EU Referendum


Greek referendum: no singing from the fat lady


06/07/2015



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You have to smile at the Commission statement in response to the early results from the Greek referendum.

On the other hand, the Guardian reports that Greece has "delivered a landslide no vote to the eurozone's terms for the country remaining in the single currency on Sunday night, unleashing a seismic political shift that could derail the European project".

"The verdict", it says, "confronts the EU's leadership with one of its most severe crises of confidence and leaves Greece facing potential financial collapse and exit from the euro".

But we've been there before, as I recall joining others in the clamour during 2009, when we were all so certain that we were going to see a collapse of the euro.

At the time, it was also fashionable to call in aid Friedrich Nietzsche, and his famous quote: "That which does not kill us, makes us stronger". And, in the end, the crisis did not kill off the euro. It emerged from its trial of fire, and since it was not dead, one assumes it came out stronger.

Thus, I'm not buying "Grexit" and I'm not even putting money on the Greeks leaving the euro. The "colleagues" have proved resilient in the past, when in far greater peril, and I don't see them buckling now.

One can never rule out either event, so I will readily concede the possibility – especially by accident. But, as it stands, I don't think that either is likely. And if that puts me out of line with "mainstream" sentiment, it wouldn't be the first time. But just at the moment, I don't hear a fat lady singing.