Greece on the Brink…Again

July 22, 2012 by George Grevett

European Union and Greek flags fly near the Parthenon. Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

Just one month after the so called “make or break” election, the state coffers in Greece are running low as tax revenues continue to miss targets as the economy slows further. The election outcome, dubbed by European political leaders as a victory for the euro, was supposed to ensure that the bailout programme be implemented in order to move Greece back onto a sustainable economic path.

Since then the emphasis in Greece has shifted towards a renegotiation of the bailout conditions as the austerity measures hit living standards. A recent statistic published by Eurostat claimed that 27.7 percent of Greeks are now living on or below the poverty line. Such rhetoric is falling on deaf ears elsewhere in Europe as leaders in countries such as Germany, Finland and the Netherlands struggle to sell each of the bailouts to their respective electorates further highlighting the North-South divide in the Eurozone.

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