11. February. 2010
A day of protests on the streets of Athens.
Nothing particularly unusual about that, you might think, and in four years living in the Greek capital, I’ve certainly seen my fair share of strikes and demonstrations.
But, this time it's different. All of Europe is watching Greece, and waiting to see whether the government can bring this economic crisis under control.
Even with wage cuts, higher taxes and pension reform, it may now be too late to avert some sort of a bailout for Greece.
There's a growing sense that this country will not be able to pay off its debts without help from outside.
One financial commentator in Athens told me today, "it's a question of how Greece is helped, not whether it is helped".
Greece has a relatively small economy, but other European countries can't afford to let it default on its debts, because of the fear that this crisis will spread.
Other heavily-indebted countries in the eurozone, such as Portugal, Spain and even Italy, are next in the firing line.
Well, if it comes to a bailout for Greece, there are two likely options; assistance from fellow EU member states, or from the IMF.
EU leaders will be looking at these options at a special summit in Brussels on Thursday.
"They'll only go to the IMF as a last resort", says my commentator, "they'll want to show that Europe can deal with its own problems. This is Europe's hour, and Europe's crisis".
I can see the logic of that. It's been a tough few months for Europe; humiliated at the Copenhagen summit on climate change, embarrassed by President Obama's decision not to attend a summit with EU leaders.
Asking the IMF to come in and help Greece would be another blow to the European ego.
But, there are also political risks for European leaders as they seek to help Greece.
It's not going to be easy for, say Angel Merkel of Germany, to explain to her electorate why billions of euros of German money should go to help the profligate Greeks, who've lived beyond their means for so long, and been so careless (to put it politely) with their accounts.
Events are moving fast. Let's see how the eurozone crisis develops in the next few days.
[Aljazeera]
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