the common currency regime.

Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and his most important advisor, Martin Selmayr, recently checked to make sure the document was still there. They opened the heavy door and were relieved to see it inside. Without reading it, they locked up the safe again. The scenario of a Grexit, Juncker said at the Greece summit on Tuesday, has been "worked out in detail."

It is looking increasingly possible that the scenario will become reality, perhaps sooner, perhaps later. Once again, European leaders have granted Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras a final deadline, and once again nights will be spent in Brussels going over lists of reforms and details of potential emergency bailout loans.

But last weekend, when almost two-thirds of Greek voters cast their ballots against "extortion and humiliation," as Tsipras himself characterized Europe's reform demands, it became clearer than ever that there is no basis left for cooperation between Athens and Brussels. Greece and European leaders are at loggerheads.